Hey Beauties!
Ever since Lisa Eldridge (makeup artist extraordinaire) announced that she wrote a book about makeup, I wanted to get my hands on. Fortunately, I got it for my birthday from my boyfriend. History is not my forte or even something that I like, but history of makeup is a whole other thing. I enjoyed reading this book and today I'll tell you a bit more about it and I'll also share with you my favorite thoughts and quotes from the book.
The book is divided into two sections. The first is The Ancient Palette and the second is The Business of Beauty. Ancient Palette talks about the first makeup products in Ancient Egypt up to the 20th century. It's divided into three themes: Red, White and Black. The Business of Beauty talks more about the fist beauty brand pioneers and how the beauty industry has evolved through the years. From home made recipes to ultra technologically designed makeup products for every need.
The book has a paper cover with artistically made up face. It looks like pigments were scattered all over the model's face. It has a simplistic, but powerful design. If you take off the paper cover it has the same image, but without the title. It's a hard cover, so the quality is great.
On the inside of the cover you'll find image with vintage makeup packaging. It's a stunner to look at and compare with today's packaging. Reading through this book, I realized that the first makeup products had even more luxurious packaging than some high end brands have now. Obviously high end brands still like to flaunt their intricate designs, but drugstore makeup is a lot more simplistic and it just reflect different era in my opinon.
On the last page or rather on the inside of the cover at the back, you'll find the opposite - modern day makeup products. The range includes high end, drugstore makeup as well as some from Asian market.
The book is easy to read and very intriguing. I especially like the side stories in each theme that tell you interesting stories about certain people or state interesting beauty facts. In between the chapters are also pages of Makeup Muses. Those are the famous women that inspired generations to copy their look and a lot of those are still quoted by today's celebrities as the ultimate beauty icons. These muses go from Nefertiti, Brigitte Bardot, Audrey Hepburn all the way to Madonna and Amy Winehouse.
I have to say one of my favorites from the book are stories of first beauty pioneers. It's a funny inside into the battles between brand pioneers and funny stories of how they came into the beauty business.
Now, let's see some of the thoughts and quotes that I really liked from this book. The first are facts from the Ancient Palette section. I would like to state that obviously the thoughts are not mine and that everything I write from now on is adopted by what Lisa Eldridge has written in her book.
Ancient Palette
Painting
our faces is as much part of a human nature as the need to eat and sleep.
Rouge
is the longest-standing makeup item in existence.
"Painting on
a red mouth has the uncanny knack of seeming to belong to antiquity and
tradition whilst simultaneously appearing decidedly modern and daring."
Egyptians,
who lived 10.000 BC, were most experimental and accepting of makeup. They used
moisturizer, khol, lip and cheek rouge as well as nail color.
Makeup was
most unexpected when women were the most oppressed.
In Ancient
Greece only courtesans, professional mistresses and prostitutes had more
freedom with makeup, although all women wore makeup.
Pompadour
Pink was the shade of blush named by Madame de Pompadour by Boucher (mistress of King Louis XV).
Women are
naturally paler than men. They have less hemoglobin, which is red pigment in
blood and less melanin, which is brown pigment in skin and hair, in their body. Women are
lighter during ovulation. Hair and skin is permanently darkened after the first
pregnancy.
One of the
first skin whiteners was rice powder in East Asia.
Renaissance
women asked physicians to put a leech behind each ear. This made their faces
paler. It was probably used as a pre-party routine.
The most
enduring product through the years is khol. Humans have
defined, protected and emphasized their eyes with black lines for thousands of
years.
Khol is
Egyptian invention and was worn by women and men.
At the end
of sixteenth and in seventeenth century black patches were popular. They could
be cut in desirable shapes like hearts. Placement of these patches had a
meaning. If you wore it on right cheek it meant you are married, if you wore it
on left, it meant you were engaged. If the patch was by the mouth you were up
for grabs and if it was by the corner of the eye, you were a mistress.
In Egypt
khol was used as medicine to protect the eyes from infection and strong
sunlight. In 2010 scientists proved that it was medicinal. They researched khol
from some grave.
In Japan,
China and south-east Asia they dyed their teeth black. It was considered
beautiful.
The Business of Beauty
"True
lovers of beauty do not attempt to paint the lily or add perfume to the rose;
but as rose and the lily need rain and sunshine to blossom forth in pristine
freshness and fragrance, so do we mortals require the little accessories of the
toilette to look our radiant best." - Advertisement
Skin care
was well represented, but not makeup. Even
companies like Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubenstein did not advertise the use
of makeup. Makeup ads started in the late 20s.
In the
beginning it was all about negative advertising. They were selling products to
women by playing on their insecurities. The advertising was overtly negative,
sexist and patronizing all from 20s to 60s.
One of the most interesting facts that I found out in this book is the fact that a lot of beauty pioneers were from Europe, but started their business in USA. Also, those that were not from Europe, lied about being from there as it meant that they were in a way superior or it helped their status as a beauty pioneer.
Here are some examples: Max Factor - Maksymilian
Faktorowicz from Poland, Helena
Rubenstein from Poland, Elizabeth Arden born in Toronto as Florence
Nightingale Graham, Estee
Lauder born as Josephine Esther Mentzer in Queens and Revlon - Charles
Revson born in Boston.
Max Factor
was the first to start manufacturing makeup on large scale for regular women.
Helena Rubenstein was less than five feet tall. Her famous mantra was:
“With the right pair of shoes a woman can conquer the world.”
Estee
Lauder's mother was
Hungarian and her father was Czech. The name Estee Lauder was suggestive of a
European Identity. In 1968 she launched Clinique the first dermatologist
tested, fragrance free cosmetic brand. It was a three step care routine. Estee
Lauder owns more than 25 companies among which are MAC Cosmetics, Bobbi Brown,
Aveda, Smashbox and Tom Ford Beauty.
Charles
Revson created Revlon. He created first opaque and
fast-drying nail polish with the help of editor Diane Vreeland, who gave him
the bottle of her nail polish from Europe. He pretty much owes his success to
her. Elizabeth
Arden and Helena Rubenstein hated Charles. Rubinstein called him "the nail man" and Arden called him "that man". It is said that Charles brought out a men's fragrance called That Man just to annoy her.
Charles saw Estee Lauder as his real
rival. He also painted his own nails to test it and went out like that to sell it. Revlon was
also the first to match lipstick with the nail polish color.
Makeup is
term from theater and comes out of phrase “making up”.
Gabrielle
Chanel: "Lipstick is a woman’s prime weapon of seduction."
Rosie the
Riviter was a wartime icon with her red lips. Women were encouraged to paint
their lips red to keep up the moral.
In 20s
women’s public bathrooms were known as “powder rooms”.
Max Factor
made first creamy version of foundation. Chanel made first tanning oil and
Revlon made the first kind of fake tan for legs called Leg Silk. The bronzer
came to the market as a way of adopting makeup to your tan.
Makeup
companies that started out in theaters:
- Bourjois - rice powder
- Leichman - stick greasepaint
- Kryolan - Kryolan is unique, because they’ve never discontinued colors. They still have recipes from all the colors and can reproduce it for you, if you wish to.
Makeup
companies that started out as perfume houses:
- Guerlain - one of the oldest perfumeries in the world
- Coty – now under Bourjois and are the market leader in creating affordable celebrity fragrances
- Lancome - (founder Armand Petitjean was executive at Coty). Lancome name was inspired by the Chateau de Lancosme and their rose logo represents roses that surround the ruins of chateau.
Makeup
companies that started out as couture houses:
- Chanel – packaging is key, chic branding, known for lipsticks and nail polishes (Rouge Noir shade)
- Dior – known for lipsticks
Some makeup
brands started out as toiletry giants They mostly started by producing soaps.
- Procter&Gamble - started selling soap. They own fragrance, beauty, hair and skin companies, including Max Factor.
- Boots - a household name in United Kingdom. It’s high street pharmacy chain and it started out as herbalist store. No.7 is their makeup range. They merged with Walgreens.
- L’Oreal - the world’s largest cosmetics company. It was started by Eugene Schuller. L’Oreal owns Vichy, Lancome, Body Shop, Helena Rubenstein, Maybelline, Urban Decay, Shu Uemura and YSL Beaute.
Some makeup
brands were founded by makeup artists:
- Shu Uemura - created first oil-based cleanser. It’s known for its eyelash curler.
- MAC (Make-up Art Cosmetics) - known for limited editions and huge range of products. It was bought by Estee Lauder.
- Bobbi Brown - was also bought by Estee Lauder. It’s one of the first brands to regularly use black models.
- Trish MvEvoy
- Laura Mercier
- Francois Nars
- Kevyn Aucoin
- Charlotte Tilbury
Trends are
technology led. Most of innovations come from Japan. Apart from glitter, all
makeup innovations are no less than 20 years old. Nowadays brands use synthetic
glitters and pigments, because they are more predictable.
Mica is
mineral and it’s a Latin work micare which means "to flash".
Glitter was
invented as a mistake. Henry Ruschmann was machinist and cattle rancher from
New Jersey. He was cutting colored plastic and created sparkled fragments. This
was in 1934. It is still the biggest manufacturer of glitter. Their slogan is:
“Our glitter covers the world.”
Use of
pearl in cosmetics was inspired by car industry and iridescent car paint. Very
fine satin-finish synthetic pearls are often used for highlighters, blushers
and foundations and they give subtle, glowing sheen. Next came pearl made from
glass particles called borosilicate glass. It had power of reflection. Glass
particles are coated with metallic silver and gold and act like a mirror. They
are used in lipsticks, eye shadows and eyeliners.
Silicone
came from medical industry. They used it to coat the instruments to ensure they
glide smoothly during operations.
Cosmetic-grade
silicone was first used in lipsticks to make them long-wearing. New lipsticks
are made using silicone oils with small level of plant oils. Silicone is also
used in foundations. It’s combined with oils and polymers for a flexible
mesh-like film on the skin. First to use this technology was Revlon Colorstay,
Lancome Teint Idole and L’Oreal Color Resist. These days they add more water for
freshness and thinner formula.
Makeup
today is about sexual attraction, instinct to produce and group identity. We
want to feel like we belong to out tribe.
Historian
Madeleine Marsh says: “The makeup business today is all about the quest for
perfection combined with ruthless commerce.”
Today
peer-to-peer recommendations are the most powerful impetus to buying a product
– forums, blogs, YouTube...
Makeup can
be bonding and confidence-boosting experience. Application can be relaxing and
fun.
“Makeup is what you make of it. It is a choice.” - Slater
Cosmetics
can be a means of empowerment, as long as we don’t confirm to just one ideal.
I really like Lisa Eldridge's though on make up. She said: “Ultimately, nothing empowers a woman more than the right to a good
education, and the freedom to choose whether to wear a red lip and smoky eye…or
not.”
I think I provided you with a lot of interesting facts and I absolutely loved this book. Apart from being well written and full of many interesting facts, it also has stunning photography. Some of historically famous persons, first makeup products and amazing modern makeup creations. It's my first beauty book and I think it's appropriate that it's by Lisa Eldridge. She is my favorite makeup artist, because she has a range of creating the most natural flattering makeup and also doing some very unique artistic cover makeup. Her vision of enhancing natural beauty fits well with my perception of how I think makeup should be used daily. Of course, you can go all out and crazy, but for the most women, makeup is a good tool to enhance their naturally pretty features and to feel empowered.
I'll leave you with this funny, but true, quote from the book.
