Beauty patches anno 1948

I’m currently doing research for a post on Madame Isis' Toilette on the history on beauty patches for and I came across this little gem that I thought would interest you here. Beauty patches as fashion assessor in 1948.

Found in LIFE, 2 February 1948

  

BEAUTY PATCHES

The romantic looks get a boost from still another old custom

Tiny adhesive pieces of black silk are pasted on girls’ skin to direct maximum male attention to their best features. Backs, eyes or lips.

link

In their concerted drive toward studied femininity, U.S. high fashion leaders have revived full, frilly petticoats, long, swirling skirts and tiny waist-pinchers. Reaching once more into the past, they have come up with still another proved artifice in the crusade for ultrafeminity: the beauty patch. The U.S. has seen spots on the face twice before: in the late 18^th Century and briefly in the 1920s. In England, besides being an adjunct to beauty, they were worn by politically conscious ladies to signify whether they were Tory or Wig. In Imperial Rome, where the patches had their beginning, they were used to satisfy artificially a superstitious interest in moles and blemishes. The new patches, neither superstitious nor political, are pure vanity- designed to accent a fair complexion and highlight a woman’s most beautiful feature, whether it’s her lips, eyes or back (above).

[Picture of woman in day dress and hat with a heart-shaped patch near here mouth. The text says: WORN WITH HAT at recent Lilly Daché fashion preview, beauty patch was an essential part of costume. Patch will ordinarily worn with evening dress.]

BOX OF PATCHES sells for $2. Each assortment of 100 silk spots has eight shapes, including hearts, circles, diamonds, stars, half-moon and squares.

link

A few new perfumes

Some time ago I bought some perfume samples from Yesterday’s perfume, but for some reason I haven’t got around to review them. Here are a few of them.

Arpege by Lanvin (1927)

Top notes: Bergamot, neroli, aldehydes, peach.
Heart notes: Rose, jasmine, lily of the valley, ylang-ylang.
Base notes: Sandalwood, ambrein, vetiver, musk.

Take a bath for beauty

It had been a while since I conveyed some of the beauty tips from Vivan Huber's Skönhet, so I dived into i again and feeling a bit chilly due to the winter weather I lost myself in the chapter about baths. We only have a shower and I miss my baths terribly, especially in the wintertime.

A bath should, the book says, if possible not be taken in the mornings- a shower is so much better to revive the spirits. If you really must, then make sure the bath is quick and the water lukewarm. A hot bath in the mornings before you go out may give you a cold. However, taking a bath in the evenings is very good for you as it helps not only against tiredness, but also nervosity, insomnia and headache. To promote the healthy effects even more, consider to add one the following suggestions;

A review on Revlon lipstick

I know, know, I really didn’t need more lipsticks. And I also try to not but things just because, but the idea of trying a lipstick shade that have actually been around since forever, appealed to me so much that I just had to try. Unfortunately the shade I most wanted to try from Revlon, Raven Red, who was launched in 1945, was discontinued some ten years ago. It is still around here and there, but I haven’t found any who ships to Sweden. Oh well. I did buy three other shades, though.

Quality
Really good actually, for the price you pay, even excellent. All my lipsticks Revlon’s Super Lustrous Lipcolor and they go on very creamily and don’t feel drying at all. I thought all the lipsticks covered well on the first application, but I think it looks better if you do two layers. Staying powered, however, differed a bit between colours. To me it doesn’t smell anything at all, which I think some appreciate, even if I don’t mind a discreetly scented lipstick. They are not completely matte, but not at all shiny- just shiny enough, if you ask me.

Price
Revlon is a budget brand and my three lipsticks; with shipping from the UK I paid less then £14. Compared that to buying a Became lipstick from What Katie Did cost £22 + shipping and a Rockalilly lipstick is £14 + shipping. Don’t get me wrong, I think both Became and Rockalilly are worth the money, but I think that on a slim budget, Revlon is a very good option, but they are worth a try even if you can afford bigger brands.


Certainly Red, 1951
Really nice true red shade, not too dark. I think it’s a great daytime red, but that is, of course, a matter of opinion. It also has good staying power, and lasts easily six-eight hours with one meal thrown in. A second meal and it will fade noticeably. Of all lipsticks I have tried, it’s the one I have found that is closest to MAC’s Ruby Woo, though not as matte and much, much nicer to use.

More reviews and swatches: Platinum Blonde Life, with a swatch compare to Ruby Woo.
Power Femme


Fire and Ice, 1952
Fire and Ice was very successfully launched with the help of model Dorian Leigh. She had been used by Revlon before and was by the time 36 years old. Do you check out if you are made for Fire and Ice;



I haven’t really used this one yet, because it’s a really bright red and the bleak winter light makes it look a bit too stark on my lips. I suspect this colour will look a lot better in summertime, so I will return to it then.

More reviews and swatches: Vampy Varnish
Vintage or Tacky
Pink Sith


Love That Pink, 1955
I do love this pink. It’s the pink I have wanted for years. I don’t always want to have red lips, but pink so often feels to bright and bubbly for me. Love That Pink is a rather reddish pink with a hint of coral. Not in your face, but not too discreet either. I find it very wearable and flattering and have used it a lot lately. The staying power is not great, though, so you need to re-apply it, but it fades evenly so it doesn’t look too horrid. Funnily enough this colour is often called a dupe for MAC’s Impassioned, but given that Love That Pink have been around for a bit longer, I rather think that it’s the other way around.
More reviews and swatches: Shopping Intervention
Clever Endeavor

Conclusion
I think these lipsticks good ones, especially as the price is so low. They may not be as good as more expensive brands, but they are definitely good enough to use. If you want to try a colour you haven’t used before, then I think it would be a good idea to buy a Revlon lipstick to try it out, instead of buying something more expensive. I also think it’s really, really neat that you can but shades that really were in use 50-60 years ago and I’m sure I will try more of them eventually. Who knows, I might even get my hands on Raven Red.

(Picture sources: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/search?q=revlon
http://www.muncom.com/kikimimi/revlon-super-lustrous-lipstick-certainly-red-740-380984.html
http://vintageortacky.com/2011/06/12/revlon-fire-ice/
http://www.britishbeautyblogger.com/2010/10/revlon-fire-ice-its-back.html
http://shoppingintervention.blogspot.com/2011/05/shopping-my-stash-revlon-luxurious.html)

Getting ready to go

One of the things I like with having a vintage style is that it looks so neat and put together. So naturally, every time I leave home I’m perfectly attired with a well thought out outfit, immaculate hair, painted nails and the lipstick in place.

Really?

Of course not. I’d like to, but in reality I don’t always have the time. I guess that is true for most of us. We work, go to school, have kids and a thousand other demands. Finding time and space to focus on you may not be so easy. I work irregular hours and sometimes I have to get up at 4.30 in the mornings and I’m not a morning person. But despite feeling tired and very unimaginative at that time of day, I still like to look nice. Over time I have evolved a few strategies to make it easier to leave home in something else than the first thing that you pull out of the wardrobe. Or from a chair…

My top 10 beauty products

Now, I know, this blog isn’t a beauty blog, but I got challenged to list my top 10 beauty products from a bunch of other Swedish vintage bloggers. A lot of things I use I have no particulars for at all- I buy the mascara that happen to have a good price or use the shampoo that I find in the shower. There are a few things that I use exclusivly, so some are just brands that I love, even if I use other brands too.

Here they are, in no particular order. Enjoy

1. Mia at Visage. Not a product, but a person. I have been going to her for facials for nearly 15 years and that’s the beast beauty decision I have ever done. I have a very sensitive skin and I started because I had such bad breakouts that I wanted my doctor to send me to skin specialist. He recommended that I try facials first and I have never looked back since. I have better skin now than I had in my early twenties. If I could afford it I would go every month, but 2-4 times a year makes a difference. It’s nice to be pampered.


2. Pixie Epoxy from Fyrinnae. I always had problems with getting my eye shadows stay put until I tried Pixie Epoxy. Now I can’t do without. You can use it with a primer, but I use it alone. Basically it works like glue for eye shadows. You spread the tiniest amount possibly over your eyelid before applying the shadow and then it stays put all day without fading or creasing. Despite all this staying power it washes away very easily. It works best for sparkly and shimmery shadows- matte ones sometimes look a bit chalky and apart from kipping it in place, it also improves the colour. It gives saturation and depth to shadows in a way I have never seen before. PE was made for Fyrinnae’s loose eye shadows, which are great shadows- check out the Arcane Magic collection, those shadows change colour depending on light and how close you are. But PE works on eye shadows from other brands too.


3. Mene & Moy Phytic Acid Cream. Not for every skin, but I love it. I tend to get very red cheeks and dry skin, especially in the winter, but none of that since I started using this one.


4. Beasme lipstick. I didn’t try them until a few months ago, but I’m completely converted. I do use other lipsticks, but not as often. Fantastic shades, fantastic quality. Not cheap, but on the other hand they last and last. I have been working on my sample of Hot Red almost daily for a few months now and only now I’m starting to see a dent in the pot.


5. Mineral foundation from Lucy Minerals. I have tried a number of mineral brands and even if I have always liked them better than traditional foundations, I have never been as satisfied as I have been LM. It’s very easy to apply and looks very natural. There are several shades as well as pure white, so you can mix a shade that suits you if you can’t find one ready-made. It’s possibly to buy samples to try out. Due to their blend ability I have found that I can use three of the shades, depending on season. They are also free from parabens which many mineral foundations contain and which many react on- me for example.


6. Diamond Perfect Finish from Purely Cosmetics. Easily the best loose powder I have tried. Very finely milled- you can use it as a primer as well as finishing powder.


7. Perfume oils from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. Before my eyes opened for vintage perfume, BPAL’s perfumes were the only ones I used for years. Modern perfumes tend to give me headache of smell very weird on me. I still use BPAL most days as I have workmates who are scent sensitive to normal perfumes, but have no problems with BPAL. It’s not a trial, they have a VAST catalogue, so huge that it’s a bit daunting to even try to find something you like. Then it’s ever so easy to slid into a collection mania- ask me, I know. I purged my stash a few month ago, now I “only” have some 60 samples, and some ten bottles. Apart from smelling good, I love how the scents are inspired from literature, art and history. There an Alice in Wonderland-collection, a Lovecraft, Shakespeare and much more.


8. Baby Foot Deep Skin Foot Exfoliation. Plastic socks with goo inside. You put it on your feet (I put an old sock on top to keep them put), wait two hours and rinse. After a few days your feet will shed the outmost layers of dead skin, leaving your feel a lot softer. Now, a professional pedicure is a lot better, and the Baby Foot is somewhat pricey, so you may want to spring for that instead, but if you, like me, never finds the time for an appointment, then I think Baby Foot is an excellent way to kick-start softer feet.


9. Babor’s Calming Sensitive Day Cream. I know, I know, you always hear that expensive face creams are just a waste of money and you can as well use something cheap. But every time I do my skin breaks out and Mia looks me sternly in the eye when I come for my facial and asks me WHAT I have been using in my face. So I have resigned. On the other hand, a little goes a very long way.

10. Also from Babor, Sensational Eye Cream. Yes, I do spend a lot of money on my face. What can I say, I’m vain.

Other top 10's
Kellerman Vintage
Fröken Pimpinell
Dahling It's Vintagy!
Onedreamycloset
Vid mitt skrivbord
Miss Meadows

Tips on retro make up

I don't usually go in for make up tutorials on video, but I was very recently tipped about Lisa Elridge and I think it's worth spreading. She's a professional make up artist and she has several excellent videos on basic make up and more festive one as well. She also has an interest in vintage make up and many of the videos touch that subject.

A history of make up, Victorian era to the 1930's.

Briefly about bras

I talked about bras in the corset and girdles posts, but it’s a garment that deserves a post on its own. Breast supports of some kind have probably been around since people started to wear clothes. There is a Roman mosaic that depicts exercising girls clad in something that looks quite a lot like a modern bikini.

Girdles and corsets and the right shape, oh my

Let’s stay in the same time frame as in the post about fashionable figures, the early 20th century to the 1950’s, but remove the clothes and see what was worn underneath. The origins of corsets or stays are very hazy, the first known examples dates to around 1600, but those are already fully developed garments, two layers of fabric stiffened with reeds or whalebone. A piece of clothing designed to change the female body so it conforms to the ideals of the time. And ideals change- just during the first decades of the 20th century it went from super curvy, to super straight.

50 years of fashionable female figures

Even if this blog is about the 1940’s you may have notice that I sometimes go outside the decade. Nothing exists in a vacuum and sometimes I feel the need to reach outside to give a little perspective. Something it’s much too easy to look at something and isolate it from the before and after, but I think it’s important to see the larger picture. The forties isn’t my sole interest either, even if it’s a big one. This post began as a tie in after my posts on the ideal body shape, found here and here , but if grow to include 50 years of body ideal. I hope you will find it interesting and not distracting.




Consider these two pictures, taken about 50 years apart and still, the figures of the both women are not that different. Granted, both Camille Clifford and Jayne Mansfield had exaggerated figures, even for their times, but even so they represent the ideal of the time. The Edwardians beauty is all curves, a youthful, but mature woman with ample, but rather low bosom, a narrow waist and wide hips. Miss Mansfield’s breasts are placed higher, but she is also very curvy. If you didn’t know more about the fashion changes of the 20th century, it would be easy enough to think that this body ideal went on interrupted for 50 years. I think we all know that this is not the case.

Revlon lipstick

I found this nifty piece of information on The Fedora Lounge. Mosly 50's shades, but still. Now I don’t really need more lipsticks, but I get cravings nevertheless…



I do wish Raven Red were available as a lipstick too.

A 1940's updo tutorial

I was asked how I did my hair here and as that may interest more people, here is a little how-to. My hair is cut in a middy that is quite long- soon it will be a femme fatale. The longest part is a little below my shoulders and the shortest layer reach me to my chin. It's also rather thick. You can do this style with both shorter and longer hair, if shorter it needs to be long enough to roll and with longer hair your rolls will be bigger.

What you need is booby pins, pomade, hair spray and some patience.

You also need to know a few things to start out. First you need to curl your hair. I always do my standing pin curls, but you can curl you hair any way you like best.

Nuit de Noel

I hope you are enjoying your holiday! Let’s have a perfum-y Christmas-post today, shall we? It seems rather suitable. I could say that I have eagerly waited to try this perfume until Christmas Eve, but that wouldn’t be quite true. I did try it before, just to make sure I liked it, but I have waited until now to talk about it. Nuit de Noel was released by Caron in 1922 and in case your French is lacking (mine is very rusty) it means Christmas night. It has a bit of a romantic story; it was created by Ernest Daltroff for his lover, who loved Christmas and its scents.

The ideal body

I have talked about the ideal body when it comes to the ideal movie stars, but how about the ordinary woman? Well, slim is pretty much the ideal now and it was the ideal back then too. However, it didn’t mean exactly the same thing as it does today. The thin athletic body that we see on fashion spreads today is not the same as the slim, but still rather curvaceous ideal of the 1940’s.

I'm going to the hairdresser tomorrow

I’m going to Retroella tomorrow to spruce up my middy. I’ll keep it longish, but I do need a trim. I’m also contemplating something else… I stopped dyeing my hair in the beginning of this year. I have dyed it a dark brown for the last ten years, or so, so it felt a bit odd to see my own lighter brown turn up again. It’s actually not as mousy as I remember it, but a rather nice bronzy colour. The ends are still darker, but it looks ok anyway. So I decided to keep my natural colour, it could be nice to have it around before it starts graying. Not that I’m graying just yet, but at my age you never know. After deciding that I quickly got bored with not playing with my haircolour (I think it’s addictive) and have been thinking of what I could do that would add some fun and be a suitable vintage solution. I came up with this:


(Picture source: http://thedressersroom.wordpress.com/)

Of course, I won't ever be as glamorous as Rita Hayworth!

A review on Bèsame lipstick

Like so many others I have been looking with longing on the beautiful products from Bèsame. So stylish and with such design, looking so much like make-up packages did on the good old days. And everyone who tried seemed to rave over the quality, especially the lipsticks. I have been a bit scared to order anyway, just because I have felt unsure on what colour to choose. Luckily Bèsame offers samples on six of their lipsticks, namely:
Bèsame Red, a cool-toned true red.
Cherry Red, darker cherry red, cool-toned.
Red Velvet, darker red, neutral
Red Hot Red, a warm-toned true red
Carmine, a orange red
Merlot, a brownish red.

Where I shop

I love to shop- don’t we all? What I hate, though, is to actually do the physical shopping. Especially clothes. Despite loving to have clothes, I hate shopping for them with a passion and I do practically all my shopping, except for food, online. So here are a few of the places I spend my money.

Clothing and shoes
Brandos A Swedish shoe store. They don’t really sell retro shoes, but it’s there I found my reproductions rubber boots from Viking. Last time I looked they had those in two versions. I have also seen some rather 40’s looking sandals.

Flowers and leather

I’m still happily trying my way through my perfume samples. Unhappily, at least for my wallet, I find new perfumes I want to sample too, so my wish list never seems to grow shorter.
Cyprus Musc from Creed, 1948 I don’t know how I managed to buy this one, as it’s a men’s perfume. The Perfumed Court describes it as “green and musky fragrance with notes of English mint and cypress” and I think that describes it very well. It’s not overtly masculine and could easily be worn by a woman. I liked it, but my darling dismissed it as “expensive soap”.

A beautiful smile

Please note that this is advice on dental care from the 1940’s. If you find that they differ from what your dentist tells you, then I think you should listen to your dentist!

The best way to ensure beautiful teeth is to take care of them. Brush your teeth morning and nights with a hard toothbrush of good quality. Make sure that you brush every angle of every tooth that you get to and lightly brush the gums too. Rinse the mouth after every meal with tepid water; possibly add a few drops of refreshing mouth water.

Pretty hair things

My vanity and wish to look nice is in constant battle with my laziness. I can spend a lot of time getting ready for a party, but on an ordinary workday, especially when I get up at 4.30 in the morning, I don’t want to fuzz. For years I kept my hair long and it took me five minutes, at the very most, to fix it in the mornings and I really wasn’t prepared to spend longer time on it when I cut it in a middy. Fortunately I don’t have to, even if I have pin curls to brush out, my morning routines are only marginally longer.