Makeup Tips from Milady Circa 1939

Makeup

47. For what purposes is makeup applied?
The purpose of applying makeup to the face, neck, arms and hands is to improve the personal appearance, by emphasizing the good points of these body structures.

48. What is of prime importance in giving a makeup?
The first thing a cosmetician must consider is the purity of the product she is to use. Pure cosmetics are beneficial to the skin. They give it the necessary protection from the elements on the weather.

49. Explain in detail the application of rouge to the face.
Rouge is applied with small absorbent cotton pledgets which are discarded after a single using. The most popular forms of rouge are liquid and paste. The placing of the rouge as well as the amount used is controlled largely by the contour of the face. The rouge is applied to the center of the cheek and spread over the area which gives the most becoming appearance to the face.
By the clever use of high lights and shadows, the nose can be made to appear longer or shorter, the face broadened or narrowed, the eyes enlarged, and so on. A round or flat cheek, or a high or less prominent cheek bone, should each have its separate treatment.
The ideally proportioned face is equally divided lengthwise into three units, measured by the length of the nose from its beginning between the eyebrows to the lowest point at the end of the nose. The space between the inner corners of the eyes should be the width of an eye.
To achieve an illusion of this perfection, rouge and powder are skillfully blended.
If the face is broad, it can be narrowed by spreading the rouge toward the nose, and shading it back so that only the faintest flush covers the cheek bones. If the face is long and narrow, the rule is reversed, and the heaviest coloring kept well back on the cheek.
Powder is chosen to blend harmoniously with the shade of the skin. Complexions are classed as fair or olive, with due regard for sallow skins which are indicative of systematic disorders. Powder is applied with cotton, and blended carefully, not forgetting the throat and neck. Here, too, the illusion of decreased size can be given to a prominent nose by using very little powder.

50. Give several suggestions in applying lip rouge.
While lip rouge comes in both stick and paste form, for sanitary reasons the stick is not used in beauty shops. A very small quantity of the paste is taken with the blunt end of an orangewood stick, and applied to the center of the lips. There is no agent for the blending of lip rouge so effective as the cushion of the little finger. For this reason, it is usually applied by the patron herself. As with the other cosmetics mentioned, lip rouge lends itself admirably to the creation of pleasing illusions of perfection in features. To decrease the apparent size of the mouth, the rouge is used principally in the center of the lips. Excessive thickness or thinness of the lips can be corrected by rouging a narrow or deeper line.