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*
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