History of Eyeliner: From Ancient Egypt to 2026 Trends

The History of Eyeliner Begins in Ancient Egypt

The history of eyeliner most reliably begins around 4000 BCE in ancient Egypt, where both men and women of most social classes wore kohl — a dark powder traditionally made from ground galena, soot, and other minerals — lined thickly around the eyes. This was not purely decorative. The thick black line was believed to protect against the sun's glare along the Nile and was associated with warding off the evil eye and honoring deities such as Horus and Ra, whose eyes were depicted outlined in dramatic black.

There is also a plausible practical health benefit: some research into ancient Egyptian cosmetic formulas has suggested that certain lead-based compounds used in kohl may have had mild antimicrobial properties, which would have mattered in a climate where eye infections were common. Regardless of the exact mechanism, the consistency of the look across thousands of depictions in tomb paintings and statuary shows that eyeliner was one of the most socially universal cosmetics of its time, worn across gender and class lines in a way many later eras did not replicate.

Eyeliner's Long Quiet Period

For much of the medieval and early modern period in Europe, dramatic eye makeup fell out of favor, in part due to religious and social attitudes that treated visible cosmetics as immodest or associated them with disreputable professions. Pale, unadorned skin with minimal eye emphasis was the more common ideal across several centuries, and surviving cosmetic guidance from these eras focuses far more on complexion than on the eyes themselves.

This does not mean eyeliner disappeared everywhere. In parts of South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, kohl use continued largely uninterrupted through this period, worn for cultural, religious and protective reasons rather than shifting Western fashion cycles — a reminder that the history of eyeliner is not one single timeline but several parallel ones.

In South Asia specifically, kohl — often called kajal in the region — has carried an additional, long-standing tradition of being applied to infants' eyes, believed by many families to protect against the evil eye and to strengthen the eyes themselves, a practice that continued largely independent of whatever eye makeup was or was not fashionable in Europe during the same centuries. This continuity is part of why eyeliner historians generally describe the look as having never truly disappeared globally, even during its quietest Western decades.

The 20th-Century Revival That Shaped Modern Eyeliner

Eyeliner's dramatic Western return is closely tied to cinema. Silent-film stars of the 1920s, heavily influenced by the rediscovery of Egyptian aesthetics following the 1922 excavation of Tutankhamun's tomb, popularized the smoky, heavily lined eye that defined flapper-era glamour. For the first time in centuries, a thick, visible eyeliner look became aspirational rather than taboo across a broad Western audience.

The look kept evolving from there. The 1960s brought graphic, geometric liner associated with mod fashion — think bold upper and lower lines with an exaggerated outer flick — while the 1980s pushed toward bright colors and heavier application overall. The 1990s swung the other direction with darker, grunge-influenced liner worn close to the lash line for a smudged, undone effect, proving that each decade reinterprets the same core tool rather than inventing something new.

Each of these revivals also tracked a change in who was setting beauty trends. The 1920s look spread through cinema and print advertising; the 1960s version spread through fashion magazines and youth subcultures; by the 1990s, music videos and grunge-era musicians were doing much of that work. The pattern continues today, just on a faster cycle — a single short-form video can now popularize an eyeliner technique in days rather than the years or decades earlier revivals took to spread internationally.

From Pencil to Gel to Liquid: How the Formula Changed

The tools changed as much as the looks. Early modern eyeliner was largely pressed powder applied with a brush, or a basic wax pencil; it was not until the mid-20th century that purpose-made cosmetic pencils and cream-based formulas became widely available. Liquid liner with a fine brush tip became mainstream later still, enabling the crisp, graphic lines that define many 2020s looks, and gel liner emerged as a middle ground offering more precision than a pencil with more blend-ability than liquid.

That range is still exactly what shoppers choose between today. A Nabi Retractable Waterproof Eyeliner Pencil ($3.99) or Nabi Eyeliner Pencil ($3.99) suits a softer, smudge-friendly line closer to the vintage eras above, while a Waterproof Liquid Liner ($5.99) or the multi-shade Splashed Liquid Liner ($6.99) is built for the crisp, graphic shapes associated with current trends.

Color is the other major shift modern chemistry made possible. For most of recorded history, eyeliner existed almost entirely in black, dark brown, or a handful of mineral tones available in a given region; bright blue, orange or multi-colored liner was either unavailable or impractically unstable outside of theatrical makeup. Waterproof pigments and more flexible polymer formulas changed that, which is why a product like an Orange Waterproof Liquid Eye Pencil ($3.99) or a Blue Waterproof Liquid Eye Pencil ($3.99) can now hold color and resist smudging through a full day in a way no ancient or even mid-century formula could manage.

How Today's Eyeliner Trends Echo Eyeliner History

Current looks borrow openly from earlier eras. Floating eyeliner, where the line sits just above the lash line rather than directly on it, has a loose visual kinship with the raised, stylized liner seen in some ancient Egyptian depictions, even though the modern technique and motivation are entirely different. Graphic eyeliner shapes echo the geometric boldness of 1960s mod makeup, scaled up with modern liquid formulas that hold a cleaner edge than anything available sixty years ago.

Jewel-tone and colored liners, meanwhile, revive the brighter experimentation of the 1980s, but with vastly improved waterproof, smudge-resistant formulas. Therefore, most of what reads as a brand-new 2026 trend is, on closer inspection, a long-running idea returning with better chemistry behind it.

How MissBiotics Can Help

At our New York and London counters, we often walk shoppers through this exact arc — kohl to flapper liner to today's floating and graphic looks — because understanding where a technique comes from makes it easier to choose the right formula for it. One London customer came in wanting a 1960s-style flick but kept reaching for liquid liner and getting frustrated with shaky lines; switching her to a firmer pencil for the base shape, then setting it with a thin liquid line only along the very edge, solved it in one visit. Browse our full Eyes shop for pencil, gel and liquid eyeliner across the shade range, from classic black to the bright multi-color sets suited to graphic looks.

If you want help choosing between pencil, gel and liquid for your specific eye shape and the look you're after, our consultation service can match formula to technique before you buy.

Conclusion

The history of eyeliner is less a straight line than a loop: a nearly universal ancient Egyptian cosmetic, a long quiet period in parts of the West, and a series of 20th- and 21st-century revivals that each reinterpret the same basic idea of a defined eye. Knowing that history doesn't just make for good trivia — it explains why today's floating, graphic and colored-liner trends feel both new and strangely familiar at the same time. Explore the Eyes collection to find the pencil, gel or liquid formula that fits the era-inspired look you want to try next.

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