Tutorial - 1920s-inspired hair and makeup

The image of the 1920s ‘flapper girl’ is iconic; we love the idea of the sequins, the feathers, the jazz, the parties… It’s also around the time when women started to wear makeup on a regular basis, as before this point, it was mainly worn by actresses and prostitutes. Makeup came back into fashion partly because of the improvement in the economy after the first world war, which meant that more companies were able to manufacture makeup in greater quantities. Another factor was that department stores such as Woolworths were becoming more prominent, meaning that it was easier for women to try and buy a wider variety of makeup. Third, films, and particularly magazines, made it possible for women to copy the makeup and styles of film stars, although they could only see the general shape and style of the makeup, and not the colour at this point.

I used various sources to try out a 1920s-inspired look on myself, and share the experience on this blog!

Here is my face and hair pre-makeover:

First, I applied foundation, concealer and powder. Complexion was an important aspect of beauty at the time, so an even base is crucial.

Rimmel Match Perfection foundation

Natural Collection CoverUp Cream concealer

Rimmel pressed powder

Dark, smoky eyeshadow was favoured in the '20s, so I applied the medium brown shade all over my eyelids, then applied the darkest brown shade at the outer corners of my eyelids. Finally, I applied brown eyeliner on my lower eyelids.

Revlon brown eyeshadow palette
Rimmel soft kohl eyeliner in Sable Brown

Then, I applied a thin line of black liquid eyeliner on my upper eyelids, with a small flick out to the side, and applied mascara to my upper and lower eyelashes.

Maybelline Great Lash mascara
Rimmel Exaggerate eyeliner in 003 Black

(I know this photo looks like I'm crying, 

but I just had a cold)

Finally, I applied a dark red lipstick; red was the most popular colour of lipstick at that time.

Rimmel Exaggerate lip liner in 024 Red Diva

Maybelline matte lipstick in 975 Divine Wine

To complete the look, I curled my hair using heated rollers.

I don't own one of the classic feathered headbands, but I tied a piece of black lace ribbon around my head, and pinned my hair around it to give the appearance of short hair, as this was fashionable at the time.

Here is the final (heavily filtered) version that ended up on my Instagram:

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial: I'm not an expert in hair or makeup, so it's a little slapdash, but I think it turned out quite well! 

Bibliography:

http://hair-and-makeup-artist.com/womens-1920s-makeup/

http://glamourdaze.com/history-of-makeup/1920s

http://www.artdecosociety.org/gatsby/f_hair-makeup.htm

Medieval Beauty

Medieval beauty

(In which I discover the aesthetic conventions of the middle ages and attempt to try them myself, using my own makeup.)

My knowledge of medieval fashion and beauty is based largely on pop culture (when I typed ‘medieval hair’ into Google images, there was a lot of Cersei Lannister), so this probably won’t be totally accurate but I’ll do my best.

Before I start, I should say that I am at two significant disadvantages with this task:

1)      The people of the medieval age favoured blonde hair, which I don’t have.

2)      They also preferred clear skin, and I have a lot of freckles and moles on my face. They would probably have thought I was a witch.

Apparently scrubbing your face with an amethyst got rid of blemishes, but they don’t sell those in Boots, so I just used cream concealer. I then attempted to cover up my freckles with concealer stick; I didn’t quite succeed, but they are less noticeable. I also used lemon juice to make my lips pinker, which is supposedly authentic. Also painful.

Hair-wise, I made three braids on either side of my head, then pinned them in a loop together at the back. While my hair is quite long by modern standards, it isn’t as long as would have been usual in the middle ages, so I couldn’t do as intricate a pattern as I would have liked. I then did four more braids in the lower part of my hair, just for added decoration. I didn’t straighten my hair before styling it because it wouldn’t have been an option at the time, although according to Alex, I have ‘English’ hair anyway, which basically means it’s wavy and kind of fluffy.

This is my face sans makeup and my natural hair:

And this is the finished product:

I hope you enjoyed my (slightly haphazard) attempt at medieval beauty!

Information from:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/55276/17-signs-youd-qualify-witch-1692

http://www.xovain.com/how-to/medieval-beauty-tips