Maybelline's three quick 1950s tricks to eye beauty

It might sound strange to say that a week which begun on a holiday (Victoria Day) feels like it's been a long one, yet it has it. You know how the end of the month can be, as various issues that had been accumulating over the past three or four weeks suddenly seem to collide, each one needing to be addressed, and you find yourself more than a little tuckered out - akin in a way to the infamous "I need a vacation after my vacation" feeling that sometimes crops up as a holiday wraps up.

Fridays however, are meant to be light and fun, and free of the shackles of both the work week and life's pressing demands, in general, and so on that note, I thought I'd sure something quick and fun with you today: a great vintage Maybelline cosmetics ad from 1954 that highlights three quick tips to eye beauty.

 
{Charmingly pretty illustrated 1950s Maybelline ad via Van Michelle on Flickr.}

 

If - like me - you wear cat's eyeliner and eyebrow pencil, you'll likely find these three steps very familiar. I like how in the third step, after applying mascara, it's suggested that one "blends a bit of Maybelline eye shadow into the upper lid", thus creating a subtle smoky effect, long before the term smoky eye came into play.

While few of us still use mascara that comes in a compact and is applied with a separate brush (though a small handful of brands - such as Longcils Boncza Cosmetique Cake Mascara still exist), overall these three steps have remained unchanged for decades now, and are are still about the quickest, easiest way to give your lovely peepers an instant 1950s look that exudes glamorous beauty.

While I'm no stranger to a bold lip, I've always adored focusing on my eyes when doing my make-up, and begin with them when applying my daily cosmetics. I start with soft (white, ivory, beige and/or soft pink) eye shadow, then much as in this ad, apply eyeliner, eyebrow pencil (my natural brows are incredibly sparse and so pale they're almost invisible), and mascara.

For my eyeliner and mascara, I generally opt for classic black. My eyebrow pencil is a warm reddish brown that was actually designed to be an eyeliner (Cover Girl Chestnut 212), but which I find glides on easily and stays puts for the whole day better than most of the products designed specifically for eyebrows that I've tried (many, interestingly enough, of which actually bothered my sensitive skin).

Though these three tricks from Maybelline are scarcely secrets, I always enjoy seeing precisely how ladies of the past applied their cosmetics, and thought that as as a nice way to kick off the last Friday in May, you would, too. Do these steps differ much from how you apply your own eye makeup, or are they pretty much identical?

I hope that no matter what kind of week - and month - you've had, sweet dears, each of you will be able to enjoy as weekend that's every bit as beautiful as a classic mid-1950s eye is!

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.