War time beauty = misery. Let’s count our blessings

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

we-can-do-it

Now if you think you’re less spendthrift than you used to be (due to the recession and all like) then you probably feel that you’re doing your best to:

use up products before you buy new ones
swap beauty products with friends or online
make an effort to look around for bargains

But I’m telling you we’ve got NOTHING on the ladies of wartime. Not only would you be terrified of the obvious things like (a) being killed (b) everyone you loved being killed (c) the total destruction of civilization as you knew it (d) Hitler invading etc; you’d also be worried about looking dreadful while it was all happening.

Because women weren’t allowed to let themselves go during WW2. Oh no. Part of the whole British stiff upper lip thing was also looking good - literally putting a brave face on things. And if a handsome GI with a carload of nylons was the only man to be cheered up by your wartime glamour… well a girl needs some fun in her life doesn’t she?

Women had on average TWO lipsticks to do them for the whole war. Lie down now and put a cold facecloth over your forehead.
Baths could only be filled to a maximum of five inches. Five inches - that wouldn’t even cover your knees. Bang goes luxuriating in a hot bath with lots of foamy soapy perfumed oil delights so. You would have been lucky to have any soap. And the air raid siren would probably have gone off the second you got into the bath.
Hair nets and hair scarves were de rigeur. Land Girls couldn’t have their hair caught up in the thresher and Factory Girls ran the risk of getting tangled in machinery. So the look was more Hilda Ogden than Veronica Lake
Face cream, hand lotion and every type of grease was rationed. Shampoo was in such short supply you’d be lucky to wash your hair once a week - so think dandruff and grease as being your look de jour.

How do you think you would have coped?

Tags: beauty history
Posted in Beaut.ienomics - brilliant budget buys, History of Beauty | 10 Comments »

Bananas Beauty Gadgets #40,000,000: Magic Toilets From Japan

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

Ok, Ok, calling a jacks a ‘beauty gadget’ is stretching it a tad, admittedly, but after a routine jaunt round YouTube the other day, I rediscovered the wonder that is Japanese toilets. I started with my usual search, ‘cute kittens’, and somehow ended up looking at videos of whizzy Asian loos. Yeah, not sure *quite* how that happened either, but I immediately wondered why I’ve never blogged about them.

Japanese toilets are BRILLIANT.

They open automatically, light up from within, fan/bathe your arse with warm air/water, adjust the heat of the seat at will and some even play music to soothe you while you, eh, you know. Do yer business. Some are fancier than others with wall panels and remotes, but even the meanest dive I was in in the land of the rising sun had a loo that could at least warm your rear to the temperature you prefer for optimum comfort.

The only bad thing about them is they’re frigging ugly, so won’t sit too well with your fancy bathroom suite, and the fact they’re wired to mains electricity means there’s a not insignificant proportion of arse-related fires in Japan each year. Yeow.

Tags: crazy beauty, Japan, youtube
Posted in Gadgets, Books & Accessories, History of Beauty | 3 Comments »

Good looking equals more money. Boffins find that genentic lottery is real lottery

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

istock_000002613151xsmall

Latest research proves that he must have stolen this money

This is my penultimate report on the findings that boffins have made recently. My ultimate one is coming on Friday. And when I say coming I mean … oh never mind.

In a discovery that has shaken my world from its axis and confounded everything I thought I knew about humankind, researchers have found that good looking people are more likely to earn more money. In fact being born with good looks is a bit like winning the Lotto. Not only are you more likely to be successful in job interviews, you’ll have more confidence in other areas of your life too and will find it easier to bag yourself a looker for a mate.

You’ll be beating them off with a stick and laughing all the way to the bank.

What do you think of these findings. Mind blowing aren’t they?

Tags: boffins, money, poll
Posted in Beauty News & Links, History of Beauty, Polls | 2 Comments »

Beautiful women have beautiful daughters: women becoming more gorgeous, men remaining plain

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

jerry hall-jade jagger

Boffins have made another startling discovery.

Beautiful women are more likely to have daughters than sons. Those daughters are genetically predisposed to be beautiful too. And beautiful women are more likely to have more childer than the general population - thus ensuring that they populate the earth with as much beauty as possible.

But there’s a sting in the tail of all this. Although women are evolving to become a super race of gorgeousness, men are not. Evolution has recognised that a man can look like any old yoke and still pick up a fine lady - so it’s not been necessary to evolve male looks from Neanderthal status.

I can see we’ll never hear the end of this from Beaut.ie Mammy. She has three daughters and no sons.

What do you think about these findings?

Image via popcrunch

Tags: beauty, boffins, evolution
Posted in Beauty News & Links, Here comes the science, History of Beauty | 19 Comments »

Pretty Packaging: The Evolution of Johnson’s Baby Lotion

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

johnson and johnson

One of the things I like so much about beauty is that it’s so multi-faceted. It’s not just about straight lotions and potions - cosmetics have back stories and manage to worm their way into all aspects of life and experience. There’s nearly always something interesting to ferret out about a product too: is there an interesting sourcing angle, do profits go to charity, is there some whizz-bang new technology involved, or - my favourite - does it have great packaging?

Hands up. I judge books by their cover and I’m not alone: Elizabeth Arden played on our love of pretty looking things with limited edition pot and tube designs for Eight Hour Cream and brands like Benefit, Bliss and Soap and Glory exploit our love of retro-cuteness and quirky, clever slogans and branding.

Through the post recently came a promotional bottle of Johnson’s Baby Lotion, a product I don’t think about from one end of the year to the other. This bottle though, came in a really nice pink box and one look at it confirmed that if it went on shelves as is, you lot would all buy it for the sheer quirk-factor alone. Unfortunately, it was a press sample, but it worked in that it got me thinking about the incarnation of the brand.

That made me go back and check out their old bottles. Arguably, the brand image hasn’t changed a whole lot since the 70s, but look at the jump they made from the 40s - it looks like a completely different product. And I have to say, I’m loving it. In fact, I’d even buy it.

The campaign to get J&J to retro-ise Johnson’s Baby Lotion starts here - who’s with me?

Tags: history, Johnson & Johnson, packaging
Posted in Beaut.ienomics - brilliant budget buys, History of Beauty | 11 Comments »

Forget Lauder’s “Lipstick Index”, the Foundation Index is where it’s at!

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

lipsticks

In straitened economic times, lipstick’s historically been the one fashion or beauty product that women will consistently spend their sheckles on. Leonard Lauder, chairmain of Estée Lauder, coined the term “lipstick index” which is a somewhat kooky economic indicator to describe the phenomenon of soaring lipsticks sale as an economy goes down the tubes, with women opting for the cheap, quick, feel-good, pick-me-up fix that a slick of lip colour provides. During the Second World War, lipstick was actually marketed as the product that would help women to “put on a brave face”.

This hasn’t held true for the current big R, however: we’re going back to base(ics). Yep, according to research conducted by L’Oreal in the UK, the perfect foundation has taken lipstick’s place as the must-have beauty product for women under 60, with foundation sales up hugely in both the UK and US in 2008 while lipstick sales were on the slide.

Makes sense, I think, if you do have a few quid to play around with to put it towards an everyday workhorse product that you’ll get tons of use out of. What do you reckon?

Tags: budget, economics, foundation, lipstick, recession
Posted in Bases, Foundations & Concealers, Beauty News & Links, Eyes, Lips and Cheeks, History of Beauty | 16 Comments »

Aveda’s Ancient Attar Symbolises Love on Valentine’s Day

Friday, February 13th, 2009

aveda

While Valentine’s day is nice in sentiment, in reality, it’s a holiday that’s shrouded in crass commerciality and has lost its appeal for many. So that’s one reason I haven’t really written much about it in the run-up this year - I can’t muster the enthusiasm.

There is one product though that I think would be lovely gift to give or get on the 14th, and that’s Aveda’s new Ancient Attar, €75. Created from that eternal symbol of love, the rose, it’s a present that would be thoughtful for that reason alone. But there’s another excellent reason to buy - this product is born in Bulgaria and symbolises respect for the land, its workers and their human rights, and truly, I’d rather buy into that than a bunch of hothouse blooms.

Scent-wise, it’s not for all. It is a warm, strong, earthy and heady rose fragrance that lingers for hours and is tempered with sandalwood and neroli. It has a spiciness due to cinnamon that gets washed down onto the rose fields during the spring rains, and that helps to mark it out as a unique scent. If you’re an oceanic, sugary or citrus gal, you may pass, but I love its full-bodiedness.

To find out more about Aveda’s committment to the love of the land and their respect for ethical production practices, check after the cut.

(more…)

Tags: attar, Aveda, bulgaria, ethical, organic, rose
Posted in Ethical & Organic Beauty, History of Beauty, Lotions, Potions & Scent | 6 Comments »

Justified and Ancient: Eygptian beauty secrets

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

We’re all caught up with the excitement of the new beauty treats and potions that are arriving for 2009. But we’d do well to remember that people have been beautifying themselves for thousands of years. Yes, lovely as we are, people were lovely before us. What were they using? And did their preparations work?

Lets have a leetle look at the ancient Egyptians who were mad into the whole beauty business.

Eyeliner
It was they, not Amy Winehouse, who invented the whole thick as you like eyeliner craze. Guyliner was all the rage and men painted on the thickest, darkest kohl they could lay their hands on. Kohl was made from malachite or soot.

Green eyebrows
The Ancient ones went two tone with the colour of their Kohl. To be hip to the groove and down with the kids you had to know which colours went where. Quite difficult to tell this from pyramid paintings, so I’d imagine papyrus copies of Ancient Looks were circulated to let everyone know. Green kohl went on the eyebrows and in the corner of the eyes. Deepest black was used liberally to line the eyes and depending on what was in fashion could be used to colour in the whole area from eyebrows to nose.

Hair today…
Excess hair was out. Egyptians were crazy into tweezing and shaving, and while they didn’t have Mach 3s or Tweezermans, they were pretty fastidious about their defuzzing routines. Men were only permitted to have a skinny moustache or a teeny goatee. Women weren’t permitted to have either.

Perfume
Flower petals were crushed and layered with caster oil or fat and then smeared all over oneself in order to camouflage the disgusting odour of one’s unwashed body. ‘Tutenkhamuns L’eau de Toilette: the pong of the pyramids‘ was particularly popular

Hair goo
For special occasions only. Greasy perfume cones were made out of the fatty flower mixture and affixed to the top of the head. As the evening wore on and the dancin got a bit frantic (around Come on Eileen time) the cones would start to melt and drip down over the face, neck and shoulders in order to perfume their wearer. To keep oneself greasy and stinky, the cones were replaced throughout the night. Yummy times two!

Lipstick, tattoos, wigs, hair braiding, body lotions and oils were all a necessary part of life down on the banks of the Nile. It’s amazing really how little has changed isn’t it?

Tags: egyptian, secrets
Posted in History of Beauty | 14 Comments »

It rubs the lotion on its skin. Yet more creepy beauty from the vaults of time

Tuesday, October 7th, 2008

electric mask for miladys face

When I first saw this invention from 1933 I thought - aieeeee - that looks terrible.

I especially didn’t like the cut of the slightly sinister Dr Brueck (from Vienna natch) administering the treatment. God forgive me but I can imagine him hiding someone down in a basement for a good few years. His beaky nose hides his smile - but what else could he be concealing? A daughter and four inbred children in the cellar?

Milady views the world through holes cut where eyes should be and breathes through a tube.

Phew! I thought. At least it didn’t catch on

But then I got to thinking. Some of the modern treatments we subject ourselves to are equally freaky. Microdermabrasion and Botox - to say nothing of actual facelifts and chemical peels. Even eyelash curlers look like implements of torture. And what about the time C3PO gave Kirstie a facial?

What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever done in the name of beauty or wellbeing?

Tags: antiageing, face mask, scary
Posted in Anti-ageing, Gadgets, Books & Accessories, History of Beauty | 12 Comments »

08/08/08: Retro Advertising from Elizabeth Arden

Friday, August 8th, 2008

Ah, why don’t they make ads like this anymore, eh? Funny, narrative and faintly silly, it whoops the ass off the airbrushed beauty spots we’re all used to flicking past in glossy mags. All hail old-fashioned promos - here’s one extolling the virtues of Eight Hour Cream in the race to impress the soon-to-be mother in law (and if this doesn’t deserve a spot in our ‘how to’ category, why I don’t know what does!)

eight hour cream ad