Hunting Through JJ's Closet

Today I played Dress-Up which I haven’t done for a while. My closet is a strange collection of stuff that in a pinch, can yield some awesome Halloween costumes. Or non-Halloween costumes, as the case may be.

I am jazz baby from the 1920s.

Of course, I spent all this time doing 1920s makeup (no mean feat I’ll have you know, mostly because I don’t know how to apply makeup)–and it even looked period appropriate!–only to have it washed out by the light. The only think I’m missing is tonnes of rouge, but I don’t own any blush.

I rarely–if ever–wear a lot of maquillage (as Flora would say) because I have a tendency to look like a drag queen. The angles of my face are very square and masculine so any application of lipstick emphasizes, well, everything. I have a small mouth, but it’s very “plump” (as Mum would say) so dark lipstick just makes me look vulgar. But then again, the whole point of the 1920s was to look as vulgar as possible.

A look at my makeup in colour.

The next time I try and photograph myself, I may have to go all out and just bring it on. Everything looks appropriately made-up in person, but pale on film. Alas.

How to Apply 1920s Makeup

Mostly I just learned from this tutorial on YouTube but made a few modifications owing to the fact that my brow structure differs from Miss Twisted Elegance. Still, the basic principles hold.

1920s Eyes

1. Apply a thick line of kohl around the eyes. Smudge.
2. Apply a light colour to the brow, right underneath the arch.
3. Now take another light shade, but slightly darker than the previous and just smother the eye with it. Paint all the way to the brow and blend. In my case I used a green over beige.
4. Take a medium colour (I used purple) and start shading in the eyelid, paying especial attention to the inner eye area. We’re trying to create the illusion of shadows around the nose and inner eye cavity (this gives the wearer a sort of bemused and vulnerable expression).
5. Now take a dark colour (grey in my case) and enhance the “shadows” already created by the medium colour. Blend.
6. Reapply the kohl as necessary.
7. Apply some outrageous mascara.

1920s Eyebrows

1. Take a brow pencil (I don’t have one so I actually used eyeliner) and lightly colour the inner part and arch of the eyebrow.
2. With some brow powder and an angled brush, blend in a straight line. Extend the brows in a thin line down nearly to the temples. Try to keep them as thin as your brows will allow. Shoot for an almost downturned look. The end result looks a bit like you’re constantly concerned about something.

1920s Lips

1. Find the darkest damned lipstick you have. Redness matters less than saturation. My darkest lipstick isn’t very dark unfortunately, but my natural lip colour is fairly pink so it helped some.
2. Very carefully line the “peaks” of your upper lip with a pencil.
3. Line the fullest part of your bottom lip just outside your natural lips.
4. Start filling in with colour, starting with the lower lip. The point is to create as small and pouty a shape as possible, so it’s almost like you’re painting a circle. Line the edges of the “circle” of lipcolour for a violet-bloom, cupid’s bow mouth. It will most likely be inside the line of your natural lips, unless you naturally have that shape.

The last step here would be to apply some rouge only to the apples of your cheeks in a circular motion, but I didn’t have any so I skipped that step. Also, I have no apples in my cheeks. I apparently have razor-sharp cheekbones that will cut you instead. I’m torn here because in person the makeup I applied seemed overmuch, but in photographs it doesn’t read as well. Do I push up the darkness the next time I try this?

I should never become a model.

Yeah, so the whole pursed-lip, surprised and wide-eyed look doesn’t work for me. My face is just too angular. Remind me never to pursue a modelling career.

I am still sick, although I am feeling marginally better (as is evidenced by the fact that I got out of bed and played Dress-Up). My printer is telling me lies about how much ink it has, so my Valentine’s Day card to Bear will have to wait until I make a run down to Staples. I have a few errands to run in Manhattan today but it is cold and I am still feeling ill. Damn this stupid rhinovirus.

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