Before Max Factor "helped" the lovely Ms. Crawford to a new look.
After.
Beauty experts of the 1940s regularly counseled women to take artistic license when it came to applying lipstick. Is your lower lip too "prominent"? One 1940 newspaper article profiled model and actress Eleanor Chandler, revealing her solution to this thorny problem:
First, she covers her lip a fraction of an inch when applying her cake foundation and then outlines the desired size with a lipstick pencil. Since Eleanor is a natural blonde, she finds a lipstick which is true red in color most flattering to her type. She spreads it to the very corners of her mouth thereby increasing its apparent width and further minimizing the fullness of her lower lip.
The St. Petersburg Times' Betty Clarke agreed, adding that "[a] thin upper lip can be made to look fuller by shaping mouth over natural line with darker lipstick and applying a lighter shade to lower lip." She also advised her readers in 1944 that if a mouth is too wide "it can be made to appear narrow by lipsticking center full, and tapering off gradually before it reaches the corners."
Despite all the enthusiasm, you occasionally come across a word of caution. In 1943, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Antoinette Donnelly slammed Joan Crawford and her "blob of enormous width and shapelessness" --- warning young women, in particular, that you could go horribly wrong once you started playing around with the natural shape of your mouth. "A passe performance that! Some go in for the 'sultry' lower lip insofar as it can be attained by lipstick loading."
I still feel a bit like I'm drawing on my lips even just by applying cosmetics to my natural lips. But I do have to admit that I felt a little naked this morning when I was halfway from my parking lot to the office and realized I'd forgotten to put on my lipstick before leaving the house! The washroom was my first stop... The more I get used to wearing lipstick, the longer it seems to last before needing to be reapplied. I was so self-conscious when I first started wearing it that I was always rubbing my lips together and running my tongue across my front teeth (just in case anything had rubbed off on 'em). I must have looked like a crazy woman! Now I can easily go through the morning without having to reapply until after eating lunch.
Are you an artist when it comes to lipstick - or do you stay inside the lines?
13 comments:
I tend to stay in the lines. I'm always afraid someone will notice if I go outside the lines, but I've always wanted to try.
me too...in the lines kinda gal.
I've never seen Joan Crawford before her look that we all know her by. To be honest I think she looked so much nicer before she went wild! LOL
I hate to wear lipstick so I don't wear any. If I do though, I wear a natural looking lip color and stay inside the lines.
I think the "drawing" in lips just looks like an old lady that couldn't see very well and went over board.
Hugs,
Joanne
I had seen that Rita Hayworth had drawn lipstick around her top lip to make her lips look fuller. I have a bigger lower lip as well, so I do the same thing only not as much I just use a little lip liner and then bring the lipstick up. I noticed that it balances out my face more.
I stay inside the lines.
I have lips like a chicken, so I wear a pale pink lipstick and I stay inside the lines. I feel like a drag queen when I try to 'plump' my lips by drawing outside the lines.
I must agree with Joanne Kennedy, I like the 'before' picture better.
I do wear lipstick but I stay inside the line. (o:
Amanda, the thrill of the dare...
Joanne and Mrs. Michele, I love Joan's look in the pre-siren era, too! And wouldn't the world be boring if we all had the same Angelina lips everybody seems to go nuts about these days. There are so many interestingly-shaped mouths.
CIRCLED_dolly, Marlene Dietrich occasionally sported some pretty poorly done lip artistry, too. You're a braver gal than me --- I'll wash my lipliner off and start all over again if I venture outside the lines!
sometimes i'll go outside my lip ine by a fraction of an inch... and just on one side to even them out a bit...
Another daredevil! :) Yes, symmetry is awfully nice...
I don't generally wear lipstick but if I did, I would have to stay away both from overdrawing and from those vintage oxblood shades! My mouth is both wide and relatively full--I think the Joan Crawford approach would leave me looking like Ronald McDonald.
The minimizing technique explained there is how the 1920's and 1930's created the "bee-stung" and "rosebud" lips. It wasn't a new idea in the 1940's.
LOL! I have to agree - Ronald McDonald is not a look to shoot for.
I always wear lipstick. I stay inside the lines as my lips are full. I wear lighter colors in the spring and summer and save the richer tones for autumn and winter. I have found only one way to keep my lipstick looking fresh all day even if I eat. I start with foundation over my lips followed by loose powder. I top that with my lipstick. Then I put a little loose powder on a tissue and pinch it between my lips onto my lipstick. Finally, I "rub" my lips together to let the last bits of powder soak in and I'm done. That lipstick won't go anywhere. Ever. Oh, I should say that I prefer a matte finish to my lipstick, I don't think it would work very well if you like a wet or super shiny look.
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