Her Curious Nature

On Sunday I received a very late but much appreciated Christmas present  from my Aunt Angela.
It was this utterly beautiful headband from hercuriousnature.com/ 
I'm not normal a headband type of person, if I wear a hair accessory it's always either a headscarf or a hair flower but this head band I will definitely be wearing!
Excuse the photos, I wasn't expecting to be taking any so I'm not at my best.
But anyway here it is!

 

It reminds me a lot of a head piece a flapper would have wore in the 1920s which is great because I have the most perfect 20s style dress to wear with it! 
You can't really tell in these photos but the detail on this is so
 delicate and beautiful and the feathers are so soft.

 

I'm glad I got this as a present because otherwise I would never be able to afford it, they are pretty pricey.

Now I don't normally advocate spending tones of money of one thing but I think you should all go visit their site even if it is only for a look.

Till Next Time Folks,

Laura Lou x

In the beginning...MAKEUP!

Before the 1920s makeup was generally thought of badly and seriously frowned upon by society and religious groups. For instance if you went out wearing rouge on your cheeks and lips people would have whispered behind their hands about your 'occupation'. To be honest I don't see why people couldn't just let people be people, there's nothing wrong with women wanting to look pretty is there? But maybe the world of makeup wouldn't be what it is today without all the hullabaloo?

By the start of the 1920s people's attitude to makeup was changing (hurrah!), painting your face wasn't such a no no, it was becoming acceptable to redden your cheeks and draw in your brows and women wanted to copy the looks of the actresses on the silver screen like Marion Davies and Clara Bow.

Not everyone was so accepting of the new fashion trends though. While women were openly applying face powder and roughing their lips in public instead of hiding away in toilets some women were trying to get makeup banned.

I find it so fascinating how people were so reluctant to accept change back then, how even some women didn't want women to progress (either through fashion or politics) in the world.

However those women weren't to prevail as today's trends show.

Although there was a selection of products available to women there wasn't even half of what there is today.

Products available included...

Mascara came in black and brown (but was most common in black) wasn't is a tube like it is today but in cake form. It was with a small brush which you would wet, scrape along the cake and apply to the lashes.

Eyeliners came in more colours that mascara but brown and black were most often used and used for more that one purpose. Women would put a small amount along the upper eyelid nearest the lashes and it was also used to colour in eyebrows. Other eyeliner colours included blue and violet and would be blended onto the lid of the eye with a finger.

Face powder was available is a variety of natural looking colours and was mainly used to cover blemishes and such.

Blusher or 'Rouge' was in a powder compact, cream or paste much like today. The powders came with a very small puff as not many application tools were available in the 1920s and pastes and creams were applied with fingers.

Eye shadows available in blues, greys, greens, browns and purples were applied lightly at the lash line and blended towards the brow with a finger.

Lipstick wasn't popular with most people until further into the 1920s and was more worn by younger women or on an evening. Also used in the 1920s were tinted balms and salves.

As with most eras there were guidelines for what colours to wear depending on your skin tone or hair colour. In the 1920s it all depended on your eye colour.

Grey, blues and browns were 'best' for blue eyes while green eyes were supposed to stick to greys, greens and browns. Brown eyes on the other hand were told that browns, purples and blacks were best. so basically you wore the colour of your eyes... I could not have stuck to that rule for sure, I need choice and lots of it.

Now I know we have some pretty wacky trends in our time but I think some of these really take the biscuit.

Lesser popular makeup trends in the 1920s included painting shapes and pictures on your knees, rouging your ear lobes and finger tips, lash beading which involved rolling small balls of wax and sticking them on the ends of your lashes, and leaving a strip down the middle of your painted lips bare. Needless to say non of these trends caught on and they soon died out. But I think it's fantastic that even then people were experimenting with the makeup they had at their disposal, even though it wasn't a lot.

I personally don't look good in the 1920s style, I know this because I did myself up in the style especially to show you all but I look pretty weird so y'all will have to wait till I cant perfect it better. And because of that I am for the first time truly glad I was born in my era!
Well I hope you all enjoyed this little history lesson, do you know of any strange makeup tips/trends of the 1920s?

Till next time folks,
Laura Lou x 

*sources from Retro Makeup by Lauren Rennells*

Just Starting Out

It can be intimidating when you try something different like changing your style.

I should know as thats how I felt when I first decided to give up on the hopeless fashions of today and dress the way I admired other women for dressing.

Vintage.

I was worried people wouldn't appreciate the way I had decided to dressed and that I would get odd looks from passers by in the street. But as it turns out people generally like to see someone all dressed up in pin curls and a swing dress and apart from the one off jealous glares off some females it gets a lot of good attention and so will you.

I've written up a helpful little guide to start you on your new style adventure.

When I first started dressing vintage I needed all the help I could get, I didn't ever think I'd be able to successfully pin curl my hair or achieve the prefect eyeliner flick but thanks to the help of makeup/hair tutorials and vintage blogs I did.

Before you do anything you need to decide your era. Are you a 1920s flapper? A 1930s film star? A 1940s

    Land Girl? A 1950s Pin up? Or something completely beyond?

I'm a 1950s girl through and through and always will be, I have tampered with other styles but I always come back to the circle skirts and swing dresses of that era.

Once you have decided your era things become a bit easier, you know what you are looking for in terms of tutorials and what to copy.

Clothes:

Try experimenting with the clothes you have first. Turn them from modern day into vintage with a few adjustment or by adding a few accessories to see what works for you.

Reproduction clothing is great, there are a lot of sites online that sell repo/rockabilly/pinup clothing all depending on what you want. You'll feel beautiful and confident  in what you are wearing instead of worrying if you've paired the right vintage skirt with the right top and so on.

I didn't start wearing true vintage until I was confident in my style. You may be the same or you may feel confident enough to go straight into it. Either way its cool, all that matters is that you feel comfortable and beautiful in what you are wearing.

Makeup:

It can be a tricky thing to perfect but practice makes perfect.

You don't have to spend a fortune on products either, I don't.

In fact I find that most times high street products work just as well (and some times better) as high priced designer ones.

I found that tutorials on youtube and blogs the best way to practice my makeup and technique but once I was confident in what I was doing I started adding my own little bits and bobs into the mix.

                                      Hair:

There are so many different vintage hairstyles it's hard to choose which one to try first.

I want to say

try something simple first but, if you've never done them before, non of them are really that simple.

Don't let that deter you though. As with the makeup practice makes perfect! There are so many tutorials and blog posts available on the internet so make full use of them and get practicing.

Here is a list of links that helped me when I first started out and if you want more go to my links

page. 

Pin Curl tutorial part 1

 Pin Curl tutorial part 2

Victory Roll tutorial

Brows

Hair and Makeup 

If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask, I'll be as helpful as I can (email on contact page)

Also sorry about the awful formatting, can't seam to fix it :/

         I hope this has been a help to you ladies.

Till next time,

Laura Lou x

'Sexy Bumblebee Eyes'

I sometimes go through fases where I wear outrageously bright eyeshadow, last year for instace where I think I wore down a whole colour palette in a few months. Well I think I may be once again entering that fase because the other day I donned my 'Sexy bumblebee eyes' as someone once called them.

To be honest though it's hardly a bumblebee look. All it is is my noral eyeliner with yellow eyeshadow but it looks effective and cute when teamed with red lips.

 I used to wear this look an awful lot last year when I went through my beehive days in which you could see my sporting the classic 60s beehive almost everyday! Ruined my hair I tell you.
And yes, that it Charlotte's hat you see me wearing. I think I have worn it almost everyday this week, There's no way she's getting it back haha.

On Thursday (which reminds me, I NEED to post about 'Allo Allo'!) I had a meeting with some potential business partners about a theatre project me and Bethan are hoping together, I went for a simplified 1920s makeup look, notice the lips. Once again wearing the hat.

A very (I wanted to say slightly but it would have been an understatement) photo of my. I digging the classic 1920s lips at the moment, it looks so cute.

Well, I'll update you soon on 'Allo Allo' if I remember.
Till next time,
Laura Lou x

(Saturday) Sunday, Monday Happy Days!

This week I've done a lot of pin curling.
I've been trying out a few different techniques, seeing what works and what doesn't.
Friday night was spent setting curls for Saturday. I looked like this...

 

This look made shopping at the supermarket a lot of fun *raises eyebrow*

 

A pretty little picture of my lips. I was watching a vlog on Diary of a Vintage Girl on how to apply and shape vintage style lipstick and I thought to myself 'with lips like these I don't need that!' though anyone else who wants a perfect vintage lip should check it out.

Saturday's hair looked pretty cute. I was going for a classic 1920s style for the night (another showing of Allo Allo and a night on the tiles), I bought a new dress from asos.com in the sale and it's uber cute. I'll show you.

A picture of me in my dress, with no head?

Full length view of the dress.

The hair. What I did was after pin curling, I brushed every curl individually then twisted it round my finger to give it some bounce then after about half an hour after it had relaxed I pinned all my hair under to make it short. A bit like a bob.

And what a surprise... another Caught Out photo of myself and Hannah Potter.

Bad quality!

The on Sunday night I decided to try a different kind of pin curl. I think they are called vertical pin curls or something like that?

I actually loved how this looked. Is that weird?

But anyway, they turned out like this...

I think it will get better with practise but it did look really cute with a hat on haha.

Fortunately it got even colder later today so I got to wear another hat and matching scarf (on loan from my 10 year old sister Charlotte)

Worn with my old 'millitary style' coat.

My alien face.

Nice and warm!

Till next time my lovelies!

Laura Lou x

An Oufit Fit For Walmart

Well hello there folks!
I Just wanted to share with you all this look I threw together the other day. I wore it to go shopping in Asda Walmart, that's how glamorous my life really is, I got a few (a lot) of strange looks, non of which I think were appreciating my outfit but I didn't mind, I felt good in it.
I can't really pin-point an era that it was inspired by. I has a kind of Edwardian/1920s sporty secretary feel to it.

The skirt I bought from Primark about three years ago for around £12, the shoes are my little white plimsolls form Primark (which I have mentioned before) and the top was a hand-me-down from my oldest sister.

I love throwing little vintage inspired outfits together because I'm sad like that.

I shall leave you with this picture of me being extremely silly.

Till next time folks,

Laura Lou x

Say Cheese!

I recently acquired a small collection of old photos which I can't wait to show you all!
As I've told you all about a million times I LOVE anything  pre 1980 so it will come as no surprise to you that I did a small happy dance when I found this lot, it was like I had just discovered Aladdin's cave but instead of gold, diamonds and rubies it was full of small vintage treasures (that sounds like a pretty good idea of heaven to me).
I'm not sure why I'm so fascinated with old photographs, i think it has something to do with seeing how people really lived and what they looked like. Having an insight into how they really lived their lives.

 This lady strikes me as being rather well off.
We shall call her Ann simply because I can't find a name on the back of the photos.
The photo on the left looks like it was taken in the early 1920s or even slightly before and I think the one on the right is more of a late 20s early 30s shot.

               More of Ann. Now these were most definitely taken in the 1920s, the fur stole and the cloche hat are far too much of a give away.

This isn't a very good photo of a photo (my camera wouldn't focus no matter how hard I tried) but this is Ann again. I would say due to the fact that the photo is on card with the boarder around the edge and her clothes that this could possibly be a late Edwardian shot.

This is the last of Ann's shots. This is actually a postcard photo, it's a lot bigger than this in real life. On this shot you can only see some of the garden but honestly it's beautiful. I love overgrown meadows and wild flowers so I'm insanely jealous of Ann right now.

Now I am almost certain that this chap is Ann's husband. He is now called Clive (I think it suits him). He's very smartly dressed is he not? I think these photos were taken around the same time as the one of Ann on the beach... it's pretty obvious why that thought springs to mind is it not?

 

Sadly this is the last photo I have of Clive. A slightly more casual look for him, I'm loving the tennis racket though.

 

Ah now this woman is in a few oh the photos too. I think she may be somehow related to Ann, they both have a heavy brow and the face shape is similar. I have decided to call her Grace, another fitting name I think. Also i just adore that car. I think this one may be from the 1940s.

 

Here we have Grace at the beach, a pebble beach if I'm not mistaken. I'm totally digging her style, that bathing suit is so cute. It's odd how that was normal for her but if someone wet to the bea\ch in that nower days they'd be said to be dressing old fashioned, no?

The photo on the right I think is Grace but something in my head is telling me that it could maybe be Ann. I'm not sure but I think it's a lovely photo. Her facial expression and her body language have a very dramatic effect.

And now I have some service men for the ladies ;)

On the back of this photo is says 'Dick England'. Now I'm not sure if that's his name or if they just missed the comma off and it's meant to read 'Dick, England' as is his country... I don't know.

First world war and second world war. I love the difference between the two uniforms.

This Young woman is called Joyce, well that's what it says on the back of the photo. Sadly I cannot tell you the exact date because even though it was stamped on, the end number has rubbed off but it is definitely from 1940- something.

 This photo has no name or date but it has a lot of hair! good Lord it must have taken her a while to set that!

And last but not least is this handsome devil.

I would love there to be more photos of this guy, he just looks so unbearably cool! Again no name or date but judging by his shirt and jacket I would say early 1930s.

I think if I'd of been around when this guy was i would probably have fallen in love with him hehe.

Hope you've enjoyed these snaps folkies.

Laura Lou x