Coloring outside the Lines

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?

From Apple Red to Apple Blossom

I've been continuing my completely unscientific survey of 1940s lipstick colors by reviewing some of the newspaper articles written up on that topic by beauty experts of the day. It's interesting to see how trends in color changed over the decade. A woman's page columnist from the St. Petersburg Times offered up this spring forecast on February 4, 1940:

Evidently, this spring no woman will be well dressed without at least four shades of lipstick: pure red red, a blue red, brown red, and an especially dramatic lipstick to give that "different" look.

There were some bold new colors out there in the spring of 1940 that fit the bill for women seeking a dramatic look. One particularly "heavy, dark red" was so dark the lipstick was named Black! The fascination developing in all things south-of-the-border had also led to a popular new lip color termed "South American red":

Fashions, dances, music–and now makeup–go South American! The makeup is designed to give your face the exotic vibrant quality that’s demanded by the new South American clothes. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 4, 1940)

A March 1941 article in a Florida paper warned women that the methods they used to apply lipstick would be especially important as these dramatic new colors continued to gain in popularity. "Caution in the use of lipstick becomes more important as shades go more South American, Indian and militantly red." The advice on application is strikingly similar to some of the tips women share with each other today!

Mildred Coles, motion picture actress, offers this lipstick fashion formula to check against: Begin by cleaning the lips of lipstick applied previously… Use lipstick before public appearances unless you have become proficient with a lip pencil or brush. If you use a brush for outline, then fill in with lipstick… For lovelier lips, Mildred Coles uses brush to apply lipstick to the corners of her mouth. To achieve a natural effect, blot off excess lipstick by biting piece of cleansing tissue.

Men shopping for St. Valentine's Day gifts in 1942 were urged to choose an "apple red if she’s the fresh out-of-doors type, red velvet if she’s a glamor girl, or any of the other brilliant reds designed to flatter every type of woman." As women began worrying that the war would bring about a shortage in lipsticks - many of the oils and waxes used in these and other cosmetics were imports - Betty Clarke, AP Newsfeatures Beauty Editor, advised them to focus on the four most important colors: "a honey-like yellow-red, a bright red, a dark red and a rosy red with an undertone of blue." And, by all means, learn how to apply your lipstick with a brush:

It lasts longer on you and it looks lovelier. Moreover, it means you can use the last little dab of lipstick in the case and conservation in cosmetics won't do any harm.

According to an article on college coeds, the girls were going in for a "brilliant rascal red lipstick" in September 1942. Two years later, one beauty expert proclaimed a "bright cherry shade" was the most versatile of colors for the lips. By the end of the decade, though, color trends for lipstick were opening up, with rosy pinks creating the greatest buzz. Contrast the early '40s chorus of accolades for red lips to these articles forecasting the latest colors for Spring 1949:

• Typical of new lipstick pinks is one which translates the deepest pink shade of the apple blossom into rouge. Makeup of this soft coloring is designed to accent the pink fashions so prevalent for spring... ("Pink Cosmetics Accent New Togs," The Evening Independent, April 30, 1949)
  


• Spring costume colors such as taupe, beige, gray and navy, amber, copper and spice brown can all be flattered with a warm lipstick shade that borrows its color from the rose geranium or other spring flowers. ("Spring Lipsticks Warm in Color, Not Dark Smears," The Evening-Independent, May 19, 1949)

What I've been finding myself about wearing red lipstick is that it totally ups the ante for the rest of my appearance. It makes me worry about whether my teeth are as white as they should be --- and so the Jitterbug bathroom cabinet is now stocked with an extra whitening toothpaste. Red lipstick also makes me want to do something about my eyebrows. And my eye lashes are positively screaming for some mascara to live up to the red lips! Who knew one cosmetic could be such an engine for change...

Patriot Red

As I got nearer and nearer to this lipstick step in my 1946 grooming routine, I started doing a little research. Here's my question: Was red truly the hottest color of the '40s when it came to lipstick? I mean, I know we see a lot of red lips in modern movies set in that era and on WWII reenactors - but I've always wondered if that was true to reality. So I set forth on a completely unscientific survey using vintage lipstick advertisements for sale on eBay...

My completely unscientific results? Red was hot, hot, hot - it was all over the place! In fact, I think I only came across two or three ads (out of about 40) for non-red lipsticks. And they were in the deep pink family. There were all kinds of reds, from brown reds to clear reds to blue reds. And - most wonderfully - lots of lipsticks christened with names evocative of the times, like Patriot Red, All Clear Red, Furlough Red, Mrs. Miniver Rose, and Victory Red. How could a gal resist?

I embarked on several trips to the cosmetics aisle and came away every time overwhelmed by all the choices. How to pick the right red for me? I may have taken the easy way out, but I finally settled on a shade by Almay called "Red." Plain ol' Red. It's probably what you'd call a true red - without any undertones. And a matching lipliner.

I've had lipstick issues since I was about 22 and worked for a woman who always had some garish color smeared across her lips. (She used to try and match her lipstick to her brightly colored blazers.) Well, the lipstick usually ended up on her teeth --- and I've had an aversion to it ever since. Nothing brighter for me than a shaded lip gloss on special occasions. Needless to say, I had no idea how people would react today to my new lips. Here's the rundown:

Co-worker #1: "Ooh, pretty lipstick!"

Co-worker #2: "You're wearing lipstick? Fancy-schmancy."

Co-worker #3: "Look at your lips!" *kissing sounds*

Co-worker #4: "You've lost weight."

Well, I have lost 4 lbs. That's official as of this morning. I'm back down to 190, and that's after about six days without any ice cream or frozen dairy treats. Connection? You tell me... What's funny is that I could've sworn the lipstick made my face look a little fatter than normal when I left the house this morning. Maybe I was wrong!

Week Twenty-seven: The Mission

It's not entirely a mystery why I lost two lbs. a couple of weeks ago and promptly gained it back. It did take me a few days to sort out what must've happened, but I think I've narrowed things down. The week before last, my freezer was stocked with Drumsticks. You know the kind I'm talking about - those tasty, nutty morsels of chocolatey-caramelly goodness. The week before that, nary a Drumstick in sight. I was trying to be "good" that particular week by buying Fudgsicles instead. The one-stick kind. Could this minor change in frozen dairy treats be the reason my workouts actually had a chance at doing their job? I think so. I can easily eat two or three Drumsticks in a sitting, whereas the Fudgsicles weren't as satisfying so the box was around for awhile.

This is one of the not-so-pretty realities of life 50 lbs. past a healthy body weight. When no holds are barred when it comes to cravings. I've had a Drumstick habit off and on for about two years. Well, no more! NO MORE!!! I declare my independence from ice cream this very day! The ice cream is gone, the Drumsticks are gone, the Fudgsicles are gone, the Blue Bell Chocolate Cherry Bars are gone... This is my July 4, 1776!

Fitness
Walk 30 minutes a day, four times during the week.
Walk 50 minutes a day, both days during the weekend.

Reducing
Ice cream: I love you, but you done me wrong. Ice cream and frozen dairy treats of any kind are herewith banished from the Jitterbug household.

Grooming
Here's the next step in the 1946 morning grooming routine. After drinking a glass of water, brushing your teeth, washing your face, and powdering your nose, you're to dress up your lips with a coat of lipstick.

Put on some bright, pretty lipstick, making the edges neat and blotting away the excess.

The ice cream thing is going to be excruciating, but I'm a bit nervous about the lipstick, too. Can I pull it off without looking like a clown? We'll see...