VICTORIAN
Women in the 19th century liked to be thought of fragile. Pale skin was seen as an indicator that a lady was wealth enough not to have to work outside (as nuts as that sounds) and women would drink, vinegar and avoid sunlight in order to achieve this pale look and many carried parasols to avoid the sunlight completely if they had to go outside at all. Make-up was frowned upon but some women would use a tiny bit of rouge. Oddly enough - thin blue lines would be painted onto the skin in order to achieve a paler more translucent look. Skincare creams were introduced after 1886. Women rarely ever cut their hair except during illness. Hairpieces were also used to create the illusion of long flowing locks.
While there was a greater acceptance of cosmetics in Edwardian era, ladies still liked to be viewed as 'natural' beauties and would often visit salons in secret. One salon in London even had a back entrance where clients could visit in secret and avoid being seen by neighbors. Rouge was still used but now came in sheets of paper (similar to blotting tissue which is still sold today) that could be pressed against the skin to leave behind a light mark. Burnt matches were also used in order to darken eyelids and lashes, wonder if this is where the 'smoky eye' thing came from - hahahaha! In 1909, Selfridges opened their doors and openly sold cosmetics, which had previously been sold under the counter. Weirdly enough, Russian ballet became popular and women began to get cosmetics tattooed onto their faces such as eyeliner and dark eyebrows.
1920s
I remember someone telling me before that Chanel was responsible for creating the interest in sun tans that still exists today. We have seen that Victorian women saw the suntan as a sign that women had to work and couldn't afford to stay home - this changed in the 1920s as wealthy people began to travel and people saw the suntan as a sign of wealth. Chanel was quite partial to a good sun tan and as she grew in popularity as a designer - women began to copy her look which included the suntan. During this time, Elizabeth Arden began to develop tonics and skincare lotions. She was one of the first people to approach skincare as a science - spending hours in labs mixing creams and lotions. She eventually developed the 8 hour cream which is still one of the best selling creams of all time. The cream was developed - as rumor has it - as a salve for one of her horses legs and was accidently discovered to be excellent for humans too. One user claimed it cured a graze on her sons knee in 8 hours - and so that is where the name came from!
Make-up styles were dark eyes in a smoky fashion with a dark red or wine lip. Eyebrows were extended down to meet the edge of the eye and were also quite thin.
1930s
Make -up became a lot less dangerous as materials such as lead and mercury were no longer being used as ingredients. Women used a lot more make-up then the 1920s and it was now openly acceptable to use it. Lipstick was worn extremely thick and usually a dark form of red. Nail varnish became trendy and women grew their nails as long as possible. They still used rouge but also popped it on the earlobes as well. Women now plucked their eyebrows even thinner then they did in the 1920s - some even shaved theirs off completely to replace them with pencil lines which required a very steady hand! False lashes also appeared in this era!
1940s
Make-up became minimal due to shortages during the war and women did not want to be seen as frivolous during times of hardship. I remember my grandmother telling me a story about drawing lines on the backs of legs to make it look like a stocking years ago but I don't know if this is fact or fiction. Minimal make-up involved compacts, strong eyebrows with an arch instead of the more rounded style of the 1920s, red lipstick was still in fashion.
1950s
Max Factor develop the first foundation version of panstick. Pan stick had been the ''foundation'' of choice for women as it was used in movies to give actress a smooth complexion. However it was extremely heavy and difficult to wear during the day.
Titanium was introduced to tone down the brightness of products which resulted in the popularity of frosted nail varnishes and pink lipsticks. Women's magazines now began running 'How to' make-up tutorials and showed pictures of famous female actresses.
1960s
The 1960s saw more use of the frosted pink shades and companies still used titanium to tone down colors. Teenagers saw red lipstick as aging so they used a mixture of peaches and light pinks which eventually became a trend. Eyeliner became popular after the movie 'Cleopatra' came out and girls began to copy the heavy eyeliner used. Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton also started to use eyeliner and false lashes to create the famous 60s looks.
Mary Quant also brought out a collection of make-up as did Biba, the high street store in London. Quant also encouraged her clients to use brushes to apply the make-up and gave charts and diagrams on how to apply the make-up.
1970s
The natural look came into fashion! Women wore highlighter on their eyebrows and light mascara. Eyeliner was lightened into barely there styles and eyeshadow was now being used as eyeliner in soft brown tones. Powders went out of fashion as women used foundation alone for coverage.
1980s
MAC was invented! MAC came into existence in 1985 in Canada although the first store didn't open in New York until 1998! Color became a big trend and the red lipstick became popular again. People worried about tanning as sunbeds were invented and skin cancer was a big concern. Although the 80s are characterised as being more about the hairstyles then the make-up - big curls and mullets became fashionable through music videos played on the newly established MTV. In fact I remember the first video I ever saw was AHA 'Take on me'!!!!!
During the 80s you had another underground trend - the club kids and the new romantics who used color and make -up aggressively to showcase their personalities and sexual orientation. Singers such as Boy George and Adam Ant brought the look to the mainstream through MTV. The club kids and Leigh Bowery used more extravagant make-up looks using fake lashes, sequins and thicker brighter colors.
1990s
YSL developed Touche Eclat - which became and still is - a must have product in any woman's handbag!!!!! The 90s became about fresh faced beauty and skincare became a huge industry. New lighter foundations were developed.
2000s
This is where some truly awful products became available on the market - I know because I started to wear make up during this time and my god, some of the things I used to wear were horrific. For starters - hair mascara became popular for adding streaks overnight. It was a horrible product though - sticky and it left marks on everthing it touched. I discovered though that it could be used as regular mascara as well and often went to discos with blue or white mascara on.
Fake tan became popular although thank god I never got into that - I was a goth so tanning was out! I did notice a lot more glittery products on display. I used to use a cheap brand called Miners which I could afford with my pocket money. I mainly saved to buy their nail varnishes in bright colors including blue and yellow.
I did spent a lot of money on Stargazer products around this time as they were the only brand that provided the goth make-up I badly needed. I used to buy their white face powder which meant that my face was a patchy white color and I would draw designs in black eyeliner around my eyes and lips. I also bought their black lipstick (which was and still is incredibly greasy) and their hair dye in a range of colors.
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Brilliant piece, very informative , thanx
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