Vintge Beauty: Chanel and the 1920's.......
During the week myself and the blogger ladies went to see Coco & Igor - a movie about the alleged steamy love affair between two iconic figures of the 20th Century, Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel and Igor Stravinsky. One word to describe the film is Beautiful. Beautiful 1920's fashion, beautiful makeup, beautiful skin, beautiful music, beautiful cinematography. The story of Chanel is a fascinating one, she was an independent woman way ahead of her time and her eye for irreplaceable style is evident throughout the movie. But, I'm not going to rant on about the movie itself - instead I'm going to delve into the past of 1920's beauty.
Cosmetics in the twenties were used primarily (as they are now) to create. Create a ‘cupids bow' on the lips, create smouldering eyes, create a red blush to the cheeks. Last night I was reading up on cosmetics in the 1920's, and get this - the French beauty industry actually encouraged women to wear makeup to look their best whilst competing with men for employment! And so the independence war between men and women began.....with the help of a little lippy.
Lip gloss was introduced to women in this era and had ‘bromo acid' in it which turned lips red as it reacted with the wearer's skin. Was it safe? Probably not, but it gives the likes of Smashbox's O-Gloss and Boujours Rose Exclusif a run for their money who are, oh, about 80 odd years behind trend!
Elizabeth Arden developed her cult cleansing creams, lotions and tonics whilst Helena Rubenstein was working on creams to protect skin from the sun. I found this amazing, as here we are 80 years on only getting to grips with the ol' SPF now! I also came across some campaigns and like them so much I might just frame them for my wall. Yes. I'm obsessed with beauty junk from this decade and the ones before! Oh, and check out the tag lines used in hope of a sale - my fav is ‘Pretty faces may still be hungry faces' (wtf?) and ‘A Boncilla today keeps wrinkles away'.....Effective advertising or what!
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