20's Flapper Vamp Make-Up

Get ready to come on a 20's adventure with me! (here's my in classes B&W flapper style)

and in color:

The 20's girls,  kicked and Charleston-ed their way to whacking their previously long, "crowning glory hair" of the Gibson Girl era and proudly applying make-up in public (how dare they!?!) with their engraved and ornate compacts. Collectors still search for the makeup compacts of the 20's!

HAIR

The 20's Introduces the Bobbed Haircut & the invention of the Bobbie Pin!

Goodbye to the big hair of the Gibson Girl! Hair and hemlines were being raised to new heights!

Coco Chanel, Clara Bow and Louise Brooks...set worldwide trends in the century's most drastic hairstyle yet! The BOB~ a shorty, short cut, that was cut level with the bottom of the ears!

Men even divorced their wives over the bob haircut, one department store fined female employees for having a bob haircut, and F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote a story in the Saturday Evening Post called, "Bernice Bobs Her Hair", telling of a sweet but dull, girl who changes her life by taking a trip to the barber to get a bob, and transforms into a smooth-talking vamp, that became a role model for many a young, soon-to-be-bobbed-vamp!

Girls were running to barbershops for their short hair liberation,  before they had a chance to think if

they'd regret it...their necks were feeling breezes they hadn't felt in years!  Hair was falling like crazy in barbershops across the country. Some barbershops reported cutting up to 2,000 bobs per day!

And as the motto always goes..."It's hair! It grows back!"

(Both my grandma and great grandma had the trendy bobs as little girls!)

1923 introduces a new twist on the bob ~

the SHINGLED BOB

the hair was tapered into a V-shape at the nape of the neck

(A very art-deco and designer neck design!)

I have to say, this picture, kinda makes me want to go to my local barber and ask for a shingles bob!)

Introducing BOBBIE PIN or BOBBY PIN

The Bobbie Pin or Bobby Pin, gained worldwide popularity as the 20's bob, made use of this little hair-wonder, to keep everyone's bob's into perfect shape!

1927 introduces the ETON CUT

Josephine Baker was known for her Eton Cut~

a slicked back and greased down cut, where curls were "glued" down in front of each ear. Brylcreem was used to slick down these looks into a glossy, "you ain't going anywhere" shape!

FINGERWAVES

Finger waving became popular at the end of the 20's to soften the "harder, more masculine" look that the bob had. Mostly the 30's was when the Finger Wave really took off!

I love finger waves! It was one of my most favorite things to learn in beauty school!

It is the ultimate in hair sculpture!

20's MAKE-UP

Max Factor was the king of, even inventing the name makeup, based on the good ol' verb,

"to make up"!

Coco Chanel fell asleep in the sun, and set a new trend for "less-pale" "more tanned" skin, which became the 20's trend. Cosmetic companies like Max Factor, Elizabeth Arden, and Helena Rubenstein 

started selling face make up in various colors to match these new "not-so-pale" skin tones.

20's EYE MAKEUP

 

Theda Bara was an actress who wore the darkest eyes!

Eye makeup was just as bold as these liberated women! Dark eyes made a statement as dramatic as their freshly shorn locks!

Eyeliner was a mixture of lead, soot and goose grease (yes, melted fat from geese!)... Egyptian inspiration was popular in the 20's, and thus the heavily darkened eye was king! Eyeshadow was all the rage in dark greys, blacks, and greens and even shades of turquoise!

Mascara was a wax, that was melted and applied heavily and clumpy to the lashes.

EYEBROWS

(Clara Bow was a 20's makeup and hair icon!)

Eyebrows were needle thin.  As women experimented and took their eyebrow shapes to new levels of thin-ness..this led to all the eyebrow pencils and eyebrow shaping devices that we still use today!

A Rouge is a Rouge

Cheek pinching would no longer due as a way to add color to the cheeks! Blush was as out as the Gibson hair do....Rouge was "the bees knees" (a popular 20's flapper saying!)...

The first layer of rouge would have been a liquid or cream, followed by a second layer of powder rouge to set the look. Rouge was not blended at all, and was applied in a doll-like fashion in circular motion on the cheekies!

Berry colored rouge was the rage, and in the later half of the 20's orange rouge made an appearance on the apples' of many flapper girls cheeks!

THE 20'S FLAPPER MOUTH

Clara Bow shows of the "Cupid's Bow" mouth shape

Actress Evelyn Brent shows off her Cupid's Bow Lips too.

Lips were thin on the sides and shaped in a pursed, doll-like, puckering shape.

Deep ox-blood colored lips were a must.

HOW TO TALK LIKE A FLAPPER

To sound like a real flapper, here's some essential flapper talk: (these are hilarious- I'm gonna start using these terms again!)

FLAPPER TERMS FOR MEANING YOU LIKED SOMETHING or IT WAS GOOD:

the bees knees- "that dress is the bee's knees!"

the cat's meow- "Jimmy's great, he's the cat's meow!"

the cat's pajamas- "i liked it, it was th cat's pajamas!"

other words for "good":

berries, copacetic, ducky, hep (wise), hotsy-totsy (Hotsy-Totsy is one of my favs!), It, jake, kippy, nifty, ritzy, spiffy, swanky, swell

THEN-if you weren't so keen on something you'd say something like this:

A boring person- "a flat tire"..."man, that Jimmy is a flat tire!"

words for "bad":

Applesauce, baloney, banana oil, bunk, hokum, hooey, horse feathers, lousy. 

 (flappers would smile pouty, mysterious smiles)

other funny 20's Flapper Speak:

a fire alarm = a divorced woman (I must be a loud fire alarm then! ha ha ha)

engagement ring = handcuff ("check out the handcuff on her?)

a tomato = a good looking girl with no brains

money = sugar (Man, I'm gonna need a lot more sugar to buy that knew dress)

feet = dogs ("my dogs are barking" = my feet hurt)

nose =  smeller ("look at the smeller on that fella')

mouth = kisser ("lay one on me, right in the kisser" = give me a kiss right on the mouth)

legs = gams or stilts ("check out the gams on her!")

Here's where I got all my flapper-props:

my FLAPPER BOB wig here: www.costumeinc.com

my "faker-ette" ~ fake cigarettes : www.costumeinc.com

fake cigarette holder: www.costumeinc.com

Feather Boa: www.costumeinc.com

Now that you've been educated on all the FLAPPER ways and style....get ready to come with me

and see how to do some swell flapper makeup!

huge love, you swell you! from kandee...xoxo