Since the 1800s, blue eyeshadow has walked a tightrope between tackiness and glamour, falling into one camp or the other depending on who you ask. The ruling class, who had controlled the writing of history for millennia, quite literally clutched their pearls at the ladies of the night and female impersonators painting their lids in shades of cerulean. But for those on the margins of society, blue eyeshadow has been a tried-and-true beauty staple for those who demand to be noticed.
"Blue eyeshadow has such a history in [the sex work] realm, going back even to the Victorian era," says makeup artist Annie Johnson. "It's extreme femininity and all about representing who you are."
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Annie Johnson is a New York-based makeup artist whose work can be seen on Mikey Madison in the Oscar-winning film "Anora."
Meatball is a Los Angeles-based drag queen and host of the "Sloppy Seconds" podcast.
The Painted Ladies
Long before phrases like "clean girl" and "old money" populated our TikTok algorithm, we wielded the apparent absence of makeup to signify wealth, status, and class. The 19th-century equivalent of this was the rejection of makeup by upper-class women of the Victorian era to set themselves apart from the "painted ladies," a term that referred to the brothel workers of this time. Natural beauty, wherein the goal was to appear pale and free of any facial blemishes, was the standard of "good girls" of this time period and drastically contrasted the "painted look" that was deemed provocative and promiscuous.
"The first rule in applying eye makeup, you can never have enough blue eyeshadow," Jamie Lee Curtis, "My Girl" (1992)Both sides aspired for extreme paleness, with the wealthier women abstaining from sunlight at all costs and applying chemicals such as arsenic, opium, ammonia, and mercury to their skin to achieve the desired looks. Prostitutes and performers instead opted to paint their skin with white enamels to cheat this aesthetic and used eye paints in colors like black, red, and blue to draw attention to themselves.
Stealing From the Silver Screen
An embrace of cosmetics would later come into the mainstream in the next century, as many women aspired to emulate the beauty of popular actresses of the time, and commercialized cosmetics became more readily accessible (lest we forget, less dangerous to apply). As time went on, on-screen looks became more theatrical and glamorous, culminating in one of the most iconic displays of blue shadow the world had ever seen: Elizabeth Taylor in 1963's "Cleopatra."
Image Source: Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images
The film, which at the time was one of the most expensive movies ever made, mimicked the drama and excess of the storyline through the makeup on Taylor's Cleopatra. Not only was her eyeshadow blue, but it was highly pigmented, painted up to her eyebrows (today, we'd call this garage door eyeshadow), framed by thick black liner, and topped off with glitter. This look would not only prove to be influential to film history, it would also become inspirational to one of the foremothers of drag by extension, and the queer ecosystem as a whole.
Divine's Inspiration For Drag Queens
Divine - drag artist and muse of filmmaker John Waters - deeply admired Taylor's work and pulled inspiration from one of the actor's most famous looks into her own beauty mug, which included bold blue eyeshadow during her role in 1972's cult classic "Pink Flamingos." And just like Divine was inspired by Liz, in turn, generations of drag queens have paid homage to Divine through their makeup.
"When I first started drag, I was majorly influenced by Mimi Bobeck from 'The Drew Carey Show,' and then I got really into Divine, I always wanted to be a blue garage door slut," says Meatball, a Los Angeles-based drag queen. Recalling a conversation she had with fellow drag queen Willam, Meatball continues, "[Willam] was like, 'Oh yeah, you should try blue eyeshadow. Blue eyeshadow is for real hookers and whores.' That clicked and now it's the one color I go to."
Image Source: Meatball, Photograph by Jordan Service Photography
For Meatball, her choice of eyeshadow color not only paid homage to Divine and Bobeck (who was doing drag in her own right), but it stood out from every other color in her makeup palette. When using costume and stage makeup, which was a go-to for queens back in the day, blue was the easiest for Meatball to blend, and it proved to be the brightest and most pigmented. Not to mention, for queens who were doing multiple shows a week, it didn't stain the skin like a red, pink, or purple shade might. "With blue, I can do it really fast and it'll stay on and bright for the whole day," says Meatball. "Whereas with other colors, as you sweat, they get kind of muted or muddy. Blue is always gonna be blue."
Forever Blue
Nowadays, we not only see blue eyeshadow gain the mainstream appreciation it deserves, but its originators are finally given their flowers. Chappell Roan, who in 2025 needs no further introduction, has consistently emphasized her inspiration from drag and the painted ladies when asked about her avant-garde makeup. In Hulu's series "Faces of Music," she recreates the look from her "The Rise & Fall of a Midwest Princess" cover and shares, "Blue eyeshadow is so stigmatized with sex workers, drag artists, promiscuous behavior - and it's all connected to why I picked it. Everything I do is a 'f*ck you' to the box that I was so pressured to be put in and a reference to those who came before me."
Image Source: Steve Eichner/WWD via Getty Images
With every new blue liquid liner, shadow palette, or pressed glitter that comes across our Explore pages, remember that it's more than just a trend of today. Communities on the fringes laid the groundwork for it to be worn by your favorite TV characters ("Euphoria" anyone?) or content creator. It's an unapologetic statement of visibility, made possible by those whose contributions have largely gone unnoticed.
"Blue eyeshadow is cool because it can get reimagined every couple of years," says Johnson. "It will come back sometimes as a metallic, a shimmer, or we just go back to a vintage baby blue. I hope that those over-the-top looks become a part of people wanting to be who they are and their most authentic selves walking down the street."
Devon Preston is a social media administrator and PS Beauty contributor. She writes about beauty as it intersects with gender identity, sexual identity, disability, and race, as well as cultural phenomena from vampires to scene queens to drag artists. Devon was the executive editor of Inked and has written for Bust, Rebel Circus, Everyday Feminism, and more. Read More Details
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