Unfortunately, this is not possible. Per the spec: Generated content does not alter the document tree. In particular, it is not fed back to the document language processor (e.g., for reparsing). In other words, for string values this means the value is always treated literally. It is never interpreted as markup, regardless of the document … Read more
:before and :after render inside a container and <input> can not contain other elements. Pseudo-elements can only be defined (or better said are only supported) on container elements. Because the way they are rendered is within the container itself as a child element. input can not contain other elements hence they’re not supported. A button … Read more
You have to use the escaped unicode : Like .breadcrumbs a:before { content: ‘\0000a0’; } More info on : http://www.evotech.net/blog/2007/04/named-html-entities-in-numeric-order/