1940s Lipstick Color plan

Vintage 1940's Lip colors

You can't go wrong with our good friends at Besame Cosmetics for a sparkling
vintage 1940's summer look.

And a quick revisit to our 1940s makeup guide - specifically Lip colors

The 1940's Lipstick color Plan

1.The Mono Tone

Light Reds
Fuchsia
Pink Red
Orange Red.

and

2.The Contrast Tone

Deep Red
Brick Red
Mahogany
Crimson
Cherry Red.

Our Vintage Makeup Guides are out soon - so subscribe to be updated on its release.

Elizabeth Taylor Cleopatra Eyes - A Simple Guide.

Elizabeth Taylor Cleopatra Eyes - A Simple Guide.


Departing briefly from the vintage makeup guides based on the decade, here is a simple guide to a classic Hollywood look, made famous by the irreplaceable and iconic Liz Taylor. 

This is a general guide for anyone to do, using their own makeup, except for one important extra:
Alexander McQueen Blue Eyeshadow from MAC. If you can't get it, just try and match it with something of your own.

1. Use a light eye shadow over entire lid, all the way up to brow bone.

2. Apply the McQueen Blue to the outer corner of lids and blend inwards graduating to a lighter shade near  the centre of the lid.

3. Line your lower eyelid with a white pencil

4. Apply liquid liner over your lower lids just under the water line and then smudge with a cotton bud.

5. Apply liquid liner to the upper eyelid, starting on the outer edge. This is the most important part, so don't hurry it.

Now the important bit

6. Add two cleopatra wings from the corner of each eye , stroking the lower wing slightly downwards and beyond the natural end of your brow. Draw the the upper wing upperwards about half a centermetre  shorter than the lower line. Draw a line between the two end points and fill in.

7. Loads of black mascara, and finish with a light touch of gold shadow on the upper lid line.

The rest of the face should be pale, and contour with a golden blush and finish off with nude lipstick, so as to emphasise those eyes.

Finally seek out a Richard Burton lookalike and hit the town.

Now watch Elizabeth applying her own eye makeup.

Shiseido - The 1930's Japanese Beauty Culture

Shiseido - The History of the Japanese Beauty Culture

Memoirs of a Geisha Girl reminded the world of just how steeped in the beauty culture Japanese women have been since ancient times.Like Max Factor in the USA, in Japan, there is one name that has come to be associated with glamour and that is Shiseido Cosmetics ! Their beauty products grace many large department stores like Macy’s, Nordstrom and Sephora at their cosmetic counters or online.

But how many folks know the glamourous history of this unique company? Following the lead of companys such as proctor and Gamble, Shiseido opened the Shiseido Parlour in Tokyo.

To gain loyalty among women, they marketed calendars, beauty manuals - like the one below, and seasonal promotional items like fans, compacts, and vanity cases.

Shiseido Beauty Manual - 1930's Makeup in Japan.

Shiseido Graph - 1930's Fashion and Beauty Magazine

Shiseido Beauty Products - 1930's

Shiseido Promotional products

Gennifer Weisenfeld , who is Associate Professor of Art History at Duke University in the US, has written a fascinating essay called Selling Shiseido hosted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology as part of their Visualising Cultures educational scheme. It's a treat to read.

What Makeup did women really wear in the 1940's ?

What Makeup did women really wear in the 1940's ?
Gabriela Hernandez

Time for a short retrospective. One of the main cosmetic products pushed now is foundation. The obsession for a smooth skin, no matter what your age. Back in the 1940's, very few women wore foundation at all. Just lots of creamy coloured powder for that pale feminine look.

The three fundamental 1940's makeup beauty products to have in the old handbag was redder than red lipstick, and rouge,  which came in tiny little pots. Even eye makeup was not an essential ! But the pinups of the 1940's went  nowhere without standout black eyeliner and long long eyelashes. There was no blusher to speak of. So to be truly authentic, less is more ! Killer lipstick is all a girl really needs.In Cosmetic brands, Max Factor towered over most competition, with only Elisabeth Arden giving them a run for their money.

Like most vintage fashion fans, Besame Cosmetics founder Gabriela Hernandez drew huge inspiration from her own familys past.

"Besame came from my love of Artwork, my love of the history of  makeup,and of course the song Besame Mucho !  I remember when I was little and admiring my aunts, and my  grandmother and my mom.
They really didn't go out without doing their hair or putting on lipstick. Besame was inspired by the kind of products my Grandmother used to have like her lipstick and her rouge. We make reproductions of 1940's style cosmetic products. We have the bullet lipstick that was popular in the  1940's. The line symbolises the woman of that period."

The lipstick bullet got its name from it's resemblence to a bullet cartridge. Cosmetics were so military minded in the 1940's !

The 1940's was a pivotal time in makeup artistry. Starlet looks and femininity.The face was to be glamourous but natural ! Rosy red colours and pink undertones.Eyebrows were kept natural and not plucked out of existence as they had been back in the 1930's. If you are truly interested in learning vintage style makeup,one can't go wrong by looking up the history of makeup.
These early pioneers changed womens lives.
copyright 2010 Glamourdaze

Vintage 1930's Makeup & Skincare Guide

Daily Beauty Rituals 1937
1930's Makeup & Skincare Guide with Constance Bennett.

Produced for the Educational Films Corporation of America.
Ms Bennett starts her day with a good bath, prepared of course by her
attending house maid !!


"Before starting off, one should start off with a clean slate as it were!"
"Stimulation is the basis for a good skin treatment."

Ms bennett starts with an exfoliating Cinnamon cream, followed by
a complexion mask.

"If you take an evening bath instead, why not leave your mask on while preparing breakfast !"

She then applies pre foundation moisturiser, which she calls her glow base.

" I'd be lost without my Glow Base !! "
" This is very important to all of us women, because the only time we're not
on parade is the time we spend in front of our dressing tables."

Then Cream Rouge to follow.
It blends far more easily than compact powder rouge.
Then finish with powder.
" Sometimes I dont use powder at all, just my glow base, it gives my skin a nice lustrious glow!"
Then finally - lipstick.
" I'd like to say this about lipstick - for years I've bought every one
I've ever heard about,but I either ate them all up with my food,
or left them on the cheeks of my son when I kissed him good night or good morning.
Never did any part stay on me - most discouraging."

Ms Bennett finishes up with -
" Remember - to be beautiful and natural is a birthright of every woman !"
" I wish you all loads and loads of loveliness and good luck! "

As a vintage makeup guide goes, this is a tad naff, but certainly charming

Vintage Makeup Guide - Archive 1940's Makeup Tutorial

1940's makeup Tutorial - Face contouring / Lipstick and Hairstyles.

The classic Vintage Makeup Guide to the 1940's from Miss Ratherly Stern.
Transcribed with illustrations.!!
The ideal facial contour is supposed to be the oval.
But some of us have round faces,square faces or long faces.
What can we do to make our faces appear more oval?

1940's Makeup - Contouring

1.Round Faces

Don't wear too high a neck line. It shortens the neck and increases the effect of roundness!
Hair well off the forehead and flat against the temple !
Thin lipsticks, correctly applied to follow the natural mouthline !
A V neck completes the picture and gives the impression of a little more neck length
to give the impression of an oval face!

Round Faces - The Right Look 

Round Faces - The Wrong Look

2.Square Faces:
Keep away from haircuts that hang in vertical lines near the side of the face and jawline in.This over empasisies the squareness of the jaw.Avoid straight horizontal lines near the face - like thin lips / round or high horizontal necks.
Fill out the lower lip with your lipstick.
Hair should fall in curves around the jawline.
Wear a V neck line to pull the attention down from jaw.
Pure logic when you think about it.



Square Faces - The right look

Square Faces - The Wrong look

3.The Long / Narrow Face.
Don't wear V necks - This adds to the impression of length.
Avoid Piled up high hair on top of head as this also adds to the length of the face.
Hair should be off the top if the head and fluffed out at the sides to give the thin face added width.Finally a high neck line or choke distracts from the long neck ! Voila !


Long/ Narrow faces - The right look

Long / Narrow Faces - The wrong look

copyright-April2010 Glamourdaze

Have another look at the video on our YouTube site.