Melania Trump's Makeup Transformation Through The Years Is Impossible To Ignore

First Lady Melania Trump has never been one to overtly follow specific fashion and styling rules. In fact, more often than not, she is prone to breaking them. Take, for instance, the time she wore gray to Rosalynn Carter's funeral or the scandalous "I don't really care, do you?" jacket Melania donned while visiting a detention facility on the southern border. With her background in modeling, it seems that Melania is steadfast on working to her own rhythm — and that also includes how she does her makeup.

Throughout the years, Melania has subtly shifted how she puts together her face for public consumption. While the changes to her makeup routine have been gentle enough to not cause controversy over time, looking at throwback photos, it's clear the transformation of Melania has been quite stunning and drastic. While Melania hasn't gone overboard like some other women in the Trump orbit, like those who have fallen for the Mar-A-Lago face trend, she's still managed to align with a specific mold, and it's not one with which she started out. Taking a peek back through the past, it becomes clear that Melania's makeup transformation over the years is painfully obvious.

After meeting each other in 1998, Melania Trump (then Knauss) and Donald Trump had a blitz of an on-again-off-again relationship for the first few years of knowing each other. Melania even admitted to Harper's Bazaar that "I was struck by his energy ... He has an amazing sense of vitality." The vibrancy of Donald seemed to also include access to more modeling gigs and invitations to parties like the 51st Red Cross Ball in Monaco, where the duo were photographed together in 1999. What's most interesting about this time period for the model is that Melania was often without a full face of makeup, a far cry from where she is now.

In the above throwback photo, Melania almost looks barefaced, and her makeup is such that it appears she only thought to throw on some lipstick. This fresh-faced look still had a youthful, dewy feel to it. Her eyebrows are much thinner than we're used to seeing on her, and there's almost no eyeshadow to be seen. In fact, it appears that Melania barely even put on mascara for the event. Witnessing her in such a dressed-down look is a shock to the system, especially considering the bold look she's grown into over the years. If anything, perhaps Melania should tap back into this era and wipe off some of the glam — the no-makeup look suited her then and surely would now as well.

After going through a repeated period of breaking up and getting back together, by the turn of the century, Donald Trump and Melania Trump (née Knauss) were finally in a period of being an official couple. In 2005, the duo gripped the general public with awe when the extravagant wedding between Donald and Melania was full to the brim with expensive showiness. It was also during this time that Melania shifted a major aspect of her makeup routine and general appearance. Possibly under the guise of getting ready for her wedding, Melania adopted something her husband is known for — she smothered herself in a fake tan.

In throwback photos of Melania in her wedding dress, it's clear that she's rocking a very bold tan, as most brides are wont to do. But it seems to have become a staple she held onto even after the ceremony. As seen above, attending an opening night gala at Tavern on the Green, Melania is rocking a bolder tan than Donald is. It's a giant shift from her clean, almost makeup-free look from just a few years prior. With her bronzed skin also comes a fuller face with blush, contouring, and highlights, and the beginning of the next phase of makeup that Melania will dip her toe into — a bold, smokey eye.

By the 2010s, Melania Trump was officially a wife to Donald Trump and mother to Barron Trump. With such a major restructuring of her life, from model to mother, it makes sense that Melania would also continue to morph her outward appearance as well. Continuing to stick with a more tanned look, Melania also began to use a heavier hand when applying her eyeliner. A perfect example of her leaning fully into the smokey eye trend is seen here when she attended the 19th annual Bunny Hop at FAO Schwarz in 2010. While this isn't one of Melania's worst makeup fails, it is quite the bold look for what could be considered a casual event and marks a trend with which she'll stick.

While she was doing a wonderful job of matching her blush and bronzer and toning down her lips, the feature that stands out most with Melania's makeup choices here are her eyes. The eyeliner is incredibly bold, especially the under-eye portion. Plus, the dark, shimmery, smokey eye feels overdone for a daytime event. It used to be that a smokey eye was a nighttime feature and that going from "day to night" was a makeup hack many Millennials had to figure out on the fly. However, this, like Melania's buzzy tan, quickly became a staple of her repertoire, and she's only expanded upon it since.

After diving into the darkened eye trend with full force, Melania Trump showed no sign of letting up. Seen here attending a hockey game with husband Donald Trump in 2015, Melania is exhibiting several makeup routines she's slowly adopted and kept over time. There's still the fake tan (less orange than Donald's, thankfully) and the overly smokey eye. But what's also shifted is how noticeable Melania's eyebrows are here. It could be that she's opted to downplay her lips — another subtle trend of Melania's — to help fully draw focus to her eyes. With the raccoon-inspired eyeliner, her eyebrows needed extra attention to stand out. Here, it becomes clear that Melania has truly upped her brow game.

When comparing pictures of Melania without makeup to this one, it's striking just how much her brows have shifted. Considering the throwback photos of her in the 90s, her brows were thinner and a bit more freewheeling than the heavily drawn-on ones she's sporting by the mid-2010s. In fact, the way Melania started to show off a bolder brow became a trend among many conservative women. It could be the reason why people such as Lauren Boebert have such a bad case of eyebrow blindness. However, what Melania was seen rocking in 2015 is no match for just how much makeup she would be wearing in the 2020s.

Donning the role of first lady for the second time, Melania Trump has also continued to morph how she presents herself. Now that her husband, Donald Trump, is back in the White House, it seems that Melania is pushing forward on her makeup journey by sticking with her staples, if not pushing the boundaries of them. Seen here arriving at Donald's annual New Year's Eve bash at Mar-A-Lago, Melania has once again fleshed out her eyebrows, possibly farther than they should go. The brows are matched in intensity by her eyeliner, bold lashes, and searing smokey eyes.

It will be interesting to see if Melania continues in this direction or if she will course correct from some of her previous first lady makeup fails. Melania is still getting tanned regularly — although her methods of tanning seem more put together than Donald's, so it appears a bit more seamless on her. While she's never fallen for the immense lip filler look, it could be a possibility for her future, considering how much she's continued to accentuate her brows and eyeliner. Perhaps, Melania will continue to be a trend-setter, and other MAGA women will follow in her footsteps and return to a more natural-looking lip. Her lips have been the one consistency throughout her transformation, and Melania was wise to maintain them. A lesson that young upstarts like Karoline Leavitt and her possible duck lips should take heed of.