1950s step-by-step photo tutorial for applying eye make-up

✯ Day 337 of Vintage 365 ✯

It's a safe bet to say that the majority of us have at least a decent handle on how to apply eye makeup, especially given the emphasis on that particular facial feature that certain vintage looks call for (hello, cat's eye eyeliner!).

Some of us are old pros, others relatively confident in their abilities but not quite as resolute in their skills as they hope to be one day, whereas there is certainly a percentage of vintage make-up fans who are just starting out with learning how to apply old school cosmetic looks on themselves.

No matter where you fall on the spectrum, it's likely that you'll enjoy the instructional set of black and white photographs in today's post, which show the precise techniques used (on this model at least) back in 1950 to achieve a strikingly elegant, endlessly classic lined eye look.

{Dramatic, but certainly not overpoweringly so, and richly beautiful vintage eye make-up tutorial from the pages of a 1950 copy of Life magazine. Image via Van Michelle on Flickr.}

 

In this particular step-by-step guide we're taken through the five stages of achieving a striking early fifties make-up look, which include shadow, pencil (eyeliner), lower lid, and eyebrow, cumulating in a finished, polished face that is as timeless as the day is long.

I always delight in vintage make-up and hairstyle tutorials like this, whether I'm merely observing them as a fan of the past or taking detailed notes so that I can recreate the same style myself later on.

It’s always such a treat to chance upon vintage images like this and get a chance see exactly what products were used, as well as what steps were taken, to achieve the very mid-twentieth century make-up looks that I adore (as so many of you do, too) and emulate most myself.

Taking a look at classic Maybelline eye make-up products

✯ Day 314 of Vintage 365 ✯

 

Veering away, generally speaking, from the usual order in which most people apply their make-up, once my moisturizer (and primer, if using) are applied, I head straight for my eyes.

It's always been that way, for as far back as I can remember (and given that I was 14 going on 15 when I was permitted to start wearing makeup, I can recall those early days of high school cosmetics pretty well). Before foundation, powder, highlighter, blush (which, to be honest, given the natural rosiness of my cheeks I don't wear all that often), or anything to do with my lips I attend to my eye make-up routine first.

I begin with my brows (plucking any stray hairs and filling them in, as they've always been naturally sparse), curl my eyelashes, do my eye shadow followed by eyeliner, and lastly mascara. At the point, though I do like a "full face" (as my mom and I have always called it), I feel sufficiently made up enough so that if I suddenly had to answer the door or bolt out at the spur of the moment, I'd feel like I had my war paint (so to speak) on.

In fact (assuming I had a good moisturizer already), if you made me pick just three make-up items to take with me to a desert island, without giving it a second thought, I'd reach for black eyeliner and mascara, paired with a tube of MAC's Russian Red lipstick.

Perhaps it's because we get to use our lids like tiny artist's canvases that I start on that part of my face here first. Sure, one can play around with their lips, but rarely (sans costume make-up) does a person wear more than one distinct colour on their lips at the same time.

With our eyes we can play it safe and stick with classic neutral shades or create whole rainbows of multi-coloured shadow or liner, if so desired. We can fatten our lashes, or even apply false one's if what nature and the cosmetics counter provided us with just isn't doing the trick.

I'm a big fan of make-up brushes, especially for eye make-up (though having one each specifically for foundation and powder is very great, too), and while the ones I use are modern, they really haven't changed all that much of the past few decades.

Take for example the lovely vintage Maybelline ad from 1960 pictured below. Here one sees a selection of make-up products and applicators that (excluding perhaps cream mascara and its accompanying brush - though these can still be found and are really quite fun to work with if you get the opportunity) still appears in most of our cosmetic bags today.

{So very chic and beautifully elegant, the makeup products in this wonderful vintage Maybelline ad will never go out of style. Image via CapricornOneVintage on Flick.}

 

Like many gals, I enjoy playing with make-up and have a range of products in my trusty (train style) case, but at the end of the day (or more accurately, the start of the day), I do generally reach for the same beloved items that help give me my beloved 1940s/50s looks in a flash, every one of which appears (albeit in more modern packaging) in this charming vintage ad.

Whether you're also a fan of starting with your eyes, or work your way up there a little later on during your routine, it's hard not to enjoy timeless images like this that show you exactly what the ladies whose looks we so admire and emulate were lining their vanity tops with during the most glamorous years of the twentieth century.