The Icing on the Cake

Hello again, my wonderful readers! I hope you enjoyed last weeks article about brows and liner; this week we’ll be discussing the icing on the cake, if you will: Lipstick!

Lip color and shape are perhaps the easiest, most memorable ways to achieve a vintage look. Mouths were very defined, painted in luscious, eye-catching shades, and each era had its own distinct shape for the mouth. In the 1920s, bee-stung lips were all the rage, and came about due to the products available at the time. Slippery and with little staying power, the best way to ensure that your lipstick wasn’t a smeary mess in a very short time was to apply three thumb prints of color—a dot in the center of the lower lip, and two dots of color of the upper lip. The effect created was also known as the cupid’s bow, and the 20s mouth is very doll-like indeed. As the 30s rolled around, the desired shape became full and elongated, with the top lip exaggerated into the style known as the “cruller” or “Crawford Smear” . The overdrawing of the mouth stayed with us into the 40s, though during this time the lips were less exaggerated, with more of a natural fullness. And in the 1950s, women continued to exaggerate their top lips, moving away from the rounded look popular in earlier eras, and instead drawing the cupid’s bow into a pointed shape.

Now, when it comes to color, red is always a popular vintage choice across the decades. But don’t feel as if you are limited here—the red shade category is vast, with a color to suit everyone! Reds run the gamut from cool to warm and soft to bright; you may need to try several shades to find the one that best suits you, but this is a challenge worth undertaking. As a cool-toned, fair blonde, I favor bright blue or true red shades to add oomph and a pop of contrast. Warm-toned complexions will do well to try warmer, orange-based shades, or those with a brown base. If you have trouble with red lipsticks pulling a quick-change act and turning a less-than-desired fuchsia tone, you might try experimenting with a brown-based brick tone, as these may pull a truer red shade when paired with your chemistry.

Color trends by the era varied—orange tones, deep reds, deep brownish reds, and plums in the 1920s; light rose, raspberry, and Chinese red in the 30s, cherry red, crimson, vermillion in the 40s, along with raspberry, light red, and reddish orange shades for more natural looks; and in the 50s, everything from light pinks, bright pinks, various reds, and coral and pink-orange tones. As you can see, red is not the only shade to choose from—pinks and corals are always quite suitable for a vintage face, as are softer rosy shades, shocking pink, and bright corals are all good options to look for.

When wearing red, lip liner is a must to define the shape of your mouth and help prevent the lipstick from straying as well. Application with a lip brush also helps ensure a smooth, even application. To balance the face, one can carefully sculpt her mouth according to her face shape; makeup artist J. Del Russo advised women in Charm Magazine to carefully make up their lips, like so:

The Long Face—Outline the lips using a brush; beginning at the outer corner of the upper lip, draw a line toward the center. Then repeat the process from the opposite corner. Eliminate any point at the cupid’s bow, as this will only tend to elongate the face. Now, staying within the natural lip line, outline the bottom lip and fill in the outline. For a more generous and rounder looking mouth, it Is often advisable to build up the size of the upper lip slightly, and it is most important to accentuate the corners.

The Round Face—In the round face shape, correct application of lip rouge is all important. Follow the directions for outlining the lips as given above, but in the round face technique, accent the cupid’s bow. In drawing the lower lip, take care to “square” the outline and you achieve this by drawing a firm out curving line from the corners to the center of the lip in a sort of reverse cupid’s bow. This squaring does wonders for eliminating the roundness of the jawline.

The Oval Face—Brush as directed for the long face—but follow the natural lip line and draw the corners of the mouth clearly so that the full natural curves are enhanced.

Favorite reds of mine include MAC Ruby Woo, Russian Red, and Dubonnet; Besame Red, Cherry Red, and Red Velvet; Revlon Cherries in the Snow, Fire and Ice, Love That Red, and Really Red. For day-to-day wear (and for many of my shoots), I am also a fan of a liquid lip color made by Lip Ink; this indelible product looks like a traditional lipstick, but won’t smear, bleed, or transfer to your glass or beau. It’s the bees knees, for sure! Lip Ink Red is quite similar to MAC Ruby Woo; other colors of interest include the brick shade Lava Red (similar to MAC Dubonnet) and the orangey Fire Red (similar to Revlon Fire and Ice.)

And there you have it—a guide to making up your vintage face from start to finish! Stay tuned for another exciting makeup article next week!

xoxo,
Amanda Lee