Friday 20 April 2012

Painted faces

Sixties model Verushka, from 'The Women We Wanted To Look Like'

You may have gathered that I’ve never been a frills and ribbons kind of female.  But I do have a penchant for one thing that’s very girly: make-up. I like to think of it as an art form.  From those first playful experiments in pretending to be a grown-up with my mum’s lipstick smeared on (mostly around my chin) to the drawing on of black and red geometric lines in my punk heyday, wearing make-up has been funWhen I go out it’s a part of my identity, still a bit of a statement perhaps - a little 'art' on my eyes being very much a feature of the total look I want to achieve. 

But I’m getting on a bit now and I wonder for how much longer I can keep applying my usual amount of slap without ending up looking like a drag queen’s impression of Barbara Cartland.  I question how much I use it as a confidence-booster too.  It doesn’t help that I need glasses a lot these days and I can’t see what I’m doing half the time, jabbing my pupils accidentally with a mascara stick (that’ll really help the failing eyesight), whilst my kohl line goes astray in an Alice Cooper stylee.  I’ve asked Mr SDS to tell me if he ever thinks I’m heading towards the dreaded mutton-dressed-as-lamb scenario, but I’m not sure he’ll see that through those old pink-lensed spectacles.  And rather shockingly I realise there are a few friends who haven’t even seen me with a completely nude face before.  Maybe they won’t recognise me?

I'm a tiny bit heartened though by this page from a book I've had for many years ('The Women We Wanted To Look Like' by Brigid Keenan, 1977). Here is the stunning sixties French model, Nicole de la Marge, undergoing her own make-up transformation. 




11 comments:

  1. Like you, I'm a fan of the paintbox - I'm practically held together by Bobbi Brown concealer these days. It's so much part of my routine that I barely think about it, though I have definitely adapted my palette over the years. When we had a 'come as you were' party for our 20th anniversary a few years ago, I faithfully reproduced my 80s Wag Club face with its big sweeps of pink and yellow eyeshadow, and regretfully concluded that I now looked like Ronald McDonald. After the party, the pink and yellow went in my 'dressing up box', and that's where I fear they'll be staying...

    Those photos are amazing, by the way - and don't they look contemporary?

    Keep on painting!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, thank you - so glad you understand!
      And, oh, your pink and yellow eyeshadow - I can picture it now. It used to be so easy - like painting colours and lines onto smooth new paper. I once was so pleased with my carefully outlined black eye-hooks infilled with pink that I wished there was a permanent eyeliner/shadow. At least I'm grateful now that there wasn't...

      Delete
  2. tis so much easier being a bloke... however the counter to that is that you can do nothing to hide the sagging bags under the eyes, greying beard/hair and lines becoming very definitely wrinkles :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Indeed, I sometimes wish I was a bloke (and I think men can mature so nicely anyway! I'll avoid using the word 'distinguished' - but age lines seem to suit a masculine face!) Then again make-up can cover a multitude of sins (and possibly a multitude of chins, too.) Well, until you get to the point when instead of hiding them, it just highlights all the bits you didn't want anyone to notice - aargh...

      Delete
    2. F-Ron, Bobbi Brown concealer could be the answer to those eyebags! It's miraculous, I tells ya!

      Delete
    3. Dylan has a great line: 'Time and love has branded me with it's claws'...that's the excuse I use for my visage!

      Delete
    4. Ah, I like that Dylan line. And what could possibly be wrong with a face that has been touched by time and love!
      With all the disproportionate emphasis on a youthful appearance to the point of willingly undergoing surgery etc. I do wonder sometimes at a horrendous and bizarre future scenario: geriatric wards full of people with all the usual old-age ailments, arthritic hands, limbs stiff and backs bent, but with taut, unlined, chemically-peeled and Botoxed faces! Aargh... freaky!

      Delete
  3. You've been to my blog...you've seen my picture.

    That's all natural baby.

    No make up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A natural beauty!
      Although.... how can we be so sure that the suave moustache that occasionally makes an appearance is not actually drawn on your upper lip with a Revlon 'Midnight Mystery' eyeliner pencil...?

      Delete
    2. I got something for you Mrs. Lady....puttin my beauty secrets on front st like that.

      Be on the look out..

      Delete
    3. Ah - but it could catch on! I might even try it myself one day, just to be different. And to go with heels and a dress...

      Delete

Please come in, the door is open

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...