What Was The Goal Of Makeup In The 1920s

The Surprising History of Confront Powder

June 27, 2018

Our Beauty P.I. serial is where Makeup.com editor Alanna delves into the history of diverse makeup products — where they originated and how they've evolved. Next upwards on the list is the conception of face powder.

Equally far as skin credence is concerned, we've come a long way. Today, we wear our skin on our sleeve (and so to speak): whether information technology's imperfect, discolored, bumpy or annihilation in betwixt. We embrace our dazzler for what information technology is, and fifty-fifty if we dearest a neat foundation or setting powder, we're learning that nosotros don't accept to utilise these makeup tools to hide our blemishes and "flaws." But it hasn't always been this way. Baring your face *au naturale* is far from what our OG ancestors saw as cute: But a silky smooth complexion would practise. While face powder is one of our favorite products, its past is rooted in more hiding than we're proud of — and it's our job to alter this legacy for good.

OG Pulverization = Status

Like many makeup items of olden times, white powder for the face up consisted of crazy ingredients. In Roman times (A.D. 100s), "chalk and vinegar face creams lightened the complexion, and finely ground orris root was used in confront powder," reports Gabriella Hernandez's Classic Dazzler: The History of Makeup. And in Ancient Cathay, rice pulverization was used to whiten and polish out the complexion. In addition to these additives, the other major commonality between globally-used white powders was their service as, you guessed it, a status symbol. The whiter and smoother your complexion, the higher grade condition you were (this was common for many other beauty rituals too, similar nail polish.) This notion continued throughout the Crusades and into the Medieval era — where the "ideal medieval face [was] pale and circular with plucked eyebrows and a receding plucked hairline," Hernandez's text explains. In the Center Ages, powder was also used to hide natural features on the face: "women powdered their faces with flour and used harsh natural bleaches, such as lye, to go rid of freckles."

And just like that, after decades of practise, a white powdered confront became the prototype of beauty standards, and with information technology an exclusive, incomprehensive and naturally injust makeup was born.

Powder in All Kinds of Artistry

When yous think of the word powder, a few artistic depictions probably come to mind. One would take to be the Renaissance beauty we've seen illustrated in paintings — most notably Botticelli's Birth of Venus to his Primavera in 1482. In these legendary works of art, each muse is detailed with an extremely white, blemish free complexion, free of any differentiation or makeup individuality. This white-powdered face too appears in works from the Elizabethan age, where Liz the First herself would of class sport a colorless face with her signature tomato-cerise hair (a lewk).

Information technology was around this time that white powder really became more common and "working form women [began] to apply flour as white powder to the face," reports Classic Beauty. White powdered makeup also became notably theatrical — as Shakespeare'south Earth Theater actors slapped on ceruse (white pb and vinegar) prior to each performance. During this era, ceruse powders were the makeup get-tos, no thing how much they irritated the skin. Before long plenty however, our beauty guru ancestors realized that they had been making a big mistake: "This poisonous product killed many society women and ruined the complexion of others."

The Expiry (and Resurrection) of Powder

It was from there that the use of these dangerous products only got worse. By 1760, smallpox had plagued England far and broad. "The smallpox epidemic and the usage of ceruse for whitening the skin left many with permanently scarred and pitted complexion," Classic Beauty reports. Clearly, it was time to search for other methods and ingredients for powdering — merely this wasn't the only makeup change on the horizon. About sixty years later, an anonymously published book, The Art of Beauty, alleged a new theory virtually makeup that hadn't been heard before: Cosmetic products should be used to enhance one's natural beauty instead of hiding flaws. While this modern approach to wearing makeup served every bit a catalyst to women using products like pulverisation a bit more liberally, it was still used heavily during the Victorian and Edwardian age, complete with rouge to give some more than color to the confront than in prior decades.

What did finish upwards changing by the early 20th century was the office of confront pulverisation in a peel care regimen. Makeup powders were used to mattify and reduce smoothen on the face. "Perspiration and oily secretions could too be rectified with powder, making information technology useful in places where summers were warm and women were more than likely to 'glow,'" Cosmetics and Peel reports. It was this service of absorption that made powders dissimilar any other makeup product. No longer were these finely milled grains used to hide elements of the skin, they were used to soak up excess oil and sebum — finally, it was recognized for a practical purpose.

Special (and Finally, Colored) Powders

It wasn't until the 1920s and 30s that colored powders became popular with brands and in advertisements. "The most common shades [were] White, Natural, Flesh and Rachel/Brunette just some companies had a dozen or then shades in their powder range at whatever one fourth dimension," notes Cosmetics and Skin. Colored powders changed the makeup game because they kissed paleness goodbye for good — allowing for beauty gurus to *finally* embrace their natural tones.

The revolution of banana pulverisation came to be in the 1960s thanks to Ben Nye, a Hollywood makeup artist renowned for his special fx cosmetics. "The powder got its name because information technology has a slight yellow tinge, which helps to illuminate the skin and first redness, all the same information technology works on many different skin tones because it is fairly translucent when applied," the Huffington Post reports. Other mod special powders like powder-to-cream products are Grand-dazzler dark horses because they're able to transform from finely-milled particles to long-lasting stains right before your eyes. The benefit of these is simple: They don't dry out in their tubes like their liquid counterparts would.

The Power of Pulverization Today

Pulverization finally became a setting staple in the 1980s and 90s, and pulverisation today is certainly a must-have in pretty much every beauty junkie'due south stash. Even if you don't consider yourself a maximalist when it comes to makeup, you probably own a powder — whether pressed or loose. Powders are finally known equally a production that allows y'all to ready your makeup as opposed to concealing whatsoever "flaws" prevarication beneath it. The author of The Fine art of Beauty was certainly onto something — and we're and then glad to have traded powdery complexions for it.