Fake Beauty Spots

Norma Shearer as Marie Antoinette

Although it's a subjective thing, I'm quite partial to the sight of a well-formed, well placed, dark mole. As it happens, I'm certainly not alone there, as in 18th Century Europe, when men were fops and vied with women to be prettier than they, dark 'beauty spots' were quite the thing for both sexes.

If nature didn't supply you with a perfect, natural mole, you could stick one, two or even three, strategically on your face using gum. You didn't just have to confine yourself to the conventional circle either, as the beauty spots were available in stars, hearts, teardrops and crescent moon shapes.

The spots were called mouches, the French word for flies, which is a pretty unappealing, if apt, name, and were made from velvet or silk. They were worn by both women and men and provided a dramatic, dark contrast to the highly elaborate and very pale, powdered wigs and hair extensions worn during the same period. The mid to late 18th Century was a particularly flamboyant period for fashion, especially in the French court of Versailles, which was the fashion capital of the day.

Cleopatra Eye Make-Up

The eye of Horus

The ancient Egyptians certainly knew how to create drama in the human form. Their striking profile images of black-haired, dark-eyed  figures clad in golden garb, snake and scarab amulets and extraordinary head-pieces are so powerful, they still resonate today. Egyptian influences can still be discerned in our decorative arts, fashion and make-up.

In the 1960s, the penchant for heavy eye emphasis and pale faces and lips echoed the drama of the darkly smudged eyes of the 1920s, which in turn took much of it's inspiration from ancient Egypt.

Red Matte Lipstick

Matte 40s lips

Luscious 1940s Lips
In old black and white films from the 1940s, women's lips often appear dark and smouldering, rather than dewy and glistening. This is because the Hollywood lip fashion for that era was for deep reds in a matte lipstick. The look was soft and sensuous, making the lips look like kissable red cushions.

Among the general population lipstick wearing had an ambiguous status. It was regarded as  adult and reflective of female sexuality and some regarded it with suspicion. Although the roaring 20s, Hollywood and Elizabeth Arden had done much to make coloured lips seem desirable, lipstick was still regarded as way too racy in some quarters, particularly among the older crowd who decried lipstick use on teenage girls. Nonetheless, despite the dire warnings that lipstick was a 'provocation to men', or perhaps because of it, there were still plenty of young women who rebelled and took the decadent plunge and painted their mouths in thick, matte, smudgy red hues.

Arched Eyebrows

Marlene Dietrich

The early  20th century penchant for highly stylized, arched eyebrows began in Hollywood in the 1930s. Brows were plucked into fine, high arched feminine lines and definition was pencilled in. 1920s brows had also been thinly plucked but were markedly straighter in design.

 The fine, high arch was a dramatic look, designed to emphasize the plains of a woman's face, even if at times, it did give the wearer a rather startled, unnatural appearance.

In the 40s the trend veered toward medium thickness and a more understated look -red lips, heavy on the schtick, rather than brows, were the defining facial characteristic of that era.

A young Joan Crawford in the 1930s

Getting Thicker

Joan Crawford's look reveals a  change of brow fashion

The cult of the arched eyebrow returned with a force in the mid 20th century, only this time with a dark heaviness reminiscent of the Egyptian Queens. However, while the fineness had disappeared, the high drama remained and the brows became strong personality statements, indicating feminine power and sexuality in a new way.

The change of styles can be seen clearly in actress Joan Crawford, who in the late 40s/50s chose a distinctly heavy, dark eyebrow arch - it certainly drew the eye, even threatening to overwhelm her facial features. In the 30s however, Joan had worn the classic Hollywood fine arches of the day.

In the 60s and 70s a more natural look was beginning to predominate. Interestingly, a 2007 study  revealed that younger people prefer lower placed eyebrows with a subtle arch, while those over fifty favour a high arch.


How to Arch your Eyebrows

Retro Hair and Makeup

Techniques for Applying the Vintage Makeup Look...

Fancy those dark, high arched eyebrows of the 1950s? The smouldering red lips of the 40s? 60s Twiggy eyes? Or maybe you've got a penchant for the vampish looks of the 1920s? If so, this could be the book for you.

Lauren Rennells, the author of Retro Makeup, has a passion for the stylistic influences of the past. Working in the film and photographic industry she freelances as a hair and makeup artist. Rennells shares her  professional techniques for recreating the makeup effects from the 20s through to the 60s, in a detailed, easy to follow format.

Interestingly, the widespread use of makeup really only occurred in the 20th century and the author  touches on why it gained acceptance during this particular century.

Vintage Hairstyling: Retro Styles with Step-by-Step Techniques 

Vintage Hairstyling, Lauren Rennell's companion book to Retro Makeup, offers a very simple, step by step guide to recreating those distinctive, very feminine hairstyles of the early and mid 20th century - beginning with the basics and working up to advanced styles.

All this is in a glossy 600 page quality book that features a fascinating collection of vintage period styles. The book also includes some interesting facts and tit bits about the history and origins of the various styles and and a rundown of the stars who made the styles universally popular.

1960s Makeup

1960s icon, Twiggy

The Eyes Have it

For most of the 1960s, makeup was an essential part of the mod look, with a heavy emphasis on the eyes. The effect was really an echo of the smoldering dark-eyed, dreamy look of the 1920s, only more so and minus the coloured lipstick. In the 60s, foundation was natural in colour and the lips pale. While it may seem bizarre, it wasn't unheard of for some girls to wear white zinc cream on their lips. The basics included:

• Foundation to cover blemishes and even out skin tone
• Optional blusher in pale pink or peachy tones, used sparingly
• Black eyeliner
• Lashings of mascara
• Neutral or pastel eyeshadow on the lid (blues and greens were popular)
• Dark eyeshadow in the crease
• Highlighter just under the brow
• Pale lipstick in baby pink, beigey pearl or silvery white

1920s "It" girl, Clara Bow.

 Popular brands of make-up in 60s youth culture included Mary Quant and in Australia, Prue Acton, who's distinctive yellow and black mascara tube was a big seller -some mascaras came in a cake form that required dampening with a wet brush and eyeliner was almost always in tricky liquid form, which required a steady hand..

Twiggy Eyes

Penelope Tree. Image by Avedon

The popularity of iconic, super-slim model, Twiggy in the second half of the decade led to a brief fashion for painted on fine-lined 'Twiggy' eyelashes, drawn with an eye pencil on the outer corners of the lower eye lids or in some cases, all the way along. Twiggy was something of a a visual contradiction...boyish in figure and hair yet ultra-feminine in her stylised, romantic eye makeup.

Essentially, the 60s look depended on drama and making an impact through the eyes - windows to the soul - rather than the traditional vivid lips and voluptuous hair and clothes of the previous decade.