1950s Makeup Tricks

Video Transcript

"So the '50s make-up face is really very simple. You can probably hardly tell that I put on make-up since the last clip. But the basic look for it is natural, but enhanced. And it was enhanced mostly with shimmery shades, so a lip gloss that would be the same color as your skin, but shinier. And eyeshadow that would be shimmery in a basic color. You didn't wear any really loud colors in the '50s because if you did, as a woman, you were considered a floozy. So no red lipstick, no really dark eyeliner. This doesn't mean that people wore them, people did, but in terms of mainstream fashion, the idea of looking very classically feminine, and not particularly sexual was really really important. No woman went outside of her house without a good blush, as you can see here, because you wanted to look fresh, you wanted to look like you were healthy, and I really can't state enough that you didn't wear red lipstick. Today, when you look back in films, we tend to add red lipstick to the costumes because we think of it as a vintage thing but it's really more from the '30s and '40s and that was used to sort of pep up clothes from that era. In the '50s it was really about pastels, a really casual face and shimmery, because you wanted to be a lady. You didn't want to be vampy."