Vintage Look Make Up

Vintage look make up has never really lost it’s style.  Women of the 1940’s were perfectly made up (Bette Davis, Veronica Lake), coiffed and ready for anything.  These make up and hair styles never really went out of style and more recently are making a strong come back with the Hollywood crowd.

Putting together your own vintage look make up isn’t difficult.  It can be time consuming the first time if you aren’t familiar with your way around a make up bag.  The basics for the vintage look make up are the shape of the eyebrows, color of the lips and use of eye shadow.

You always start with a clean face.  Using your favorite gentle cleaner and wash.  You should use a toner at night after you’ve removed the make up, washed your face and before moisturizing.  Before the make up treatment just wash and moisturize to give your face a smooth base.

Some make up artists recommend mixing moisturizer with your base if the base is pressed and not liquid.  This helps the base to go on smoothly and stay on longer.  Use a sponge for crème foundation and start from the middle of the face blending upward and outward.

The next steps of eyes, cheeks and lips can be done in the order you prefer.  I happen to prefer working from the top of the face down – eyes, cheeks and finally lips.

Begin by addressing your eyebrows. The eyebrows were shapely, arched and well defined.  Women often helped this with a brown eyebrow pencil.  The eyebrows were also thin.  If you don’t want to upset your natural shape you can clean up your natural line of the small thinner hair and then use concealer to make the eyebrows appear more narrow.  The pro’s use a technique using ‘brow sealer’ with a special removable wax.

Next you’ll apply eye liner.  Use a dark purple or brown instead of black to make the look less harsh.  The shadow colors were browns and grays over the lid and white under the brow.  Mixing dark browns or gray with the white may give you the color you are trying to achieve.  You will have to try it a couple of times before you find the ‘look’ you want. You can use a white or light blue eye pencil to line the bottom lid to give your eyes a wider appearance.

Before applying mascara you will use a lash curler.  These may look barbaric but they are simple and painless.  Purchase one at the pharmacy or department store.  Follow the directions on the package to place the curler on your lashes and the press on the lashes closest to your eyelid two or three times, then in the middle and then on the very end.  Put a light layer of mascara over the lashes right after curling to help set the lashes.

Address your cheeks with a blush that is applied over the cheekbones and brushing upwards.  Use a red or dark color that matches your skin tone.  True women of the 40’s used their lipstick to match their blush but it’s your call.  You can use what’s left on the brush to highlight the temple area or even the laterally down both sides of your neck.  When you are finished applying blush use a translucent powder to set the effect.

Last, address your lip color with your vintage look make up.  Women of the 40’s used red color that stayed and stayed.  The make up was meant to draw attention to the lips with sultry dark eyes.  You can’t have attention drawn to eyes, cheeks and lips or you end up looking like a clown.

Shape the lips in a bow shape using a matching liner.  The lipstick is a matte finish, no sparkles, glitter or hot colors.  A natural skin tone in matte finish will also do the trick if you aren’t comfortable in red.

A vintage look make up process isn’t difficult and can be achieved in less than 15 minutes when you know what to do.  This is such an easy way to change your look without doing anything permanent and still enjoy being yourself!