How to Apply Hippie Makeup

Co-authored by Erica Coates and Amy Bobinger

Last Updated: April 10, 2022 References

Whether you're dressing up for Halloween, heading to an outdoor music festival, or channeling your inner flower child, creating a hippie makeup look can be a lot of fun. Since hippies were all about natural beauty, start with clean, moisturized skin for all of these looks. If you want to wear primer and foundation, apply them with your fingers to give you more of a dewy look.

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

Creating a Natural Hippie Look

1
Sweep a neutral eyeshadow across your upper eyelids. For this look, you want to look like the prettiest, most natural version of yourself. Pick an eyeshadow color that's close to your natural skin color and use a brush or your fingers to apply it all the way up to the crease.^{[1]
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- If you prefer, you could also use an eyeshadow with golden tones, but avoid anything too glittery so you'll look as natural as possible.
2
Line your eyes with a brown pencil. To apply pencil eyeliner, start with a sharpened pencil. Lightly hold the corner of your eye and slowly draw a thin line from the outer corner to the inner corner. Try to stay as close to your eyelashes as possible.^{[2]
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- A little liner can help make your eyeshadow pop and can make your eyes look bigger, but since you're creating a fresh, clean makeup look, using a shade of brown will help keep it from being too obvious.
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3
Apply a thin coat of mascara to your upper and lower lashes. Start by holding the spoolie to the base of your eyelashes, then wiggle it a little to ensure the brush is touching all of your lashes. Sweep the brush upwards, all the way to the ends of your lashes, then repeat until you have covered all of them.^{[3]
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Expert Source

Erica Coates
Professional Makeup Artist
Expert Interview. 8 April 2022.}
- Too much mascara will seem obvious and can overpower the rest of your understated look, so try to apply just enough to coat your lashes.
4
Fill in your eyebrows lightly with a powder or pencil. Brows in the 70s were typically worn naturally, so don't worry about getting perfectly sculpted eyebrows. Just lightly fill in any gaps with a pencil or a brow powder.^{[4]
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- Using a shade that's slightly lighter than your natural color will keep your eyebrows from looking too intense.
5
Swirl a peach-colored blush on your cheeks. A peachy-hued blush looks great on almost every skin color, and it's the perfect natural complement for this look.^{[5]
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Research source} If you're applying powder blush, swipe the brush through the blush, tap off the excess, and apply it in a circular motion to the apples of your cheeks.^{[6]
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Expert Source

Erica Coates
Professional Makeup Artist
Expert Interview. 8 April 2022.}
- If you're using cream or gel blush, dot a little onto the fullest part of your cheek, then blend it in a circular motion with your fingers or a makeup sponge.
6
Dust a subtle highlighter across your cheekbones. Highlighter can give you a natural, youthful glow, perfect for embodying the hippie movement. Swipe a fan brush into a highlighter with little or no shimmer, then swirl the brush across the tops of your cheekbones.^{[7]
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- You can also add a little highlighter to the center of your forehead and your chin for a sun-kissed look.
7
Dab on a little lip gloss or lip balm. Lip gloss or a hydrating lip balm will give your hippie makeup a soft, finished look. For the most natural look, apply the lip gloss to your finger first and then dot it onto your lips.^{[8]
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- If you want to wear a little color on your lips, opt for a subtle light pink shade of lip gloss.
8
Finish your look with a flowered headband. There's nothing more essentially hippie than a crown of flowers, and this romantic style is still popular today. Part your hair in the center and slip on your flowered crown, pinning it into place with hairpins if you need to.^{[9]
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- You can also braid your hair into 2 braids before donning your flowered crown, if you like.

Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Going Hippie Glam

1
Apply a bold pastel eyeshadow to your upper lids below the crease. Hippies definitely didn't shy away from color. Turquoise eyeshadow was a hippie favorite, but you could also try colors like yellow, pale green, or light orange.^{[10]
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- To get the most intense color from your eyeshadow, apply a thin layer of eyelid primer first, then add the shadow on top of that.
- To make this look even more dramatic, use an angled brush to apply a little of your eyeshadow beneath your lower lashes.
2
Use liquid eyeliner to make a cat eye. A cat eye will help make your pastel eyeshadow pop. Draw a line across your eyelid close to your lashes, then add a flick at the outside corner of your eye. Place the tip of the eyeliner brush at the outside of the flick and connect the flick to the first line you drew at about the middle of your eyelid.^{[11]
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- It may help to place a piece of tape at the outside corner of your eye to help you get a straight line as you draw the flick.
- If you don't feel confident using liquid eyeliner, try using a felt-tip eyeliner marker, which may help you feel like you have more control as you're applying the cat eye.^{[12]
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3
Add two coats of mascara to your top lashes. Applying the mascara to just your top lashes will make your eyes seem to be opened wider. This will help give you a youthful, innocent look, much like what you picture when you think of the hippie movement.^{[13]
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- If your mascara seems clumpy, run a clean spoolie brush through your lashes to remove any excess.
4
Swipe glitter across the highest part of your cheekbones. Glitter always brings glamour, so it's the perfect addition to your Hippie Glam makeup look. Dip a brush, sponge, or your fingers into a glittery pigment, like a super-sparkly eyeshadow, and lightly tap it onto the highest part of your cheekbones.^{[14]
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- Feel free to embellish this look even more with gemstones, sequins, stars, or any other sparkly addition!
5
Opt for a nude lipstick. Since the focus in this look is on your eyes and cheekbones, keep your lip neutral with a shade similar to your natural lip color. If you're testing colors at the makeup counter, apply it to the back of your hand to see what matches your skin tone best.^{[15]
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- Try matching the color to the outside edges of your lips, which are often slightly darker than the rest of your lip.
6
Wear your hair down and tuck a flower behind your ear. Whether your hair is stick-straight or super curly, embrace your natural texture, just like the hippies did. Part your hair down the center or slightly to one side, then find a pretty hair flower and wear it pinned behind one ear.
- If the flower stem is long enough, you may be able to just slip it behind your ear, but if you need to, use bobby pins to hold the flower in place.
- Real flowers are beautiful but may wilt quickly, so you may prefer artificial flowers if you'll be rocking your Glam Hippie look for more than a couple of hours.

Method 3

Method 3 of 3:

Getting Groovy with Face Paint

1
Swipe white or very light eyeshadow across your upper eyelid. White eyeshadow is very 70s, and it still gives off a soft innocence today. This look works best if you keep the eyeshadow below the crease.^{[16]
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- If you don't have white eyeshadow, try wearing a cream-colored or other very light shade.
2
Tightline your top lids with pencil eyeliner. Sharpen your eyeliner as much as you can, then hold it so that the tip of the pencil is pointing down as close to your lashes as possible. Slightly wiggle the eye pencil back and forth to create a line across your top lid.
- This look should seem natural, but a little eyeliner will help your white eyeshadow pop more.
3
Finish your eyes with a thin coat of mascara on the top and bottom. Place the mascara brush at the base of your lashes and wiggle it back and forth while sweeping up towards the tips of your lashes. This will help curl your lashes slightly and will also help keep it from clumping too much.^{[17]
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- To keep your mascara from smudging, try applying it on your bottom lashes first, then put it on the top lashes while looking straight forward.
4
Swirl a little bronzer onto the hollows of your cheeks. A bronzy, sun-kissed look was popular in the 70s, especially with the hippies, who spent as much time as possible outdoors. You can fake this look by dusting a blush brush into bronzer, then swirling the brush across the hollows of your cheeks in a circular motion.^{[18]
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- If you need to, use a fan brush to blend the bronzer until it looks more natural.
5
Keep your lips hydrated with a little lip balm. Glossy, healthy lips are always in style, and they were definitely one of the signature looks of the hippie crowd. Swipe on a little bit of your favorite lip balm to keep this makeup look natural and understated.
- If you're going to be spending time under the sun, opt for a lip balm with an SPF of about 15-30.^{[19]
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6
Apply a thin layer of primer where you want your design to go. The real star of this makeup look is the face paint, and the finished product is only limited by your own imagination! Use your fingers to apply a little primer wherever you want your face paint to go.^{[20]
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- The primer will help the face paint adhere to your skin.
7
Paint a design on your face with brightly-colored grease paint. Dip a brush into the paint and free-hand your design, or lay a stencil onto your skin and use that as a guideline to get a more precise look.^{[21]
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- Your paint will look best if you work in quick, short strokes, rather than long dragging ones.
- There are a ton of different hippie-friendly designs you can use, including peace signs, flowers, vines, dots, or doves. Get creative!
8
Set the paint with a light dusting of translucent powder once it dries. Once the grease paint has completely dried, use a large powder brush or a powder buff to go over your design with translucent powder to give it more staying power without changing the color.^{[22]
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Expert Q&A

Question

What kind of makeup does a hippie wear?

Erica Coates
Professional Makeup Artist
Erica Coates is a Professional Makeup Artist and the Owner of Erica Nicole Beauty based in the Washington D.C. metro area. With more than 14 years of experience, she specializes in creating and personalizing makeup looks and skin prep for makeup. Erica received her cosmetology training from the Bennett Career Institute.

Erica Coates

Professional Makeup Artist

Expert Answer

Many hippies went with a lighter makeup look that emphasized more color play on the eyes. It was light, effortless, and focused on adding depth to the eyes, along with loads of mascara and blush.
Question

Is it possible to use only foundation and powder instead of concealer?

Community Answer

If you don’t have acne, powder and foundation will work fine.
Question

Is it possible to not use foundation, concealer, bronzer, glitter, highlighter and just a bit of hippie freshness with eye shadow, lipstick, clothes, blush?

Heather Kenyon-Haff

Top Answerer

Absolutely. Many hippie women didn't use any makeup whatsoever during the 1960s-1970s. Although the steps are suggestions, use as much or as little as you like.