Fifties Glamour With Max Factor
- In the 1950s colour films made an enormous impact on cosmetics. The huge cinema screens illuminated the unblemished appearance of stars and caused the make up artist Max Factor to invent an everyday version of the foundation he used called “Pan Cake”. This was a makeup to gloss over skin imperfections. He also brought out a range of eye shadows and lipsticks. Later in the 50s titanium was added to tone down the brightness of products and this resulted in lips with a pale shimmering gleam. The idea was extended to create frosted nail varnishes of pink, silver and a host of other colours.
The Fifties Look - Spectacles and Hair
- One unexpected facial accessory of 50s was spectacles. Frequently these were inlaid with diamante or scattered glitter dust. The exaggerated wings at the outer corners flared in the style of butterfly wings. In the early 50s the ponytail was a popular youthful hairstyle and it matured into the French pleat. For the more sophisticated a permanent wave in the styles then favoured by Elizabeth Taylor and the young Queen Elizabeth II were universally worn. As products such as hair lacquer sprays came into general use it was easily possible for ordinary women to create more and more complex hairstyles of height. By the late 50s outrageous backcombed bouffants, beehives, and French pleats led the way for the intricate coiled hairstyles of the 1960s.
1960s Make-Up
- In the late 50s the make up company Gala had introduced pale shimmering lipsticks with added titanium. Later Max Factor brought out a colour called Strawberry Meringue which was a pastel pearly pink. They really caught on in the sixties as young girls were frowned upon if they wore brazen red lips, so the softened pink and peach colours were acceptable initially to parents, but then became a trend.
- Magazines taught step by step how to use recently introduced lip brushes and young girls began to blend and mix their own lip colours often having first blotted the lips out with Max Factor Pancake make up. Nail polish followed a similar trend with pastel pearl colours being the rage.
- Eyes were a main focus and once the film Cleopatra was released showing Elizabeth Taylor with very emphasised eyes everyone learnt to apply eyeliner and socket lines. The models Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy (Leslie Hornby) along with the actress Julie Christie all with their lined eye sockets captured the look that said Sixties Chick with chic.
Cosmetics by Mary Quant
- Quant brought out a range of great and affordable cosmetics in up to the minute formulations with innovative cheek contour shaders and highlighters.
- She encouraged users to use make up brushes to apply eyeliner and blusher to achieve the hollow cheek, wide eyed look of the model Twiggy. It really was the best make up to use then if you wanted to get the look just so, as it contained information leaflets with diagrams of positions for the blush shading and highlighting which was all very new at the time to ordinary mortals.
- Many of the items she designed bore the Quant daisy logo. Vidal Sassoon gave Quant a new equally fashionable haircut that defined one particular 60's look and spawned many variations.
1970s Natural Look
- A natural look was important in the mid and late seventies. Eyeliner and painted on eyelashes all became passé and softer looks were fashionable. In the early seventies eyes sometimes had white highlighter on the brow and sometimes soft coloured eye shadows were used around the eyes in a way that had been used for eyeliner. Pearlised liquid eyeshadows were a new innovation and a similar product was promoted in 2001. Very long eyelashes were still desirable. Loose powder went out of fashion and foundations worn alone gave a sheer effect. Lip liner was all the rage.
1980s Make-Up
- Make up came back in fashion. I t was quite a natural lighter look, but in truth strong red lips which matched the many tomato red jackets which abounded were not very natural. Make up was quite defined to match power dressing, but the main feature was the emphasis put on skin care, anti ageing and beauty treatments or therapy. Skin cancer became talked about and a big issue was to tan or not to tan. Many people spent hours under sun beds. Fake tans were improved and bronzing gels and bronzing face powder beads were popular.
- A favourite product of the era was Clarins' Beauty Flash instant facial pick me up.
- Hair was almost more important than make up. Hair was big and blousy and uplifted with mousse in true Dynasty and Dallas style.
1990s Skin Care
- Yves St Laurent launched his famous Touché Éclat which became a must in many women's handbag. New lighter face skin foundations seemed to be announced every month and the end of the decade saw some very good foundations emerge in the marketplace.
- Companies like Marks & Spencer launched great skincare and make up ranges to suit the pockets of everyone. More importantly some of the items they sell can be easily bought from their internet site worldwide and delivered anywhere in the UK.
2000+ Max Factor's Lipfinity
- Staying power of lipsticks improved. In 2000 the Max Factor company launched the Lipfinity lipstick range which consisted of two products. The sticky lipstick is painted onto the lips and allowed to dry for 1 to 4 minutes depending on the amount used. Then the product is sealed with a special separate lip gloss. This wonderful product when correctly applied stays on the lips through normal eating and drinking and even light kissing and dentistry for up to 8 hours.
- Only a really greasy cream cake, a heavy steak or oily sauce can dissolve it. But you must apply the gloss coating at least once for this to work well. To keep it looking fresh and glistening it just needs a retouch with the gloss through the day. Those tempted to reapply the colour without cleansing it off first will find that makes it bitty. If you need to change the colour in the day then carry some Neutrogena face wipes with you as they dissolve it well.
- If fine lines around the mouth with lipstick runs are your problem this lipstick will transform your life. Be warned it does have a different texture to standard lipsticks and it does take about 3 or 4 days to get used to it. But you'll never see a smear on a cup again. My favourite colours in the original colours which would suit an ash blonde are 110, 120 and 140 in the red range, 40 and 46 in the pinks and, 50 and 80 in the mauve berry tones. All colours can be mixed on the lips when wet during application so it is possible to make your favourite colour.