problem with <select> and :after with CSS in WebKit

I would like to add some style on a select box with the pseudo :after (to style my select box with 2 parts and without images). Here's the HTML:

<select name="">
  <option value="">Test</option>
</select>

And it doesn't work. I don't know why and I didn't find the answer in the W3C specs. Here's the CSS:

select {
  -webkit-appearance: none;
  background: black;
  border: none;
  border-radius: 0;
  color: white;
}

select:after {
  content: " ";
  display: inline-block;
  width: 24px; height: 24px;
  background: blue;
}

So is it normal or is there a trick?

I haven't checked this extensively, but I'm under the impression that this isn't (yet?) possible, due to the way in which select elements are generated by the OS on which the browser runs, rather than the browser itself.

I was looking for the same thing since the background of my select is the same as the arrow color. As previously mentioned, it is impossible yet to add anything using :before or :after on a select element. My solution was to create a wrapper element on which I added the following :before code.

.select-wrapper {
    position: relative;
}

.select-wrapper:before {
    content: '\f0d7';
    font-family: FontAwesome;
    color: #fff;
    display: inline-block;
    position: absolute;
    right: 20px;
    top: 15px;
    pointer-events: none;
}

And this my select

select {
    box-sizing: border-box;
    -webkit-box-sizing: border-box;
    -moz-box-sizing: border-box;
    width: 100%;
    padding: 10px 20px;
    background: #000;
    color: #fff;
    border: none;
    -webkit-appearance: none;
    -moz-appearance: none;
    appearance: none;
}

select::-ms-expand {
    display: none;
}

I have used FontAwesome.io for my new arrow, but you can use whatever else you want. Obviously this is not a perfect solution, but depending on your needs it might be enough.

To my experience it simply does not work, unless you are willing to wrap your <select> in some wrapper. But what you can do instead is to use background image SVG. E.g.

    .archive .options select.opt {
    -moz-appearance: none;
    -webkit-appearance: none;
    padding-right: 1.25EM;
    appearance: none;
    position: relative;
    background-color: transparent;
    background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' version='1.1' height='10px' width='15px'%3E%3Ctext x='0' y='10' fill='gray'%3E%E2%96%BE%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E");
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    background-size: 1.5EM 1EM;
    background-position: right center;
    background-clip: border-box;
    -moz-background-clip: border-box;
    -webkit-background-clip: border-box;
}

    .archive .options select.opt::-ms-expand {
        display: none;
    }

Just be careful with proper URL-encoding because of IE. You must use charset=utf8 (not just utf8), don't use double-quotes (") to delimit SVG attribute values, use apostrophes (') instead to simplify your life. URL-encode s (%3E). In case you havee to print any non-ASCII characters you have to obtain their UTF-8 representation (e.g. BabelMap can help you with that) and then provide that representation in URL-encoded form - e.g. for ▾ (U+25BE BLACK DOWN-POINTING SMALL TRIANGLE) UTF-8 representation is \xE2\x96\xBE which is %E2%96%BE when URL-encoded.

What if modifying the markup isn't an option?

Here's a solution that has no requirements for a wrapper: it uses an SVG in a background-image. You may need to use an HTML entity decoder to understand how to change the fill colour.

-moz-appearance: none;
-webkit-appearance: none;
appearance: none;

background-image: url('data:image/svg+xml;charset=US-ASCII,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%22292.4%22%20height%3D%22292.4%22%3E%3Cpath%20fill%3D%22%23000000%22%20d%3D%22M287%2069.4a17.6%2017.6%200%200%200-13-5.4H18.4c-5%200-9.3%201.8-12.9%205.4A17.6%2017.6%200%200%200%200%2082.2c0%205%201.8%209.3%205.4%2012.9l128%20127.9c3.6%203.6%207.8%205.4%2012.8%205.4s9.2-1.8%2012.8-5.4L287%2095c3.5-3.5%205.4-7.8%205.4-12.8%200-5-1.9-9.2-5.5-12.8z%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E');
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: right .7em top 50%;
background-size: .65em auto;

Pinched from CSS-Tricks.

Faced the same problem. Probably it could be a solution:

<select id="select-1">
    <option>One</option>
    <option>Two</option>
    <option>Three</option>
</select>
<label for="select-1"></label>

#select-1 {
    ...
}

#select-1 + label:after {
    ...
}

This post may help http://bavotasan.com/2011/style-select-box-using-only-css/

He is using a outside div with a class for resolving this issue.

<div class="styled-select">
  <select>
    <option>Here is the first option</option>
    <option>The second option</option>
  </select>
</div>

This solution is similar to the one from sroy, but with css triangle instead of web font:

.select-wrapper {
  position: relative;
  width: 200px;
}
.select-wrapper:after {
  content: "";
  width: 0;
  height: 0;
  border-left: 5px solid transparent;
  border-right: 5px solid transparent;
  border-top: 6px solid #666;
  position: absolute;
  right: 8px;
  top: 8px;
  pointer-events: none;
}
select {
  background: #eee;
  border: 0 !important;
  border-radius: 0;
  -webkit-appearance:none;
  -moz-appearance:none;
  appearance:none;
  text-indent: 0.01px;
  text-overflow: "";
  font-size: inherit;
  line-height: inherit;
  width: 100%;
}
select::-ms-expand {
  display: none;
}

<div class="select-wrapper">
  <select>
    <option value="1">option 1</option>
    <option value="2">option 2</option>
    <option value="3">option 3</option>
  </select>
</div>

This is a modern solution I cooked up using font-awesome. Vendor extensions have been omitted for brevity.

HTML

<fieldset>
    <label for="color">Select Color</label>
    <div class="select-wrapper">
        <select id="color">
            <option>Red</option>
            <option>Blue</option>
            <option>Yellow</option>
        </select>
        <i class="fa fa-chevron-down"></i>
    </div>
</fieldset>

SCSS

fieldset {
    .select-wrapper {
        position: relative;

        select {
            appearance: none;
            position: relative;
            z-index: 1;
            background: transparent;

            + i {
                position: absolute;
                top: 40%;
                right: 15px;
            }
        }
    }

If your select element has a defined background color, then this won't work as this snippet essentially places the Chevron icon behind the select element (to allow clicking on top of the icon to still initiate the select action).

However, you can style the select-wrapper to the same size as the select element and style its background to achieve the same effect.

Check out my CodePen for a working demo that shows this bit of code on both a dark and light themed select box using a regular label and a "placeholder" label and other cleaned up styles such as borders and widths.

P.S. This is an answer I had posted to another, duplicate question earlier this year.

<div class="select">
<select name="you_are" id="dropdown" class="selection">
<option value="0" disabled selected>Select</option>
<option value="1">Student</option>
<option value="2">Full-time Job</option>
<option value="2">Part-time Job</option>
<option value="3">Job-Seeker</option>
<option value="4">Nothing Yet</option>
</select>
</div>

Insted of styling the select why dont you add a div out-side the select.

and style then in CSS

.select{
    width: 100%;
    height: 45px;
    position: relative;
}
.select::after{
    content: '\f0d7';
    position: absolute;
    top: 0px;
    right: 10px;
    font-family: 'Font Awesome 5 Free';
    font-weight: 900;
    color: #0b660b;
    font-size: 45px;
    z-index: 2;
    
}
#dropdown{
    -webkit-appearance: button;
       -moz-appearance: button;
            appearance: button;
            height: 45px;
            width: 100%;
        outline: none;
        border: none;
        border-bottom: 2px solid #0b660b;
        font-size: 20px;
        background-color: #0b660b23;
        box-sizing: border-box;
        padding-left: 10px;
        padding-right: 10px;
}

Instead of a wrapper element you can use CSS grid and place an icon (or whatever) in the same cell as the select:

.select-field {
  display: grid;
  grid-template:
    "label"
    "select"
    / max-content;
}

.label {
  grid-area: label;
}

.select {
  appearance: none;
  background: white;
  border: 1px solid var(--border-color);
  grid-area: select;
  padding-block: 0.5ex;
  padding-inline: 1ch calc(1ch + 1em);
}

.after {
  align-self: center;
  border-block-start: 0.5em solid var(--border-color);
  border-inline: 0.5em solid transparent;
  block-size: 0;
  grid-area: select;
  inline-size: 0;
  justify-self: end;
  margin-inline-end: 1ch;
  pointer-events: none;
}

.select,
.select + .after {
  --border-color: silver;
}

.select:hover,
.select:hover + .after {
  --border-color: grey;
}

.select:focus,
.select:focus + .after {
  --border-color: rebeccapurple;
}

<div class="select-field">
  <label for="my-select" class="label">Select One</label>

  <select id="my-select" class="select">
    <option value="foo">Foo</option>
    <option value="bar">Bar</option>
    <option value="baz">Baz</option>
  </select>
  
  <div class="after"></div>
</div>

Here I used an empty div to and styled it to be a CSS triangle which has the same color as the border which changes during hover/focus.

The most important bits here are the following:

• The <select> and the <div class="after"> go into the same grid-area (which I named select). This will put the empty div over the select.
• Give the <select> an appearance of none. This will remove any browser default style.
• Give the <select> and extra padding at the end of the inline direction to make room for the empty style.
• Justify the empty div to the end.
• Give the empty div an extra margin at the end of the inline direction which matches your desired padding of the <select>
• Give the empty div a pointer-events of none so the click will go through it to the <select> element.

Other then that you can do whatever with the empty div. It doesn’t even have to be empty. E.g. you can put an svg icon in there if you want.