Hello from 'The Tease Maid'. I am woman...hear me POUR! Read on for my general make-up musings and my plan to make the world a better place with nothing but cuppas, cupcakes and cosmetics. There's a weekly 'Tuesday Tip' and a 'Vintage Vault', and of course information on where you can find my next "Cake It On" event... Hope to see you at one soon xox
There used to be a time when women would wear bright red lipstick whether they were cooking dinner, heading out to the shops or picking the children up from school. In fact there are still some glamorous ladies who do exactly that, such as Gwen Stafani. Her signature red lips can be seen in every single pic of her whether she's wandering round Primrose Hill or singing on stage. Historically red-lips have represented patriotism and glamour - worn either to show support for troops during the 40's or as a nod to Hollywood sophistication in the 50's.
Nowadays however, red lips seem to be relegated to the festive season when it becomes 'Christmassy' to don crimson lips and nails. It's considered a 'night-time' colour or worse, the colour of harlots and femme fatales!
I say that grey drab days in the UK certainly call for a pick me up in the way of a flash of red on the lips and we should return to daytime glamour. However, it is true that red lips can be more 'high maintenance' than a nude gloss or balm, or a lipstick in a paler shade. There are several ways to combat this - the first is to not actually use a lipstick! I tend to favour Maybelline's "Superstay 24" duo in Cherry Pie, particularly if I'm going to be eating or drinking a lot. The colour stains and grips your lips, and you can simply keep re-applying the clear topcoat so your lips remain moist. Also if anything is going to rub off on a wine glass or cup it will only be the clear topcoat and won't leave a nasty red smudge.
However, I am an Avon lady and I do love theirExtra Lasting in 'Eternal Flame'which is one of the best vintage reds around. Using a matte lipstick like that (and if I go red I only EVER go matte..) means that the colour will stay on. Also, if you follow these tips from Lisa Eldridge it will ensure you have a lasting finish.
Plus, there is a lot to be said for that retro favourite Lipcote which works really well and yes it is still available (along with setting lotion, talcum powder and other seemingly forgotten favourites...)
The only thing left to do is choose a colour that's right for you and this is why I like AVON so much. Most of their lipsticks can be ordered in sample size for 25p! Also, if you order a full size and then decide you DON'T like it you can actually send it back. Have you ever tried to do that at Boots or Superdrug? They won't take back cosmetics that have been used, but AVON will.
So come have a wonderful Christmas and I hope to see you at the next Cake It On! on January 17th at Crimson Heart, Leonard Street, Shoreditch EC2A 4QS to browse the catalogues, try the samples and order to your hearts content until you find the perfect red for you. 6:30pm onwards - see you there! xox
I've had a little break, post-surgery but my next Avon Tea Party is on Wednesday 28th November. We have a Christmas campaign coming up after that so the theme I've chosen for the next Cake It On! is vintage hair. I get a lot of questions about how to do vintage hairstyles and believe me I am NO expert but I can certainly share a lot of the tips I have from experimenting and through trial and error.
Being 'Rockabilly' for The Vintage Fair
Different things work for different people so I can let you know what works for me, and I have also ordered several AVON hair products for people to try: hair spray, heat protector etc. Sometimes you just want to know what things smell and feel like before you buy them and that's something you don't get to do in shops!! That's why AVON ladies are the best way to purchase your beauty bits and pieces ;) I hope to see you all there on Wednesday 28th and remember there will be the usual quizzes, games and prizes (including AVON products) so get yourself to Crimson Heart, 87 Leonard Street, Shoreditch at 6:30pm next Wed xox
Handing AVON 'Vintage Glamour' Shower gel to the winner!
The Naughty 90's! I'm so happy that I chose the 1990's as my theme for the last vintage AVON party: my hair really badly needed to have the roots bleached and I think I rocked the 90's grunge look fairly well because of it...
Add a few plastic flower clips and a retro tee and the look is complete. Of course the make-up was all AVON, specifically my favourite matt red lippy which is the Lasting Finish in 'Eternal Flame' and I pretty much use it for everything. All the other ladies made an effort too:
Hello Kitty, side ponytails and plastic clips were rife, and we all looked the part while playing Dream Phone and listening to 1990's hits. Of course the main premise of the evening is to look through the newest AVON catalogue and see what takes your fancy, and I have my trusty vintage cosmetic case full of samples for people to try.
It's a great way to try new products without committing and that way you don't have to take my word for it about the performance of a product - simply give it a go and see what you think. The next Cake It On! will be on October 2nd, and as it's the only October one I'll be doing, it will be a Halloween Horror Heroine Special. Also it's the Campaign where the famous AF-33 cream becomes available!!
The next "Cake It On!" I think I have started considering the 90's vintage because when you look back on that time things really were SO different! I have memories of covering myself in Impulse body spray and reading 'Just Seveneteen'... especially the rude problems at the back :) I loved Hole and Babes in Toyland at the time but also Shampoo and Alisha's Attic. Everything was pink and bubble-gummy and we all wore plastic flowers in our hair and wanted to be Drew Barrymore. So my next Cake It On! just has to be 1990's
For me it's the marriage between girliness and grunge that is summed up by the era but of course it depends on how old you were at the time. Those around my age will know exactly what the above pics are of! So come down to crimson Heart in Shoreditch on September 4th (87 Leonard Street, EC2A 4QS) at 6:30 on September 4th. Expect a picture quiz on 1990's heart-throbs, 'Truth or Dare' and many prizes to be won, as well as my home-made 1990's playlist. There'll be makeovers and samples to try and you can bring booze and pay a corkage, or have a cuppa and a cake. See you there! Here's the Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/events/493496837347184/
"I'm not taking these rollers out til my man gets home from The Front.."
In a secret underground bunker (well...Crimson Heart in Shoreditch) we all gathered to learn the secrets of 1940's make-up and eat cakes which we'd made from our saved up and pooled together wartime rations. There were quizzes and competitions for fabulous Avon prizes, such as the one below: Attempting to draw stocking seams on your own legs in a 1940's style!
There were vintage manicures and hints and tips about some of the Avon products such as this. (This has a very naughty titbit of info to go with it so you'll just have to come to the next Cake It On to find out what it is!!)
And in general we just all decided to have fun and be idiots :)
Of course you can try the products when you're here and that's one of the benefits of Avon. Flick through the catalogue and if anything takes your fancy have a look through my vintage cosmetic case and grab yourself a trial size version. If I don't have it I'll order it in for free for you next time.
According to Grazia mag, you get a LOT of satisfaction with 2 pumps and a squirt...!
Cake It On happens once every 3 weeks in Crimson Heart and the next one will be a Marilyn Monroe special to coincide with the 50th anniversary of her death. You can expect fun, games, vintage hints and tips, tutorials for Marilyn's look, prizes, freebies and some of this:
So what are you waiting for?! Keep checking back here for the date of the next event and I hope to see you there xox
The EASY way to get that Half-Moon Manicure This look is now instantly recognisable as being the one favoured by Dita Von Teese. True to her 1940's style, she has always sported her perfect red talons with the half-moon at the cuticle free from polish. But not many people know that this look actually originated in the 1920s.
The 'manicure' itself was invented by a make-up artist at MGM Studios and it wasn't only the half moon that was left clear of colour - the tip of the nail was too.
This look had 2 functions: 1) It made the nail polish last a lot longer (we all know the first place your polish chips is the tip, then it looks weird as it grows up and away from the cuticle) and - 2) It had the added benefit of being a tricky and delicate paint-job that had obviously been done by some-one else (i.e. a manicurist) so it was in that way a good indicator of social status. By the 1940's, the trend was to cover the tips too, although there was a brief resurgence of unpainted tips which can probably be attributed to the war and sparsity of nail polish. There are many tutorials that tell you how to get this look by using those nail-tip stickers you buy for French Manicures but I have an even better way to do it. Those manicure stickers aren't sticky enough and the curve is a bit too wide - instead use hole-punch reinforcement stickers from stationery shops and cut them in half. They're cheaper, they're stickier so they don't allow polish to leak beneath them, and the curve is smaller and tighter. Perfect.
Bake, Brew and Blend... My two main enterprises 'Cake It On!' and The Clandestine Cake Club are meeting at the end of this month in one big cake-y/cosmetic-ky proper make-up bake-up.
This is because of my Avon campaign dates and mental personal schedule all falling around the same time. So while I'm still on this charity ration diet, what better way to pay homage to the women of the era by not only re-creating their recipes but also re-creating their look and having one big Blitz extravaganza! If your'e not a member of Cake Club and want to be then click on the pic below and join the network in general, then look for my Shoreditch group:
And if you want to attend the event you don't HAVE to bring a cake! This is a joint event so you can do either. In fact what I find at a lot of Cake Clubs is that we have soooo much cake left over. We cakey people are sharey people so come along anyway, have a bit of cake and just have fun. There's a war on after all :) xox
Mmmm How To Get Edible Stockings... It's common knowledge that during WWII, many women had to 'Make Do And Mend' and even though my month-long charity ration diet only extends to my food (thank God!) it still gets me thinking about other products, especially toiletries. During the war, Max Factor stopped making their normal cosmetics and instead made camouflage make-up for troops, Stratton stopped making lipstick casing and instead made munitions casing... I wonder how we'd feel if our favourite mascara was suddenly just unavailable and we had to mix charcoal and Vaseline together to put on our lashes instead?
But the really big one is stockings. Remember, it wasn't only fashionable for women in the 1940's to wear stockings, it was proper. They didn't walk around like women do nowadays with their thongs sticking up over their Juicy Couture tracksuit waistbands or with their skirts so short you could see what they'd had for breakfast... They were more modest. To not wear stockings meant you were half undressed - a bit like like going out in your work-clothes and slippers. That's why wartime women went to such great lengths to achieve the look of stockings. Initially, with nylon being rationed, a leg-tan cream was produced (by Max Factor). It had the added benefit of being manufactured too thick, so it went even further because it could be watered down by the consumer. Eventually Max factor caught on and thinned it down. But soon even that was too difficult or expensive to get hold of so women were very industrious and used gravy browning or tea bags to stain the legs, then drew a 'seam' down the back with eyebrow pencil or eyeliner. You could either get a friend to do it or rub the pencil down something long and straight, like a 30cm ruler, and 'press' it into the leg. It seems the gravy browning method was more popular, despite the fact that it used to attract flies in the heat! Also you'd have to wash it off before bed. We all know the biscuity horror smell of 'fake-tan' sheets...imagine if that was gravy? I also do like the modern interpretation of this, a tattoo of a stocking seam on the back of the legs.
I'm obsessed with the idea of getting it done, although I won't because it would limit my stocking selections and I'm obsessed with them too. Perhaps I should just draw them on sometimes.... As if I have that kind of patience!!
New Look!
Primark!
It just goes to show the utter determination wartime women had to be seen as feminine and to Keep Calm and Carry On despite all the struggles. Think about how we feel when we have an 'off' day. I can't be bothered doing my hair or putting on make-up sometimes. I'm not sure I'd have the kind of strength to cover my bloody legs in gravy, especially if my fella was off fighting a war somewhere. Jeez, when I don't have a boyfriend I don't even bother to shave my legs! So this post is for the women - determined, resourceful inventors of the Victory Roll, we salute you xox
July 1st - 31st In hindsight it probably was an odd thing to do since I'm such a cake enthusiast, but I decided to go on a ration-diet for charity. My month-long WWII sponsored ration diet was an idea I had some months ago, and specifically planned to do in July as it's the last full month before VJ Day in August. I prepared myself by buying a book and researching on the internet, as well as going to The Imperial War Museum and chatting to the old dears in the nursing home. Since I'm doing it to raise money for 'Care For Casualities' I guess I can't really just 'cave' and break the promise :)
To prove I've been on this 'diet' I'm going to take some measurements now (36-27-34) because I can guarantee that at the end of this I will have lost a bit of weight. You see, despite what may seem like copious amounts of beef dripping and golden syrup, the recipes from this era just contained a hell of a lot of veg and no processed food. It's generally accepted that people's health during WWII was the best this country had ever really seen so I'm not concerned about my health - just about the fact that I can't really have wine!
The below photo shows pretty much what I'll eat in a week, along with bread and some veg and thankfully 3 pints of milk:
I'm making mine realistic by sticking to fruit & veg which is in season in England in July because during that time I would theoretically be growing my own. There's a really good page for this info called eatseasonably.co.uk. and information from that ensures that I have no excuse to try and sneak a cheeky pineapple or something! In a similar vein I can have the odd bit of pickle or chutney but it would have to be something that was in season June/July and I had supposedly preserved myself. So there you have it. I'm very interested to see what this feels like after a month, and it's useful as an aid to remembering how brave people were back then and how we don't experience the same kind of deprivation nowadays. If you want to support the cause, please donate to my Just Giving site:
And do keep checking back to see how I'm getting on! I'll post the odd recipe and wartime beauty tip on here to coincide with the ration fast. Until next time... xox
Half-Moon pedicures, Pixiwoo and amazing AVON products..... Yesterday, in between writing various articles and reports, I somehow kept finding the time to do some vintage pampering/procrastinating. Inspired by Dita Von Teese, and the fact that she NEVER looks awful, I decided to give myself a half-moon pedicure using my favourite 'Speed Dry'Avon nail-polish in Red Wine.
Then I thought I'd watch a little Pixiwoo tutorial on You Tube to see their interpretation of her make-up - I love Pixiwoo tutorials, they're just so easy to watch and I find they relax me! Can you imagine then how totally and utterly chuffed I was to see this tutorial with loads of products from AVON??! I do own some of the stuff (such as the lip-liner in Red Brick) and had wondered if AVON even do a decent red lipstick. (You may remember one of my earlier posts where I said I'd yet to find one...http://make-upbake-up.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/tuesday-tip-5-red-lips.html) Now I know: Extra Lasting Lipstick in "Eternal Flame". Then, to make things even better I looked in the brand new catalogue (for the next campaign) and those lippy's are bloody half-price.....£3.50.
So I gave the look a go myself since I was heading to a Vintage Fair anyway and knew I'd fit right in...
I didn't wear the wig out, of course, but when I went to buy some lovely vintage style underwear in Intimissimi (there's a Sale on btw) the woman behind the counter told me I was beautiful!! So, get down to my Cake It On! events and don't waste money on expensive products that may not be right for you once you get them home. AVON might be inexpensive but that doesn't mean it's 'cheap'. If it was, the system to try before you buy wouldn't be in place as they'd be too scared of you using the products and thinking they're crap. It's the best way to buy your cosmetics - and even Pixiwoo thinks theyre fab :) xox
This is a Pink Party to raise money for Breast Cancer Crusade, one of the main charities Avon supports. So...I'm throwing a Pink Ladies Party!
There'll be Grease Soundtracks and a Grease quiz, so I suggest you watch the movie to revise a little bit ;) There'll also be a raffle to win a pink pamper pack of goodies with all the proceeds going to Breast Cancer Crusade. Bring a bottle of pink bubbly if you fancy (£3 corkage) and you can try some products as well as look through the catalogues. Then, learn how you too can look as cool as a Pink Lady...
See you on Friday 29th June at 7pm, Crimson Heart Cafe in Shoreditch xox
.JPG)
