60s Bollywood Makeup Tutorial: Sharmila Tagore Makeup

60s Bollywood makeup left a mark on the history of Indian makeup, being a style people still copy today. And when we think of 60s Bollywood makeup, we think of Sharmila Tagore makeup. No other 60s actress left such a strong footprint, makeup-wise. And what do you remember the most about Sharmila Tagore makeup? Of course Sharmila Tagore eye makeup! Because 60s Bollywood makeup was all about the eyes, as we have seen in our tutorials about Sadhana retro look and Meena Kumari style. So, The Indian Rose 60s Bollywood makeup tutorial will give you an insight into Sharmila Tagore makeup, focusing particularly on Sharmila Tagore eye makeup.

Sharmila Tagore Makeup: the Base

Sharmila Tagore, like most of her contemporaries, used a matte, thick and uniform foundation. When we say “thick and uniform”, we mean it! Apply a generous layer of foundation. The color of your foundation should be 1 tone lighter that your natural tone. As a norm, 60s Bollywood makeup foundation should be absolutely matte. To make the foundation appear even more matte, apply some translucent matte light powder. The last step of the base of Sharmila Tagore makeup would be to apply a peachy powder underneath your cheekbones. The color of the powder should be orangey and peachy but do not forget to adapt it to your skin tone. If your skin is dark, apply a peachy brown powder. Now we come to the most important part of any 60s Bollywood makeup tutorial: eye makeup.

Sharmila Tagore Eye Makeup

Let’s begin Sharmila Tagore eye makeup with the eyebrows, which should be very high, dark, arched and strong. The highest point of the arch should fall just above the end of the eye. Remember, the arch should be harmonious and not at all pointy as the 60s Bollywood makeup is very round and feminine.

Now, the eyes. You can wear a very natural and brown eyeshadow (funky colors are a no-no for a 60s Bollywood makeup) to follow the line of the super winged eyeliner. Just apply some light color under the eyebrows arch, and then a winged line going from the inner part of the eye until the end of the eyeliner winged tip. Just keep the eyeshadow line a bit above the eyeliner line, to highlight the space between the 2 lines. When it comes to 60s Bollywood makeup tutorial, you also have the option of skipping the eyeshadow altogether as the real star of the show is the eyeliner.

The unforgettable feature of Sharmila Tagore makeup is the cat eye. How do we achieve that? Through the eyeliner. We will tell you the secret to master the 60s Bollywood eye makeup, just follow us step by step:

1. Take measurements: place a pencil between the end of your eyebrow and the end of your eye. Now draw a dot in the middle of this line. This will be the end of your winged line.
2. Get an angled brush and use it to paint a thick line that goes from the inner part of the eye, passes through the external part of the eye, just above the eye tip, and continues further up towards the eyebrow, without touching it; end the line exactly where you drew the dot. This is your basis for your Sharmila Tagore eye makeup.
3. The second step of Sharmila Tagore eye makeup consists of painting the same line with a pencil. You have space to correct your mistakes now as you will see the line first with the eyeshadow and then with the pencil. So, this is the time to make changes to achieve your perfect line.
4. Once you have your perfect line, you can finally use a liquid liner to paint. The only change now is that you should start the line on the inner corner of your eye, towards the nose, to achieve a crow look. Apply a generous amount of liquid liner which should be thinner on the inner and outer parts and thicker just above the outer part of the eye.

Now you have done the most important part of the 60s Bollywood makeup tutorial. You can relax!

The last part of Sharmila Tagore eye makeup tutorial is the lower line. Paint it with a pencil first. What you should aim at is having a straight line that starts a few millimeters underneath the lower eye line, passes through the actual eye line, and ends underneath the outer part of the eyeline, a bit longer than the eye. This is called a double winged liner, which was very popular in 60s Bollywood makeup.

If you feel this is too complicated, you can also make the 2 lines meet into one line, as Sharmila Tagore used this look too.

Another option is to make the 2 winged lines (upper and lower) run parallely in the same direction, and never meet.

To make your eye look bigger, you can apply a light eye pencil on your waterline

Now curl your eyelashes as much as you can and apply 2 thick layers of volume boosting mascara on upper and lower eyelashes.

Alternatively, for a 60s diva Bollywood makeup, apply fake eyelashes.

Sharmila Tagore Makeup: the Lips

Easy part, as the 60s Bollywood makeup was all about the eyes. Just define your lips in a heart shape with the help of a pencil. You can opt for a femme fatal look, with red lipstick, or a more sober look, with a natural light earthy tone lipstick and a bit of gloss.

We hope you enjoyed our Sharmila Tagore makeup tutorial, which is, for us, the quintessential 60s Bollywood makeup. If you like, you can send us your 60s look picture on Facebook or Twitter!