What classfies a typical 20s, 30's,40s, and 50s face?

[Tinseltown]

I am not posting a pic... but my eyes are fairly big, I have long lashes, lips similar to Kate Winslet (hers are a tiny bit wider tho).. My forehead is quite large...I have semi high cheekbones and the widest part of my face is across the top of my cheekbones.. My cheeks are kinda chubby. My nose isn't huge but nor petit eaither.
Hmmm what decade do you think my face belongs in??

And what classifies the different decades? Please post pics of actresses etc if you can.

 

[Lady Day]

**Moved thread**

Great topic, but I put it in beauty cause it had nothing to do with clothing.

Also check out the sticky there may be some good info there too.

LD

 

[Shearer]

Well, it's kinda hard to say since makeup can have such a big effect. You're lucky to have big beautiful eyes, which they really played up in the 20s and 30s (especially with the thin, high eyebrows.)

Dietrich had great cheekbones, and always tried to be lit from above when she was on set to show them off to full advantage.

And you can always count yourself lucky to have a larger forehead... when Rita Hayworth first became an actress, the studio thought her hairline was too low and made her get electrolysis to give her a higher forehead

I had a great website with faces from the 20s and 40s and of course I can't find it... I'll do a little searching and see if it doesn't pop up.

 

[Kimberly]

Here is a cool link I found for 1920's makeup.

http://www.return2style.de/swingstyle/makeup/20amimup.html

1930's

http://www.return2style.de/swingstyle/makeup/30amimup.html

1940's

http://www.return2style.de/swingstyle/makeup/40amimup.html

 

[Miss Neecerie]

See, my opinion is...that people of all face types existed in each era. They made due with makeup to emulate the 'look' of the time.

The links that Kimberly posted are great ones for general ideas of each era.

But humanity is so varied that there is always someone who cannot even approach looking like the 'starlets' of any one era. Those folks just marched to their own beat anyhow.....so I tend to say, do whatever looks good and matches your face.

 

[Shearer]

Here is a cool link I found for 1920's makeup.

http://www.return2style.de/swingstyle/makeup/20amimup.html

1930's

http://www.return2style.de/swingstyle/makeup/30amimup.html

1940's

http://www.return2style.de/swingstyle/makeup/40amimup.html

Yay, Kimberly! That's exactly the one I was looking for! I knew it was German or French :eusa_clap

Here's a website that's actually for hairstyles, but each decade has TONS of pictures of actresses: http://www.lphouse.com/1920s.htm I've started you off in the 20s, but you can go to the bottom of the page, click home and select the decade you want.

 

[jitterbugdoll]

I think the decades are best defined by two features--the mouth and brows. These features can be accentuated as needed, but some were lucky enough to have born with the 'perfect' look for each decade and needed less beauty help to ‘correct’ the features they were given.

For example, the 1920s focused on a small, rosebud shaped mouth and brows that were thin and fairly straight or downward sloping.

The 1930s shifted towards a wider mouth and high, round, thin brows.

The 1940s countered with more of an 'all American,' natural look--full, slightly overdrawn mouth, and more natural, but still defined brows.

 

[mysterygal]

there's a great book that I just recently came across called 'vanity rules'. This book goes back into colonial times all up until modern. This is one of the few books that makes everything VERY interesting..it incorporates history and even tells how some of the commonly used words we used today first originated...like the 'powder room'...I guess it wasn't a room for ladies but it started when men wore wigs. At one point it was fashionable to powder the wigs, so they had a room set up just for that.
Anyways, it's good reading

 

[Goodie2Shoes]

I say we all came from someone who existed in these great eras therefore we all have the face! It's just perfecting the "look" makeup makeup makeup....I'm looking into the perfect "overdrawn" lip. I think this is definitely like Jitterbug said one of the biggest things along with the brows. For whatever reason the rest of their makeup doesn't stand out to me..anyone else agree?

 

[Paisley]

One important factor is facial expression. I think that's one thing that causes some people who are done up in vintage to look "done up." In the Golden Era, it was important, I think, not to look like a sad sack. Later, a lot of women affected a tough look. Now, the tragically hip look, complete with a slouch, is in.

 

[Pink Dahlia]

Great links, Kimberly!

 

[mysterygal]

I say we all came from someone who existed in these great eras therefore we all have the face! It's just perfecting the "look" makeup makeup makeup....I'm looking into the perfect "overdrawn" lip. I think this is definitely like Jitterbug said one of the biggest things along with the brows. For whatever reason the rest of their makeup doesn't stand out to me..anyone else agree?

In some books, the look of the 40's, women seemed to wear more make-up than modern days. Maybe it's just where you live, but around here, make-up looks very natural (or a lot of times it's just none at all!).
I see a lot of eye shadow colors too that I don't see too often anymore, like the color blue.

 

[Tourbillion]

I think that the face of each era is largely dependent on who the popular actresses were at the time. If you are trying to figure out your best decade ask yourself this: who do you think you look like? Also, how do you want to wear your hair? Short bob, medium and curly, fancy rolls, long and straight with bangs, etc?

The other ladies have talked about the eyebrows and lips, and they are correct. Just to add, 50's Eyebrows are thick and somewhat artificial arches, look at Marilyn Monroe or Liz Taylor for examples.

Anyway, most (nice) women didn't wear much makeup in the 20's - 40's, unless it was a special occasion. A little eyebrow pencil and powder was about it, lipstick if you were going out. Actresses wore a lot of makeup, but then they were considered risque and normal women wearing that much makeup were considered "cheap" looking.

You could wear a lot of makeup to go to a club in the city, but think about this. What do you think of girls today who wear 13 shades of bright eyeshadow, dark blush, bright lipstick a ton of mascara, sparkle powder and bhindis? I'm thinking, "wow she looks really classy" isn't the first thing that pops into most people's heads. Do you think that women 30 years from now who are doing 2007 makeup will understand when it is appropriate to wear glitter? I'm thinking no, they'll think there were ads for blue glitter lip gloss in Jane magazine, so it must be standard day wear for 2007.

When flappers started wearing full makeup it was shocking. Normal women started wearing more makeup in the 50's, and in the era from 1920-1960 women who wore makeup used a lot brighter colors than is normal today. Nude lipstick and delicate colors didn't start until the 60's.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Some very good points here about what everyday women wore compared to actresses/magazine models. It reminds me of some films I was looking at recently, some color footage shot in my hometown in the early fifties of local folks coming and going about their daily business. These are all very ordinary working-class people, with most of the women being housewives, and it's interesting that almost none of them seem to be wearing *any* makeup, and those that are don't seem to be wearing much more than lipstick. Interestingly, it's the older women, those who appear to be 40 and up, who are most likely to be sporting lipstick -- while the younger gals seem less so. The teenagers who show up are, without exception, makeup free.

This is just one small New England town, and hardly enough evidence to make broad statements on, but it does perhaps reflect a small slice of reality that the glamour media shots generally overlook.

 

[jitterbugdoll]

As per the question posed at the beginning of this thread, we are not really discussing appropriate color choices, and what 'nice' women versus actresses of the day were wearing. The question is what features were considered to be the most popular in our favorite eras. Yes, women have come in all shapes and looks throughout time, but whether we like it or not, certain looks come into and out of vogue over the years. Some of these features were indeed shaped by the cosmetics available; for example, bee stung lips were a result of the high slip factor of lipsticks in the 1920s. Starting with a smaller mouth shape meant that your lipstick would not smear as badly as the evening went on. But, certain looks had a hold in the various decades— the exotic vamp of the 1920s, the apple-cheeked girl-next-door of the 1940s, the bedroom-eyed sexpot of the 1950s. This is where makeup came into play—to achieve the thick, pointed brows of the 1950s meant that some women had to color their brows in with pencil. And the wide, full mouth of the 40s meant that women with smaller mouths had to overdraw their lip line with lipstick. The best way to go about deciphering the ‘look’ of each era is to study the stars of the time—these were the women who had the look, at least according to the movie studios and the adoring public. Even today, women emulate the popular movie stars—we copy their hairstyles, makeup, and clothing. One can even examine the illustrations on clothing patterns, as they reflected the desired look of the time, both in facial features and figures as well, and even resembled popular actresses on occasion.

I’ll finish by saying that I do meet people who have the looks of other eras. I have seen women who looked straight out of the 1920s (with little round mouths and big round eyes), just as I consider my own face to be very much the face of the 1940s (round cheeks and full mouth), instead of one that fits into an earlier era (or even today).