the modern day flapper
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The middle school I work at just announced we would be doing a “spirit week” at the end of February. I am usually the teacher that doesn’t participate, but the themes for this spirit week grabbed my attention. On Thursday the 28th, we are having a ‘blast from the past’ day. We get to dress up as our favorite decade. My mind immediately gravitated to:
flapper.
I asked my work bestie if she would don a glitzy, fringed 1920s Gatsby style dress so we could be twins that day. She agreed. We’ve gathered all the pieces we need to look like 1920s fashion plates. Amazon was the perfect place to get our dresses and gloves. I already had shoes and sparkly headbands. Our hair is relatively short - I only need to flat iron it to make it look more like a flapper’s bob, and hers is curly enough to represent the famous Marcel wave. We made the right decision for our decade. It didn’t take much effort to get the outfits ready.
My friend, however, asked if I would do her makeup because she doesn’t really wear it. I can go from no makeup to full face whenever I feel like it, so she thinks I’d be able to recreate a 1920s makeup job.
Uhhh…
Am I a professional makeup artist?
That is a no.
Am I scared of looking too vampy in flapper style makeup for school?
That is a yes.
So while I may not be trained to recreate a professional, 1920s true flapper look, my makeup skills are more than decent enough for us to play the part without scaring off our students. I was able to find the right balance between vintage and modern. I decided to keep three key features of the flapper look to maintain the integrity of the makeup:
An entirely matte finished face.
Dark lips with cupid’s bow intact.
Heavier, smoky eye.
Numbers two and three, however, would be modified for a more modern approach, but still visible enough for people to say yes, they are from the 1920s.
The Process Begins
Always, always, always set your eye makeup first to let any fallout occur before applying foundation. I did, however, decide to apply my primer so it would sink into my skin while I did the eye makeup. What you use to prime is up to you. My skin does have redness, so I rely on a green primer for color correction. I also didn’t want any sort of natural redness to pop through my foundation and blush if I didn’t use my primer. I use the Makeup Forever Step 1 Skin Equalizer Primer (Sephora, $37) for my everyday makeup. I used it for this tutorial as well. All I did was dab it on my fingers and apply it with my tips - no brush is necessary.
My arsenal of literal eye candy - everything you see here was used to attain a smoky eye.
Eyes
I started my eyes by applying a mattifying base to my lids. I always use the MAC Cosmetics Pro Longwear Paint Pot in Painterly (MAC Cosmetics, $22). It is the perfect nude pink base that looks gorgeous on its own, but serves as a strong, blendable base color when I use other eye shadow palettes on top of it. The paint pot lives up to its name - it does go on as a cream, so make sure to let it dry for about a minute before continuing your process.
I reached for my Marc Jacobs Eye-Conic Multi-Finish Eye Shadow Palette (Sephora, $49) in The Night Owl (you’ll see it on the Sephora website renamed as Edgitorial). This is where I decided to add my darker color out from the middle to the outer corners of my eyes. I used the shade “We’ll See” - a milk chocolate matte finish that I blended until I was satisfied that I did not look like I got punched in the face. I cannot do a decent smoky eye, so I get wary when the shades are insanely dark like “We’ll See” is. I then took another brush and blended a lighter shade from the palette to start giving my eyes some depth. I used “Take a Memo,” described as a pale peach matte, and blended it all across my eyelids.
Close-up of the Marc Jacobs palette - this beauty deserves to have its own photo. “Take a Memo” is the shade right in the middle. “We’ll See” is two shades to the right of “Take a Memo.”
I was craving, however, a little color so as to match the delicate blush shade of my dress. So I said goodbye to my Marc Jacobs palette and dug out my Tarte Love, Trust and Fairy Dust (Sephora, $39) one - filled with shimmery and delicate plums and pinks. With a new brush, I blended a mauve matte shade called “Frolic” in the bottom halves of my eyelids, and then finished off my eyes with another palette. I used the NARS Pro Palette Duo in Sugarland (NARS Cosmetics, $25). Sugarland has two colors; a golden shimmer and a beautiful and ethereal orchid. I topped off my eyes with the orchid selection…and my pseudo-smoky eye was set.
I did a quick liquid liner with my Tarte Tarteist Double Take Eye Liner (Sephora, $24) and avoided a cat eye, as that would be anachronistic with my decade. I only lined the tops of my eyelids, and then coated my eyelashes with my new favorite mascara, NARS Climax (Sephora, $24). I was debating getting false eyelashes…but figured that would definitely make the look “too much” for the school day. Luckily, the mascara coats on evenly, allowing for multiple applications to make the eyelashes appear long and luscious.
Setting the Face
My fallout was dusted off. My primer had set. Hello, foundation. Using a damp Beauty Blender (Sephora, $20), I decided to practice my tutorial with my Clinique Stay-Matte Oil-Free foundation (Sephora, $27). I didn’t want to waste any of the foundation I use on a daily basis for a practice run. The Clinique foundation, however, would still give me the same effect I was looking for: matte, dull, and doll-like. When I do my makeup, I will be using my reliable Make Up For Ever Ultra HD Invisible Cover Foundation (Amazon, $56 - my shade is Y245). This is a medium coverage matte foundation that can easily be built up. The HD formula makes it perfect to be filmed or photographed - it was the foundation of choice by the Downton Abbey makeup artists to make the actresses playing Edwardian aristocrats look flawless on screen during an age where makeup usage was minimal (read: none at all).
Do not be afraid to go heavier on your foundation for this look. When I examined my face, I realized I’d actually missed some spots (especially around my nose) because I was afraid I would look too caked on. The nice thing about the Beauty Blender is that it does allow the user to control and spread out the foundation easier. Once my foundation was applied liberally all over my face (do not forget to apply at the jawline and into the neck to make your face smooth and even!), I took my Sephora Pro Precision Powder Brush #59 (Sephora, $38) and dipped it into my holy grail of setting powders…
Starting from the left: The Clinique foundation was the choice I used to do this tutorial, but I’m going to rely on my Makeup Forever foundation for the final look next week. To the right of that bottle is the Laura Mercier powder that really gives me the “vintage” vibe I’m trying to achieve. Below are the face tools: my Beauty Blender and Sephora powder brush.
Ladies, if you know your makeup and you’ve guessed what it is, then you’re absolutely right. The Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder (Sephora, $39) is perfect for obtaining flawless makeup. I use it everyday, and knew that this would be the only setting powder I’d use for this look I am trying to achieve. The feature I like most about this setting powder is that it does not cause the dreaded “flashback” when being photographed. It keeps my face matte and fresh all day, even during a humid Virginia summer. I blended this into every nook and cranny on my face to truly get the right aesthetic.
With my blush brush, I then applied my Charlotte Tilbury Cheek to Chic Blush in Ecstasy (Sephora, $40) on the apples of my cheeks and dabbed a little on my nose. I hadn’t used Charlotte Tilbury products in my makeup routines until this past October when I got my makeup done at Sephora. I was impressed by the quality and color of the blush my makeup artist used on me. I asked her what product it was. Once she said it was Charlotte Tilbury, any doubts I had about buying her products disappeared. Into my shopping basket it went. I like that you can apply it fairly heavily (without looking tacky!) if you’re trying to play dress up - I used it when I did my makeup for Halloween. I was Mary Poppins, and the blush really did help pull the look of my costume together. I looked more like her character, and less like myself.
Charlotte Tilbury products can easily be used for every day cosmetic wear, or if you’re trying to get a more dramatic look when using makeup for a costume/fancy event!
Eyes (Again)
I decided that my bottom lashes needed definition. Instead of using a pencil eyeliner, I used a trick another Sephora makeup artist taught me. I grabbed a small, angled eye shadow brush and carefully dipped it into the one of the shades from the Tarte palette I’d used earlier. I picked the shade “Wonder,” a matte plum color, and I softly lined my bottom lash line with eye shadow. This trick gave my eyes a soft and glamorous finish. Using a pencil liner would’ve made the final look too harsh and vampy.
Lips (Finally)
Did you know that there is a woman who is dedicated to recreating lipstick colors of the past with modern and better quality cosmetic ingredients? If you didn’t - you do now. Bésame Cosmetics, founded by the cosmetic historian Gabriela Hernandez, sells accurate reproductions of popular lipstick shades from decades past. Bésame first became famous for their signature red shades, but the cosmetic line has expanded into skincare, perfume, foundations, and eye shadows. Bésame now has lipstick shades from the 1960s and 1970s, which are representative of the neutral trends popular of the time.
My best friend purchased my first lipstick for from Bésame for Christmas a couple years ago. She knew of my love for the 1920s, and gifted me the shade 1922: Blood Red (Bésame Cosmetics, $22). When applied with a heavy hand, this shade is as flapper as it gets. We’re talking Theda Bara vampy. What I wanted to maintain with my lips was the cupid’s bow, rather than the full-blown color, so this meant lining them. What I love about the Bésame lipsticks is that they are designed to use as a lip liner and a lipstick. The tips of the lipstick are chiseled. This allows the user to line with the slanted, pointed edges before taking the flatter end to fill in the rest of the lips.
I lined with the lipstick first and then blotted my lips together to help spread the color. Then I gently dabbed a coating of the lipstick to fill in any gaps, but I did not apply it like a normal tube of lipstick. This method allowed for me to easily define the cupid’s bow and make the lips red, but not too red.
Taking It All Off
It took me the better part of twenty minutes to make sure my face was clean and cleared of my chiseled on makeup. I started to take off the warpaint by wiping my face with my Cetaphil Gentle Makeup Removing Wipes ($6.20 on Amazon, via Cetaphil’s website) and then cleansing it with Biore’s Charcoal Cleanser Micellar Water (Amazon, $8.20). If you have a facial brush, like a Clarisonic or Luna, I recommend you use that with your usual facial cleanser to do a nice, deep clean once you’ve removed most of it with the wipes and micellar water. Then, moisturize as usual and you’ve entered back into the twenty-first century.
I’m pretty sure flappers wish they had these products back then to take off their makeup…
Final Result of the First Tutorial
My “modern day flapper” look…minus the sparkly dress & heels…
I usually don’t like posting photos of myself because I am nowhere near good enough with my makeup application, but I did want to share how my first attempt came out. I’m pleased with the outcome; however, I want to practice it a couple of more times. I want to be more sure of my application the day I need to do it on, and feel comfortable doing my friend’s makeup. My goal is to streamline the process so I do not spend an hour dedicated to painting my face.
What I’d like to end with is that history truly can be found in anything, even something so vapid as makeup application. I don’t think I’d look like a flapper if I didn’t try to study the makeup trends that the flapper look comprised of. The challenge was to bring the look into the modern day. By learning about the key elements of the look and incorporating them into my makeup job, but deciding where I could tone them down, I truly can transform into the modern day flapper.
Until next time…
Many happy returns,
-Kate