The crucial cupid’s bow
Look in the mirror, under your nose. The highest point of the lips features a double-curve commonly known as a cupid’s bow, named for the shape of a bow and arrow carried by Cupid.
Some are more pronounced, peaked at two sharp points. Others are virtually flat. For centuries, the presence of a cupid’s bow, whether natural or enhanced, has signified different beauty trends — coquettishness, innocence, sex, empowerment.
Traditionally that’s meant accenting or creating a cupid’s bow with lipstick. But today’s beauty pioneers are transforming the cupid’s bow in a number of imaginative new ways.
The Ancient Greeks’ ideal lip featured a dramatic cupid’s bow that supported a heavy bulb in the upper lip. The bow matched the upturned corners of the edge of the mouth. It signified luxury. In 1700s Japan, the cupid’s bow was lifted but the edges of the mouth tucked in with lip paint for a tiny, rose petal look that emphasized a woman’s sexual self-restraint.
The cupid’s bow would continue to be an accessory for self-expression, sometimes even veering into the political. In the Roaring Twenties, flappers painted their lips into extreme, often unrealistic shapes, with arching cupid’s bows in dark colors. The look was a form of protest against the soft, feminine, demure ideals of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. But it was popularized quite by accident. Soft, bee-stung lips had been the norm in silent films, mainly because Hollywood makeup artist and beauty revolutionary Max Factor could not create defined lips; they risked running into the stage greasepaint under the hot lights. It wasn’t until he invented Panochromatic foundation that lipstick could finally become more dramatic and angular. Actresses like Clara Bow punctuated black and white cinema with their gothic lips and powdered skin. Women everywhere mimicked the look, some using lip stencils to achieve a drastic cupid’s bow arch above their natural lips.
But Max Factor wasn’t done playing. When Joan Crawford asked for a new look, he created “the smear” by creating a wide, false cupid’s bow and rounding it into a voluptuous upper lip. It looked like a powerful sneer, and women loved it. Men like Boy George have been recreating the look for decades.
After the luscious, sex-bitten lips of mid-century America, a pronounced cupid’s bow returned again but this time with new meaning. Though women’s lips in the 1960s and 70s tended toward pale or skin-toned, another trend took hold: A pronounced cupid’s bow suggested innocence, and sometimes the disturbing sex appeal that came with it. Films like Lolita (1962) and Taxi Driver (1976) teased young girls with enhanced, kewpie doll lips, forcing viewers to confront their own lust. Simultaneously more men started experimenting with makeup and androgyny; musicians like David Bowie appeared in full makeup in music videos like “Ashes to Ashes,” where it seems every corner of his lips are lined with crimson, one of his many iconic gender subversions.
The cupid’s bow took more of a backseat in the 1990s. Though women favored colors similar to the 1920s gothic look, they tended to smooth and round their mouths. Celebrities like Pamela Anderson, Julia Roberts, and Naomi Campbell popularized the seamless, plump upper lip.
The smooth upper lip has been reborn in recent years with celebs like Kylie Jenner, who artificially yoked out her original, more pronounced cupid’s bow. However, the cupid’s bow is far from dead. Amidst a beauty and fashion landscape that’s celebrating diversity, it has recently become one of the most important features in the makeup world — just not always for lipstick.
Like the cheekbones, the cupid’s bow acts as a frame for certain facial features and contours. By playing with its peaks and shadows, people can transform looks entirely. It’s one of the most versatile regions on a person’s face. Backstage at New York Fashion Week, makeup assistants pat gloss into or above cupid’s bows to create the illusion of a fuller upper lip. Legendary artists like Pat McGrath tophat the lips with liquid gold, culminating in elusive luxury. Some even highlight the philtrum, the vertical cleft between the nose and top lip, with YSL’s shimmery Touche Éclat in a process known as “strobing.”
Now accentuating the cupid’s bow is as secondary as applying plain old lipstick. It’s almost as if we’ve discovered a new body part, but as with most things, our ancestors did it first.
