9 Fun Songs About Beauty That Are Still On Our Playlists Today

According to a 2021 study of Billboard magazine rankings by the Open University of Catalonia, a whopping 75% of the biggest hit songs between 1946 and 2016 were about romantic love. The same study also found that 14 out of 15 of the most popular songs are about how love can turn into heartache. Although love and romantic despair may be the most common themes in music, there are certainly other topics that songwriters have covered, including beauty.

While writing a whole song about lipstick or a manicure may not have you sobbing on the floor like a love ballad, these themes can be empowering — especially if you're getting ready for a night out. "The best part of going out is getting ready," celebrity makeup artist Lisa Eldridge told Byrdie in February 2025. "There's something primal about it — painting our faces for protection is primeval — you can trace it back for thousands of years. It's a ritual to psychologically prepare ourselves... I'll let the mood lead my music selections, influencing my beauty choices. How the look ultimately ends up is all part of the unpredictable and creative fun."

It goes without saying that music can have a major influence on us. From baby names inspired by iconic song titles to lyrics that get us fired up about the perfect color lipstick, music's power has no bounds. Because of this, here are fun songs about beauty that are still on our playlists today.

In 2000, No Doubt released their fourth studio album, "Return to Saturn," and one of the tracks was "Magic's in the Makeup." In the song, Gwen Stefani sings about the difference between the person she is in makeup and questions who she is without it: "Magic's in the makeup/But I wanna be the real thing/Mmm, mmm/My makeup's all off/Who am I?" During the early 2000s, Stefani wore far more makeup than she does today, and the way she mixed-and-matched statement looks — like the always-a-good-idea red lipstick with equally as prominent facial bedazzling — could be over the top.

When Willow Smith's "Whip My Hair" debuted in 2010, Smith was just a few days shy of turning 10. In the song, Smith sings about shaking off haters by whipping her hair: "Hop up out the bed, turn my swag on/Pay no attention to them haters because we whip 'em off/And we ain't doin' nothin' wrong, so don't tell me nothin'/I'm just trying to have fun, so keep the party jumpin'." Willow Smith has had a stunning style transformation, and though she briefly regretted the song that made her so famous, she ultimately came back around to loving it and the message it sent.

Not only is 2007's "Lip Gloss" by Lil Mama an ode to rocking a popping lip gloss, but it was also Lil Mama's debut single, putting the young hip-hop artist on the map. Lil Mama was just 18 when she sang the song about how her lip gloss was driving the high school boys wild: "They say my lip gloss is cool, my lip gloss be poppin'/I'm standin' at my locker, and all the boys keep stoppin'." And once you learn how to make your lip gloss last longer, there's nothing to stop you from achieving invincible status.

While women tend to corner the market with songs about beauty products, Prince, who never shied away from a bold eye and lip gloss, had his own beauty-related song too. Aptly called "Make-Up," the song originally appeared on the only album by the band Vanity 6, which was released in 1982. In 2019, Prince's posthumous "Originals" album came out with him singing the song that he'd originally written: "Blush, eyeliner... Make-up/Make-up/Pink, blue/Purple, I wanna make it good for you." Leave it to Prince to mention purple makeup, one of the boldest colors of the moment.

Just three short years after Lady Gaga's fashion icon moment with her meat dress, she released her third studio album, "Artpop." Although the 2013 album didn't quite have the sales that her two previous albums did, the record did include a song called "Manicure" about the upside of getting a manicure and, of course, being man-cured: "I'm gon' be manicured, you wanna be man cured/Ma-ma-ma-manicure, she wanna be man cured/Salon's enough for her not to feel so insecure/Ma-ma-ma-manicure, she wanna be take care'n of." Gaga may be on to something here — according to a 2023 study published in Frontiers in Psychology, manicures really are great for your mental health.

Dolly Parton has always been candid regarding what about her is fake and what isn't. Because of this, it comes as no surprise that Dolly Parton, whose songs have inspired baby names, would write lyrics about fake eyelashes: "A pair of false eyelashes and a tube of cheap lipstick/A pair of worn out high heel shoes and a dress that doesn't fit/These are all of my possessions, all I have to my name/And a record played in my hometown is my only claim to fame." Off 1968's "Just Because I'm a Woman," the song is about the complexities of early fame.

If you need inspiration for the '80's makeup trends that are making a comeback, you really don't need to look much further than Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie and the Banshees. Not only was Sioux known to rock major cutting-edge makeup at the time, but she also wrote the 1978 song, "Make Up to Break Up": "Now to paint by number/Over the cavernous pit/Lots of glossy red/To hide my pale cracked lips/Hide my pale cracked lips/Make up to break up." After all, you want to look your best when you're saying adieu to a partner.

Before diving into singing about the positive effects of getting a manicure, Lady Gaga covered another important beauty-related topic: hair. From "Born This Way," her second studio album, "Hair" is about fighting your parents to retain your personal style and identity: "I just wanna be myself, and I want you to love me for who I am/I just wanna be myself, and I want you to know/I am my hair." Just like makeup, how we choose to wear our hair is an act of self-expression and says so much about who we are at any given moment.

In 1994, REM released their album "Monster." Not only was it a moodier take on the alt-rock band's usual sound, relying on distorted noises and darker lyrics, but it also introduced the world to the song "Crush with Eyeliner," about having a crush on someone who's a "sad tomato," but never goes anywhere without her eyeliner: "I am smitten/I'm the real thing (I'm the real thing)/Have you seen her come around?/My crush with eyeliner." In 2004's "Reveal: The Story of REM," lead singer Michael Stipe said the song was inspired by The New York Dolls, who always performed in full makeup.