Easy 20's-inspired Siren Look

A dark lip and dramatic eye can be overly-dramatic when paired together, but if you're going to be dressing up as a flapper girl for either Halloween or any other fancy occasion, this is a simple look that can help you channel the 20's with minimal fuss.

Regardless of skin tone, what you'll need are:

• Matte foundation and powder
• Black shadow (matte)
• Dark russet/wine shadow (shimmery)
• Contouring powder (matte)
• Very dark black-purple or black-brown lipstick

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Step 1: Begin by applying matte foundation and powder over your face. If you need to be really dramatic, make sure you REALLY apply the powder. If you just want a 20's-inspired look like I did, leave a slight glow to your skin.

Step 2: Brows. For a dramatic look, you can cover your brows with Prit stick (UHU, or any other water-based stick glue). Rub it on and smooth away any excess, let set for a bit, and then apply foundatino over it. I don't recommend this unless you are an expert at brow-drawing, because you'll need to draw in entirely new brows and most people can't get both sides even.

If you want to go the easy route like I did, just use the matte black shadow and a fine angled brow brush to shape it gently and make sure you have a pronounced arch. Don't make it thicker than it naturally is.

Step 3: Creating the doe-eye. Lay the base by packing matte black within the lids. Note that the color only goes up into the socket at the INNER half of the eye. At the outer half, it slopes down and ends right at the outer ends of the eye. No wings, flicks, or smokiness. 

On the bottom lid, DO THE REVERSE, and concentrate color on the outer half of the lash lines. At this point, it will look very odd and panda-like, but don't worry.

This creates the exaggeratedly rounded eye look of 20's screen sirens.

Step 4: The fun part; smoking it all out. Use a dark rust or maroon colored shadow on a blending brush, and smoke out the edges of the black. Carry the color up to the bottoms of your brows on the inner portions of the eye. At the outer ends, it should slope downwards and not wing out.
Repeat on the lower lash line, concentrating the smokiness on the outer halves instead of inner this time.

Step 5: To finish up, apply black gel liner along the upper and lower lash lines. No need for precision. You just want to darken up the lash line.
Then apply mascara to finish. If you want to be more dramatic, wear spiky false lashes with gems or rhinestones near the TIPS. Women in those days liked to apply little balls of glue right on the tips of their lashes, but since I don't have any black glue to mimic the effect, I had to do without.

Step 6: Cheeks. Instead of a blush, which would spoil the whole Noir look, go for subtle contouring using a matte powder along the cheekbones.

Step 7: The final touch is an uber-dark lipstick (I used MAC Prince Noir but you can just darken any magenta or plum lipstick with a black one (L.A. Girl has an affordable and good-quality black lipstick). Focus on your cupid's bow, while leaving the outer corners of your lips just a hair thinner than you'd usually draw them, but not too much unless you're going for a dramatic interpretation. 

This gives that exaggerated curvy lip of the 20's but still remains flattering for most lip shapes.