Avon Lady – Rouge and Lipstick Tips 1939

Vintage Make-up rules on eve of the 1940s –

Avon, a name synonymous with the beauty regimes of millions of American women from the 1920s up to the 1960s. Avon Ladies bought the company beauty products and sold them on their own time to their neighbors, often giving beauty demonstrations too.

We present to you some vintage rouge tips and lipstick tips for your face and mouth shapes.

The iconic Ding Dong – Avon Calling adverts came along in the 1950s, helping cement the popularity of Avon’s makeup and perfume products. This tutorial comes from a much earlier Avon beauty manual from 1939.

Avon-Makeup-Tips-1939

Rouge Tips for your Face Shape

The foremost purpose of using rouge is to give a delicate bloom to the skin. While clever tricks can overcome facial faults, rouge applied worn correctly does much for a woman’s face.

Avon-Makeup-rouge tips-1939
Avon-Makeup-rouge tips-1939 – Rouge

The Round Face: A face that is too fat and round is the bane of many a girl. But you can help yourself by applying your rouge so that your face will appear longer and less wide. Rouge is applied on the exact centers of the cheeks.

Take care that rouge isn’t placed close to the nose, however, for this gives the effect of crowded features. Emphasize the “middle path” for rouge. Carry the rouge lightly downward so that the eye follows the rouge and the illusion of length and bony cheekbones is created.

When Cheeks are Flat: On some faces the nose is broad and flat, and cheekbones are flat, so that the face presents an almost flat surface. On these faces rouge can give the illusion of gently curving cheeks, and of cheekbones.

Begin with the point where the cheekbones naturally should be prominent, and paint in a softly rounded cheek. Cover all of the center area of the cheek with color, which has its strongest point on the cheekbones.

If Cheeks are Hollow: Just the reverse of flat cheeks are the too-high cheekbones with the cheeks falling into hollows under them. A thin face is very apt to have marked hollows.

The hollows show up most when the rouge is worn high on the cheekbones, and the hollows are allowed to drop back into shadow. Make the cheekbone the dominant rouge point, but shade the rouge lightly downward over the hollows to a line even with the mouth.

When facial contours droop: The drooping contour – cheeks that slip down to form little punches along the jaw – is found on older faces. The problem is to lead the eye away from the offending jowls so there must be no break in color from cheekbones to the gentle fading out at the jawline.

The rouge is brought much lower than on any other type of face. Lack of color on the lower part of the face causes a break between the rouged area and the jawline that calls attention to the jowls.

Original downloadable vintage makeup guides.

1950s lipstick tips

Lipstick Tips

It is a tendency for teens to overdo the use of lipstick, and of many women in their forties and fifties not to wear enough.

Whatever your age – use the exact same gauge for choosing lipsticks and follow the same rules for applying them.

Avon-Makeup-Tips-1939 - Lipstick tips for your mouth shape
Avon-Makeup-Tips-1939 – Lipstick for your mouth shape
  • Apply lipstick freely enough that the lips are well covered. Lips should be clean, smooth and dry.
  • Spread lipstick out by pressing the lips together or by using a fingertip.
  • Apply more lipstick if you need it to cover uneven places. Cover well and have a clear-cut, even line all around the outer edges.
  • Let the lipstick remain a few minutes for this gives it a chance to “set”. Then blot by putting a double fold of tissue between lips and pressing them firmly over it.
  • For many women – use of the tissue is the last step of lipstick application. If anyone has difficulty in keeping lipstick in place, powder the lips lightly as the fifth step.
  • Then moisten the lips a little with the tongue. Lipstick applied in this way will remain fresh and beautiful for hours.

Further Tips for Pretty Lips

Avon-Makeup-Tips-1939 - pretty lips
Avon-Makeup-Tips-1939 – pretty lips

Remodeling your mouth is possible since the genius of chemistry has created lasting lipsticks. Are your lips too full?.

The touch the color well inside the mouth line, and let it become fainter as it reaches the outer edges of the lips.

If one lip is much fuller than the other, use the color more heavily on the outer edge of the thin lip.

When the face is too thin, and too narrow, rouge quite heavily to the very edges. Occasionally we see lips entirely reshaped by using lipstick pencil to draw a new outline. The average woman should confine shaping the mouth to the clever use of lipstick itself on the lips.

That’s all !
©Glamourdaze 2018

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