1950AD – 1959AD
Women wearing make-up in the 1950’s wasn’t just about attracting men, it was to stay as ‘eye candy’ when they were married too. During this era, lots of beauty brands took off, such as Elizabeth Arden, they sold luxury make-up and skincare. Boots re-launched their No.7 range which was re-designed and packaged into gold and black containers to represent Hollywood glamour.
Skincare:
Skincare was just as big a seller as make-up. The 1950’s was the start of the ‘teenager’, the group of people who had disposable income, so products were targeted especially for them, such as acne products.
Make-up:
Make-up fashion was still based on Hollywood stars, and now TV stars, the upper and middle-class city women would tend to follow the trends. However women from lower-class or suburban places would usually wear their make-up in a natural way. Max Factor was still inventing make-up, such as concealer in 1954, called “Erase”.
Pale skin was still highly fashionable, although foundations tended to be warm in colour with a pink or peach base. They came in liquid, crème and cake formulas, with the Max Factor ‘Pan-cake’ being the most popular. After applying foundation, they would press in powder with a puff to set it, then dust away the excess with a powder brush or cotton pad, they liked the matte look.
Rouge wasn’t a big thing in the make-up look, sometimes to add a bit of warmth to the face by blending it around the temples and forehead, also to contour the face to make it as much of an oval shape as possible.
Eyebrows were pencilled in to give them a strong angled look. It was fashionable to have thicker brows that tapered out at the ends whilst looking feminine.
Pastels were in and the array of colours for eye shadows and eyeliners were getting bigger and bigger, such as, black, brown, grey, blue, green and purple. Most women would match their eye colour to their eye shadow, though it would be matched with their outfit too. A simple wash of one simple colour on the upper eyelid, applied with a fingertip and could be blended slightly outwards to create a winged look. The main eyeliner look was a flick on the upper lash line, this started in the late 40’s with a little flick, then by the mid-50’s it had turned into a full cat-eye.
‘Kurlash’ re-designed their eye lash curler to have a cushion on it so it wouldn’t hurt. Mascara with a wand had been invented and came in mainly black or brown, although it was available in navy, emerald green and violet!
Red lips were a must for the 1950’s, with so many different shades of red available, pinks and corals were also now around. The first long-lasting lipstick was available in 1950. It was fashionable to draw on lip liner so lips were equal sizes on top and bottom. After application, lips were blotted and reapplied and set with some face powder. Lipstick was a matte finish, though if a glossy look was wanted they would add a little Vaseline.
Hair:
Women still went to the hair salon each week to get their hair washed and re-set, though typically, 1950’s styles were a lot easier and quicker to create. Many new haircuts came about, such as the ‘bubble cut’, which would have many women getting a perm with the ‘permanent wave machine’. Then there was the ‘soft bob’ which was shaped around the face with volume on the sides, great for wearing a hat. Short fringes cut about an inch above the eyebrows, then ‘Pixie cuts’ came about in 1953 after Audrey Hepburn had hers cut for the film, ‘Roman Holiday’.
For longer hair there was the ‘Poodle’, which was tight curls piled on top of the head, ‘Victory rolls’ were still around, ‘the horse tail’ (pony tail) was a popular style for teenage and young women, it was curled under and elastic bands covered with ribbon or a clip. They would also use hair scarves, headbands and bandanas, by 1955, flowers in the hair were highly fashionable.
Hair colouring was on a rise with 3% of women reported to have used colour. Henna was popular for a copper/auburn colour, other hair dyes contained a lot of harsh chemicals so best used by professionals, such as bleach blonde made popular by Marilyn Monroe. Semi-permanent colours were available for women to use at home that would be very subtle colour. By the mid-50’s there was a trend for unnatural coloured hair such as blue, purple, pink, yellow and green! There were even coloured fake hair pieces that could be pinned or glued into the hair.
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