Beauty: 1940s Lip Tutorial

April 27, 20162 Comments

Full Out with feeling

I think every time I try a new lipstick style for this series I’m going to end up saying “okay, I think I like this one most.”, because that’s what came to mind with this style, and I realized I said that about the 1930s lip last week. I guess I’m kind of a fickle pickle, but this style feels a bit more bold (and I like bold) with it’s overdrawn, full shape and punchy red colour…more fun and less reserved, in my opinion.

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1940s lips were all about reds, “all the reds”, as us Internet-y 90s Millennial babies would say. The shade of red was up to the gal, but the one thing all 40s lips had in common was they were loud and luscious. If your lips fell a little short in the plump department (hi me), you just had to draw a bit outside your natural lip line and in no time you were joining the ranks of Angelina Jolie lips everywhere (she wasn’t alive yet, but you get it.)

-WHAT I USED-
Lip pencil: Ruby Woo by MAC | Lipstick: So Chaud by MAC

Larkspur Vintage | Beauty: 1940s Lip Tutorial 1. I’ve said this for every one now, but, get a lip pencil. It will help immensely because we are drawing outside our natural lip line…unless of course you already have full lips. But even still, pencils just make everything more clean. The lip is horizontally elongated and we focus less on the “heart shape” lip look.
-drawing outside your natural lip line, start at your cupid’s bow and create a very slight indent between the two peaks
-bring your lines out to meet your lower lip, maintaining a rounded shape all the way down. It should look a bit like a crescent, more similar to the shape you’d see on a lower lip.
Larkspur Vintage | Beauty: 1940s Lip Tutorial 2. Elongated and round is the look of the lower lip. Should be real easy to achieve
-drawing outside your natural lip line, start at the centre of your lip, creating an elongated U shape that meets your upper line.3. Grab your lipstick and clean it all up. Hide that lip liner and get those lips looking as punchy and plump as you’d like. Larkspur Vintage | Beauty: 1940s Lip Tutorial And that’s it! Big, beautiful, in your face lips!

What do you guys think? A preferred lip shape yet? 20s, 30s or 40s?

Shirt: thrifted vintage | Bracelet c/o The Shine Project

Beauty: 1930s Lip Tutorial

April 18, 2016Leave a comment

and the world goes round

Continuing on with our lipstick styles from decades past, lets say hello to the 1930s lip. Not a far cry from the I previously shared, but definitely a few nuances to note. I think I prefer this style to the 1920s, however, I don’t love overdrawing my lips, which this style definitely does. However, it makes for a shape I didn’t even know my lips could achieve, so that’s neat and worth trying out just to see how it changes up your look.

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The art of women’s makeup took off in the 30s and started to feel like a statement; makeup was how women embraced their femininity. The style was much more refined and influenced by Hollywood, as some stars became household names and magazines were inspiring women with their colour and flare. Lips during this time were full, elongated and overdrawn.

-WHAT I USED-

Lip pencil: Follow Your Heart by MAC | Lipstick: Dubonnet by MAC | Lip gloss: Bert’s Bees (sorry, can’t remember the shade)

Larkspur Vintage | Beauty: 1930s Lip Tutorial 1. A lip pencil is key for me when putting on a red lip, and to achieve this particular look I think it’s pretty essential. We’ll need to overdraw the upper lip, so having something with more precision will help you (unless you are magical, in which case, teach me!). Note that the upper lip is horizontally elongated, while still being shapely.
-starting at the cupid’s bow, draw to rounded peaks that begin to stretch outward, like an elongated heart shape
-bring your outline toward the corners of your mouth, while maintaining a slight curve that cascades down.
I like to think of this shape as a crescent, only it comes into a peak at the centre.
Larkspur Vintage | Beauty: 1930s Lip Tutorial 2. The bottom lip is round, but like the top lip, elongated. This lower lip should be super easy to draw.
-starting at the centre of the lip, draw a shallow crescent outline reaching both corners and meeting your upper lip line; you could almost get the exact shape you want by pressing your upper lip down onto your lower lip and creating an imprint.
your lips should look like they have been stretched out, but not cartoonishly so.
Larkspur Vintage | Beauty: 1930s Lip Tutorial 3. The fun part, fillin’ em in! For this one I also used Dubonnet by MAC since berry shades were popular at this time (although in the later 30s, orange shades became a thing, much to my delight). Be sure to start covering your outline and cleaning up any shaky bits with your lipstick. Larkspur Vintage | Beauty: 1930s Lip Tutorial 4. When learning about this lip style, I noted many images of women with a bit of gloss on their lower lip, right in the centre. I liked the idea of recreating that look, so I used my Bert’s Bees red gloss that has a bit shimmer and applied it right to the centre of my lower lip. This is not a necessary step, but I personally like it. Larkspur Vintage | Beauty: 1930s Lip Tutorial And voila, you are looking 1930s glamorous in almost no time at all!

So, do you think you’ll give it a go? Which style is your favourite so far? 20s or 30s?

Beauty: 1920s Lip Tutorial

February 25, 2016February 25, 201610 Comments

embracing LITTLE LIPS

Lately I’ve been investigating (ie., reading up on) different lipstick styles from decades past and thought it might be fun to share a few tutorials with you. First up is the 1920s lip, one near and dear to my heart, being a little lipped lady myself.

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After the war – and to help recover from the horrors of it – many women began to assert their feminine power through makeup. There was this feminine ideal of being young and beautiful (sound familiar? A problematic ideal women of today are constantly fighting against, but it is a good example of how far back our obsession with youth and beauty is rooted) and that very much showed up in the style of makeup. I’m not going to breakdown the entire makeup look of this era however (although maybe at some point), just lippy lips for today. It’s actually quite easy to achieve, just a few key pointers before we start – bolder lipped ladies may need to downplay their lips and the ladies like me with tiny shapeless upper lips…well you might actually have to overdraw your cupid’s bow. Here we go, cuties!

– WHAT I USED –

Lip pencil: Follow Your Heart by MAC | Lipstick: Dubonnet by MAC and 01 by Kate Moss

Larkspur Vintage | Beauty: 1920s Lip Tutorial 1. I pretty well always use a lip pencil to outline my lips before lipstick (a v much like precision), but regardless of my habits, I really believe a lip pencil is helpful in achieving this look, at least at first. 1920s lips are all about the cupid’s bow shape and not everyone has such a defined lip shape, so a pencil is v helpful in creating this look.
– using your lip pencil, starting where your peaks meet, outline your lips creating two rounded peaks
– cascade the liner down and under-draw where your natural lip begins to flare out.
– flare the liner out in the corners of your mouth ever so slightly.
I like to think of the squiggle emoji or a cartoon cowboy hat (ya, I don’t know) when doing this. Or if we are separating the lip hemispheres, like a slide.
Larkspur Vintage | Beauty: 1920s Lip Tutorial 2. The bottom lip has a very rounded shape, like a wide U and like the upper lip, needs to be under-drawn at the sides. The upper and lower lip should match up, so keep that in mind when under-drawing.
– starting from the corners of the mouth, outline the lower lip beginning with a slight flare similar to the upper and bring it down, beginning to round
– bring the two sides to meet, creating a rounded u-shape, and the peak of your lower lip should descend ever so slightly, creating that doll-like pout
I like to think of a 2D smile (or stick man smile) shape when drawing this outline.
Larkspur Vintage | Beauty: 1920s Lip Tutorial 3. Now the easy part! Filling in those lips. I used Dubbonet by MAC first, which is a creamy deep berry shade and fairly glossy (perfect for this era) and on top of that, very lightly brushing 01 by Kate Moss – which is a traditional matte red – over the base, which creates nice depth to the lips.
This is when you can clean things up, hide that outline and allow the lipstick to create a more rounded shape at each peak. Larkspur Vintage | Beauty: 1920s Lip Tutorial Et voila! Not too hard, right? I think this lip style is not too over the top (like it’s counter-part, 1930s lip can often be), and could be worn any time.

So what do you guys think? Will you give it a go?

Skirt & Blouse: vintage

Beauty / 60s Makeup

July 2, 20152 Comments

It was only a matter of time before I decided to share a 60s makeup look. It’s honestly a bit more eye makeup than what I’m used to wearing, but it really reminds me of the makeup I used to do back in my goth days. I don’t know what it is about this very Twiggy-esque look, but it makes you want to pull all kinds of silly facial expressions…mostly surprised and sad ones. Maybe it’s the drawn on lower lashes that make the eyes so expressive, which makes the rest of your face want to follow suit… anyway, I dare you to try this look and not make a silly face, it’s impossible.
Shirt & hat: vintage; Shorts: F21 (similar, similar); Bow tie: handmadeGET THE LOOK
– start by priming your lids, then apply white or cream coloured shadow to your top lid; I used this primer and this shadow palette
– using a liner pencil, draw a black line all the way along your crease, from the very inner corner to the outer, making it as pronounced as you like. then with a black shadow fill out the crease and blend so you create a softer smokey eye; I used a shadow from the same palette above
– using a liquid liner make a cat-eye and join it to your crease at the end; i used this liquid liner
– with a black pencil liner draw singular lashes on your bottom lid, fanning outward, just the way your natural lashes do
-apply mascara and curl those lashes with a lash curler and then add even more mascara. if you want to get extra crazy, you could add fake eyelashes to enhance the look; I used this mascara
– apply a nude or light lip colour; I used a combination of this lipstick (in shade 14) and this gloss (in apricot pucker)

*see more of my beauty posts here.

Beauty / 1930s Makeup

June 3, 2015June 3, 20156 Comments

I’m fairly familiar with 60s makeup, but I have never really given styles from other eras a go, so when I found this image of a 1930s look, I thought it would be the perfect inspiration for this post. This look is made up of thin, somewhat rounded eyebrows – which I will admit was difficult and not as good as they could have been because my eyebrows are on the thick side – dark eyeshadow, plenty of eyeliner, blush galore and red lips with some dark shading. Overall, I really enjoyed this look and I’ll probably wear it more regularly now. I am however a bit disappointed with the lighting in these photos. I almost wanted to re-shoot these when I was editing them, but for once, I didn’t let my perfectionism get the better of me. It’s just unfortunate because the lighting washed out one side of my face, making the blush look less pronounced on the one side. Now more than ever I am wanting to get proper lights for when I shoot images like this. But, c’est la vie, for now. You get the idea and I hope I can inspire you to recreate this look yourself.GET THE LOOK
1. Start by applying your usual foundation, concelear and powder routine – I used Bourjois 123 Perfect foundation, Rimmel Wake Me Up concealer and MAC Studio Fix powder in NW15
2. Using an eyebrow pencil, followup the natural shape of your brow, giving them a thin, rounded shape (as best you can, for those who have thick brows) – I used Marcelle pencil in Blondine
3. Highlight under your brows with a light eyeshadow (ie, white, cream) and blend. Apply a grey or black shadow to the lid, blending throughout, giving a subtle smoky eye and make sure to apply some to your bottom lid – I used Revlon Illuminance Cream Shadow for a highlight under my brows and I mixed a brown and purple shadow for my lids
4. Apply black pencil eyeliner to your top and bottom waterlines, and then apply your mascara to only the top lashes – I used L’Oreal Telescopic Shocking Extensions Mascara
5. Add plenty of blush to your upper cheek bones, quite close to your under eyes. This is the most pronounced part of the look, so don’t be skimpy on that blush – I used Revlon blusher in Melon-Drama
6. For the lips, using your brightest red, outline your lips with a lip liner and then fill in with your red lipstick. Now, to achieve the dark look in the corners of the mouth, apply a tiny bit of black eyeliner pencil to the corners and blend it into your red lipstick with your finger – I used MAC So Chaud lipstick and liner
7. I did not use any bronzer for contouring, so instead I used a face highlighter down my nose, on my forehead and chin to lighten my face up a bit. – I used Revlon Photoready Skinlights face illuminator in 200 Pink Light