25 Chola Makeup and Hair Tutorials to Watch on YouTube
When something works, it can wind up stick around forever
Photo: YouTube/Gabriela Delgado
When something works, it can wind up stick around forever. Take chola makeup, for instance. The dramatic swoop of eyeliner, arched eyebrows, and carefully lined lips is a style worn from the days of las pachucas in the 1940s and ’50s, to the chola heyday of the ’70s, ’80s’ and ’90s, up to today. It’s a very feminine yet fierce look that we can thank Chicanas for bringing into the Latinx aesthetic. But don’t get it twisted: chola makeup, as anything chola, is part of a culture and lifestyle. It is not a Halloween costume or style to be culturally appropriated.
We love to cover all the facets of chola style — including beauty. Perfecting that classic look, and using elements of today to continue to modernize it, takes practice and skill. It’s not something you’re going to perfect in one day, but thankfully, there are several ladies, including Chicanas/Latinas, who have blessed us with super helpful tutorials on YouTube. In fact, here are 25 that will have you looking chola flawless in no time.
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Real Chola Makeup Tutorial, by Paradise Rose Makeup
Paradise Rose Makeup has several makeup tutorials on how to achieve the chola look. This one, entitled “Real Chola Makeup Tutorial,” features a fierce look that includes skinny penciled-in brows, dramatic false eyelashes, winged liner, and an ombre dark-to-red lip. She makes sure to list all the makeup products she used, which is a mix of items, from Wet n Wild to MAC. Added bonus? The cholo/chola soundtrack that accompanies the beauty video.
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Glam Chola Makeup, by Gabriela Delgado
Not all chola makeup is dark and moody. You can achieve a cholarific aesthetic using neutrals, for a softer look, and experiment with different color palettes for a bunch of different results. Gabriela Delgado created this tutorial on how to do “Glam Chola Makeup,” featuring eyeshadow in shades of brown, bronzer, and a lipstick in a peachy nude hue. It’s still dramatic, but softer and more modern, with the addition of products like bronzer and highlighter.
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Thick Winged Eyeliner Tutorial – Tips & Tricks, by Makeup by Giselle
Long, sweeping, winged eyeliner is a cornerstone of chola makeup. Without it, the look just isn’t the same. This is one of the first things you must master for a true chola aesthetic and one of the hardest to perfect. You will spend a lot of time practicing those lines before you get it right. Makeup by Giselle decided to give everyone a hand by creating an entire YouTube tutorial on how to execute the perfect thick winged eyeliner.
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How I Did My Makeup in High School, by Melissa Alatorre
So many of us have stories about how we did chola makeup back in the day, in high school. It was a time to really start experimenting with makeup, learning how to apply it properly — and recognizing what works and doesn’t (as best as we could as teens). YouTuber Melissa Alatorre decided to show us exactly how she used to do her makeup, in a throwback-inspired tutorial. Her makeup is a bit different than full-on chola makeup, showing how each person tailors the look to their own personal style and preferences.
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Girly Chola Makeup Tutorial, by Paradise Rose Makeup
Another cool chola tutorial by Paradise Rose Makeup is this one, where she breaks down how to copy her Girly Chola Makeup look. It features a hot pink eyeshadow crease for a girly effect, but doesn’t tone down the fierce chola look; you still have a skinny penciled-in eyebrow, eyeliner out to there, and a nude ombre lip. It shows that you can create a chola look that features pops of color for some variety and fun.
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Chola Makeover, by mitú
We love watching the chola and cholo videos on mitú. They’re both informative and hilarious. One that will give you a window into the essential parts of the chola beauty aesthetic is “Chola Makeover.” In it, some chola ladies give Diana and Queenie a whole new, cholafied look. This includes bumping up the hair, arching the eyebrows, and creating that “M” lip. The result is dramatic, especially on Diana, who gets the new chola nickname “La Blue Eyes.”
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Classic Red Lip & Soft Natural Eyes Tutorial, by Makeup by Giselle
Even though eyeliner is majorly tied to the chola look, you don’t need it for a chola aesthetic. The same goes for super skinny eyebrows. This makeup tutorial, by Makeup by Giselle features a striking look that still says “chola.” The brow is intentional and saturated, although more modern in its thickness. The lip is a deep red with dark shading/an ombre effect. And, there is zero eyeliner, but still dramatic false lashes with some mascara applied for extra oomph.
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Brown Glitter Cut Crease Eyeshadow | Chola Goth Makeup 2019, by La Spooky
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2017 Chola Makeup Look, by Sheslulu
It’s always cool to take a look at chola makeup through the years, and see how each generation of Chicanxs put their spin on the look, year after year, and decade after decade. Sheslulu did a YouTube tutorial on how to do chola beauty in 2017. You get the classic black wing; a pronounced eyebrow, albeit a thicker one; and a lined lip; albeit a more blended one. The result is totally chola modern, and we like it!
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Chola Makeup Tutorial, by EvelinaLaBella
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bESLHa57_4
EvelinaLaBella is another YouTube beauty vlogger who has more than one video on how to flawlessly achieve the chola look, which has led to her creating the chola character, Lola. In this tutorial, Lola’s look is beautifully dark and moody, with black eyebrows, liner, lashes, and lipliner. The dark shadow adds to the overall darkness of the aesthetic. The red center of the lip pops, while everything else is made up of contrasting neutrals. The result is super striking, and super chola.
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Latina Approved Lipsticks, by Jen_ny69
A chola look would look lopsided without a fabulous lip. It can be nude, red, burgundy, or even black, but it has to be there, and defined enough to really see against the liner, eyeshadow, lashes, and eyebrows. YouTuber Jen_ny69 has dedicated an entire video to her favorite, Latina approved lipsticks, and more than one of the looks feature a lipliner that makes the lips pop and pout.
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Chola Make-up, by Kandee Johnson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc229_1TjpU
Kandee Johnson has her own chola makeup tutorial, in which she shows you how to cover up your existing brows so you can pencil in a thin chola eyebrow. She also creates an ombre lip look with lipliner and just a touch of red lipstick blended with a lip brush that allows the center of the lip to remain light. It’s total chola beauty 101.
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Chola Makeup Tutorial- Hair & Outfit, by AdriLunaMakeup
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Chola Makeup Tutorial plus Hair By Lala, by EvelinaLaBella
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQwOKjsCWM0
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Pachuca Hair Tutorial, by Nena Moreno
You definitely need to head to Nena Moreno’s YouTube channel for those pinup, pachuca, and other vintage hair and makeup tutorials. This one focuses on the pachuca pompadour that was popular during the 1940s and ’50s, and that is still recreated today.
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Chola Make Up, by MAKEUP 4 THE DARK HEART
If you want real chola makeup, why not go straight to the source? Muñeca, from MAKEUP 4 THE DARK HEART promises you “real chola makeup from a real chola” in her chola beauty tutorial. You get the burgundy lip, the pencil-thin arched brows, the epic eyeliner, and all the chola realness.
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80’s Old School Chola Makeup Tutorial, by 3safantasma
3safantasma’s makeup look is intense, but it reflects the overall aesthetic of the 1980s chola. You can go more on the goth side just as she did, or lighten the look to suit your style. But it’s a great visual on how chola beauty was done in the ’80s.
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CHICANA|GRWM, by PinupDollAshleyMarie
Get Ready With Me videos allow viewers to see how your favorite YouTube stars create their flawless looks, sometimes head to toe. PinupDollAshleyMarie repped her hood and culture with this Chicana video. You get to see how she executed vintage pinup hair, chola-approved makeup, and a chola modern outfit. It’s a how-to on the whole aesthetic.
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Maquillaje de CHOLA | CHOLA Makeup Tutorial 😎 #MaquillateconDaniel, by Ashley Meza
Ashley Meza and her husband Daniel teamed up to deliver a YouTube tutorial that will break down how to achieve the chola beauty look. She, too, covered her existing brows in order to recreate that iconic, Old Hollywood pencil-thin arch.
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How to Do a Pachucona Hair Do, by LA MERA JEFA
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Late 90s Early 2000s Inspired Makeup and Look, by CREEP iT FIRME
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90s CHICANO STYLE: GET READY WITH ME, by Erika Lopez
Erika Lopez’s Get Ready with Me tutorial throws it back to the ’90s, a decade that is so popular to recreate right now. Not only do you get a makeup how-to in this video, but you also get to learn how to recreate a chola hairstyle that includes both styled baby hairs and the addition of clip-in extensions for added length.
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Chola Makeup – V2.0, by BeautyChaotic
This chola makeup tutorial by BeautyChaotic really has that throwback vibe of super bright, white shadow on the eyes, that really make them pop. The overall neutral look showcases how even light colors were applied in a way so that they were definitely seen and everything was defined.
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How To: Do Winged Eyeliner For Beginners! (Liquid & Gel), by Chelsea Hernandez
Another must-see YouTube tutorial that will show beginners how to create that epic chola eyeliner is this one by Chelsea Hernandez. In addition to classic liquid liner, this video will also show you how to do a proper wing with gel liner.
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Tutorial: Glam like a Chola, by GUATEMALANHOTMAMA1
GUATEMALANHOTMAMA1 brings us this fab chola tutorial that brings the glam. A more modern version of the usually matte chola aesthetic, it features a healthy amount of glow from highlighter, shimmery shadow, and glossy lips.
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FUN & EASY : OMBRE LIP TUTORIAL, by GlambyMeliTv
Ombre lips aren’t a new beauty craze. Cholas have been creating this beautiful, can’t-help-but-stare-at shaded effect for decades. The look allows you to feature more than one color on the lips and adds both dimension and drama. Beauty vlogger GlambyMeliTv has a handy tutorial on how to create the perfect ombre lip on her YouTube channel.
