Magazine of Yore: More’s Beauty Spreads Bring Tears to Eyes

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

more beauty page

Big thanks to Babaduck for YouSendit-ing a whopper of a file to me recently: a perfectly PDF’d copy of More magazine from 1990. Not so much a product of yore as a magazine of yore, eh?

Now, 1990 doesn’t really seem that long ago to me, but er, it’s actually 20 years. Yikes. And how things have changed – I mean, look at the state of that makeup! It’s a wonder, looking back, that my big love of beauty was based on gick-looking products like that: teenagers these days don’t know they’re born, wha?

Want to see a few more revolting-looking products and ads from back in the day? Check after the cut!

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Tags: horrible beauty, magazine, Products of yore
Posted in History of Beauty | 35 Comments »

Daring eyeshadow combo sported at teen disco: the joy of first wearing makeup in public

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

I remember distinctly the first time I wore makeup in public. I was twelve and going to a school disco.

The makeup consisted of an old cast off Cover Girl eyeshadow duo of Beaut.ie Mammy’s containing the dis-gusting and totally unflattering combo of lemon yellow and navy blue. So yes I must have applied what looked like a bruise to my eyes. I had no mascara, so vaseline was used to spike my lashes.

And that was it! Ready in seconds I put on my new batwing sweater (well it was the eighties) and went downstairs to be greeted with stifled laughter and raised eyebrows.

“Are you wearing makeup?” asked Beaut.ie Dad – more in surprise than disapproval. I attempted to look as though I knew not what he could possibly mean.

“Ah leave her” said Beaut.ie Mammy. “Sure a bit of eyeshadow never hurt anyone”.

Readers I was the envy of my friends.

I have no idea what actually happened at the disco – lots of unrequited crushing I would imagine – but I’ll never forget that first act of makeup wearing outside of the dress up box. Do you remember your first time?

Tags: horrible beauty, teenage kicks
Posted in Eyes, Lips and Cheeks, History of Beauty | 60 Comments »

Top Job: Introducing the Wand Wizard

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

Chatting to Garnier and Maybelline’s brand manager this morning about all manner of innovation, hard science and naturally enough, mascara, he casually dropped it into the conversation that the L’Oreal group have a dedicated member of staff whose sole job is creating mascara brushes.

And you know what he is called?

Yes, that’s right, ladies. He’s called the Wand Wizard.

Poor kindly brand manager man had no idea how batshit I would go at this news.

“The Wand Wizard!” I shrieked, almost spitting out my peppermint tea, for such throes of excitement I was in, “no BLEEDIN’ WAY!”

Yes bleedin’ way.

The Wand Wizard sits bedecked in robes (I’m sure this is true) high in a Parisian chateau (probably), concocting – using magic, witchcraft (perhaps…) and new-fangled science and plastic (definitely) – brand new and fancy mascara wands, all the better for us to embellish our peepers.

I was enchanted. There is no other word for it.

And so I knew I must tell thee all of my discovery – toot sweet. After all, Beaut.ie is a blog obsessed with all things mascara, from the best brush types to the newest innovations. To a beauty lover, this is like the ultimate proof that God exists. Look – he’s in Paris, playing with plastic. RIGHT NOW.

So, while the Holy Grail search for the perfect mascara never ends, now at least we know we have a powerful force for good on our side.

All hail the Wand Wizard.

Tags: amazing, holy grail, mascara, Maybelline
Posted in Here comes the science, History of Beauty | 50 Comments »

Style crush: Mad Men

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

It’s not only Don Draper who has our hearts all aflutter (well it is mostly Don Draper to be honest)

It’s the gorgeous ladies and the gorgeous dresses and shoes and makeup and hair. I would kill to have Betty’s wardrobe and Joanie’s sassiness. And most of all CURVES.

Yes these are honest to god real women and they look absolutely divine. I have a bit of a thing for vintage jewelery and every time I watch this I am transported with joy. The little rhinestone chokers with the pearls and the big cocktail rings… mmm.

Everything on the set is authentic – from the wallpaper in the Drapers kitchen and the scotch that is drunk so liberally at every opportunity to the copious amounts of unfiltered cigarettes and the real Jessica Rabbit curves of the laydees. They’re not allowed to tone up – because women at that time wouldn’t have. Jesus this is sounding better and better. Yes on the downside the hangovers must have been vicious plus obviously there is dreadful inequality. Forget the glass ceiling – there’s a concrete one.

But the question we want to ask today is: who is your Mad Men Crush?

Tags: don draper, girl crush, mad men, Polls
Posted in Celebrity Watch, History of Beauty, Polls | 27 Comments »

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 »