Clara Bow popularized the sharply painted cupid’s-bow lip shape during the 1920s.
Bow was one of the biggest stars of the silent-film era and became known as the “It Girl” after starring in the 1927 film It. Her makeup often featured a small, dark red mouth drawn into a pronounced heart shape, with lipstick concentrated toward the center and sometimes painted inside the lips’ natural outer edges. Fans copied the look from her screen appearances and publicity photographs.
The style fit the broader beauty culture of the 1920s, when cosmetics became more portable and widely marketed. Metal lip tracers, lipstick tubes, and products designed to shape the mouth made carefully outlined lips easier to reproduce. Helena Rubinstein even marketed a product called Cupid’s Bow in 1926.
Clara Bow did not invent the anatomical cupid’s bow—the term refers to the double curve of the upper lip—but she helped make its exaggerated lipstick version iconic. The period’s look is also sometimes called a “bee-stung” or rosebud mouth, although those terms can describe slightly different shapes and application techniques.