1940s

Film stars influenced the hairstyles of the 1940s.

Actresses such as Betty Grable, Veronica Lake, Dorothy Lamour, Rita Hayworth and Ava Gardner epitomised the glamour of the era, and provided escapism from the everyday dreariness of war.

Television was a rarity in the home, so going to the cinema was incredibly popular – just part of life for everyone.

The bill included the news, cartoons, a B-feature and finally the A-feature – it was a full evening’s entertainment.

The influence movie stars had on the public didn’t escape the notice of officials in the US. Long hair was hazardous where machinery was operated, like in factories and on farms, and too many accidents were happening. In the hope of encouraging women to cut their hair short, thus reducing the risk of being injured or worse at work, they asked Veronica Lake to cut her trademark “peekaboo” long locks. Ms Lake obliged.

The glamorous era of the 1940s brought makeup to a new level of femininity. Despite war rationing, women round the developed world began applying makeup from their teen years. Only twenty years earlier this would have been unthinkable.

Foundations were a heavy affair, generally darker than the natural skin tone unlike the 1920s.

Eye makeup looks of the 1940s was that of well shaped. With a clear defined arch however with a slope.

Eye-shadow was very natural. Just a contoured look and they used colours close to their natural skin tone just slightly darker to define their eyelid. The 1940s sported a cat eye-liner style going slightly upwards followed by mascara on the top lashes (concentrating on the outer lashes) and more likely than not, nothing on the bottom lashes.

Lipstick colours include light reds, fuchsia, pink reds and orange reds ! However, unlike the 1920s, the shape was of a 'hunters bow' therefore it went to more of a slope.

Tanya's Demo

My Work

I feel like i managed to achieve a greate shape of the eyeliner and lips. If I were to redo it on my model I definitely would have eliminated more of the brow from the top in order to give it a more slopey look.

Products I used -

Foundation - Inglot HD foundation shade 77

Contour - Mac face and body shade N12

Brows - Mac deep dark brown eye brow pencil and Mac prolongwear black eyeliner

Eyeshadow - Mac charcoal brown and wedge. Inglot black gel eyeliner. Mac naught and hauty mascara

Blush - Mac frankly scarlet

Lips - Mac beet lip liner and iflash palette black and red shade mixed to make a dark red colour.

I then tried out the look again with a different lip colour and white in the bottom waterline with mascara also at the bottom just for a different look.

I like the way they both turned out. I feel like I managed to gain more of the lip shape in the first try as the second try I made them in more of a pointy shape. However I then prefer the brows of my second look as they are more slopey.