Dita Von Teese: Style Icon

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

Cake It On! (Avon Campaign 12)

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

Made In Shoreditch contributions:

Check out my article 'Behind the Scenes at Shoreditch Vintage Fair'

The article is at: http://madeinshoreditch.co.uk/2012/06/18/behind-the-scenes-at-shoreditch-vintage-fair/ and there are some great images below. Even the toilets are vintage!

Cake It On!

1920's Prohibition Special

For a little change I decided to do a 20's/30's inspired event to coincide with the 'Prohibition Party' which happens in London once every couple of months. Whenever I go there, people ask me how I do my hair in a Marcel wave. It looks so difficult but is actually really easy,
so I thought I'd get everybody down to the lovely Crimson Heart and use my fab model Julia to show how it can be done on even the shortest hair:

It took probably 5 minutes using just cheap gel, a comb and some sectioning clips you can find in any chemist. Then Julia was able to sit and enjoy the rest of the party as the wave 'set'. 

Because it has to be done on wet hair, a little trick I've learned is to spray the hair with setting lotion before combing gel through. That way, the next day, you can brush it out into a looser wave and it looks a bit more 30's

And if you'd like to see how the make-up is done, have a look at this fantastic YouTube tutorial! I love this one as the girl has gone to so much effort to make it look 1920's - it's fab:

We spent the rest of the evening, as usual, just having a massive laugh! I used everyone's order forms to do a raffle at the end, and the lovely Laura won herself an Avon 'Hollywood Starlet' set of shower gel and body scrub. I like to ensure prizes suit the theme!

Topics of conversation always seem to end up fairly hilarious, especially after the consumption of copious amounts of (illegal) hooch and sugar :s But I'm not going to tell you about that...you'll just have to come down next time ;-) xox

Tuesday Tip #6 - V for Victory!

Victory Rolls

In keeping with the theme of my last Cake It On! party, I thought I'd make today's tip all about Victory Rolls. I was also inspired by the River Pageant on Sunday which was in Battersea Park to celebrate the Jubilee - there were so many pop-up Victory Roll hair salons there and we even had the fantastic Angel Adoree of The Vintage Patisserie in our WI tent. (She's been tagged on my blog a few times so check out the other posts).
The hairstyle is so popular that girls queued for an hour in the rain, just to have this up-do done by Angel and her lovely assistants.

Of course, the pageant was to celebrate the Queens Coronation 60 years ago in 1952 so it may seem strange that Victory Rolls featured so prominently at a 50's bash. However they are associated with the rockabilly music movement from the 1950's, despite their WWII origins, and are still popular today.

According to most accounts, the rolls were named after a maneuvre of a WWII fighter jet and were a fashionable way to keep women's hair off their faces when they started working in the factories etc. They were also a way to express women's style, femininity and ostentatiousness when clothing had become rationed and simplistic. (Similar to the complex hairstyles of the Victorian women who were making up for the fact they were unable to wear make-up).
I love Victory Rolls so much as they really are a statement and product of that particular zeitgeist and what's more they're really easy to do when you have the hang of them, and weirdly addictive!
So my tips are simple. First, you have to curl your hair and it really doesn't matter which direction you curl it in, as long as it's curled. You can do it however you like: tongs, heated rollers, whatever works for you. But for authentic curls which literally last until you wash your hair again, I suggest foam rollers:

To get a decent 'set' which is actually less hassle, I put curl balm on my hair (which was about 89p from Superdrug) then I spray with my favourite setting lotion (see my previous post on that - it's fabulous stuff!). Because setting lotion has alcohol in it, after you spray your hair it won't be long before it suddenly feels about 80% dry. That's when you put it in rollers and forget about it. 
Now I need my curls to really last and I can't sleep on rollers, so what I tend to do is take the rollers out before bed and kirby grip the curls flat to my head - that's a flat pin-curl. If you put a bandana over your head you can sleep comfortably, and that is exactly why the bandana look was popular in the 40's and 50's...to hide the pincurls during the day! (See Lana Turner in The Postman Always Rings Twice to see how effective that is.) If I have a vintage event on a weekday evening, I'll literally keep the curls in all day, under a scarf - see my previous post on that too :)
Once you take the curls out you'll look like this:

The rest of the style simply involves taking sections of your hair from your parting to right behind your ear and first brushing it out a bit. Then, back-comb or 'tease' (as the Americans say) the inner part of the chunk of hair and then you'll find it basically rolls over on its own fairly easily. Then, when you're happy with its position you can use bobby pins/kirby grips to keep them in place, and they'll really hold because of the teased hair. Do have hairspray and a brush handy to neaten up the front and smooth the baby hairs too. And when you get frustrated with it, try to remember that apparently there were no kirby grips back then so the women used to use pipecleaners to do their styles! I have no idea how...
Once you know how to roll you'll suddenly find yourself doing all sorts of styles.

My friend made this!  http://folksy.com/shops/Babooshka   

It's difficult to describe in just words and pictures so check out some YouTube tutorials - my favourite ones are:

http://www.youtube.com/user/thecherrydollface

http://www.youtube.com/user/classicretroglamour

or better still get down to one of my Cake It On! events and I'll show you how to do it! next one is Tuesday June 12th  - see you there xox

Cake It On!

Blitz Party Special (Avon Campaign 10)
Turning off the main roads of Shoreditch and onto Leonard Street, you begin to feel the hustle and bustle of the City slowly fade off into the distance. Then, stepping over the bright red threshold of the cosy Crimson Heart vintage shop, you've finally reached your oasis of calm. 
Descend the stairs like Alice in a retro Wonderland, and all the delights of the tea-shop await. For this particular Cake It On! which had a theme dedicated to the upcoming D-Day special of The Blitz Party, those delights included a soundtrack of fabulous 40's female singers and foam rollers aplenty as well as the usual fabulous ambience and decor.

The purpose of the event is to allow women to chat and have a laugh over a cuppa and a cake, while perusing the Avon catalogue and asking the Avon Lady (me!) any questions about the products. It's nice to be able to try the samples and get recommendations, not just from me but from the other customers, which products are the best. I also like to include some Avon history during the course of the evening and this time it was the fascinating story of their company (and other cosmetics companies) during the war. Half of Avon's factories became weapons manufacturers during WWII for example, and their mosquito repelling formula (which is now found in Avon 'Skin So Soft') was manufactured originally for the troops.

Courtesy http://www.hagley.org/library/exhibits/avon/

However, my passion is for vintage style so I like to offer tips and tricks on how to achieve that look, as well as inject a bit of fun into the proceedings
This time I opted to do a Victory Roll tutorial (in-keeping with the theme) with the help of my lovely models Ella, Kayleigh and Paola. Anyone going to the next Blitz Party, take note!

Modelling my own rolls while hard at work

The tricky part is trying to get the 2nd one symmetrical!

I used a simple tong method in those pics but for more hold and authenticity I'd certainly recommend sleeping in pincurls for rolls that will withstand any bombing! ...Or withstand an energetic evening with the boyfriend... haha ;)
I also created a little 1940's pin-up quiz for ladies to fill in the blanks: on the list, some first names were left blank, and others had blank surnames. I think the funniest thing was people adding the first name that came to their heads! The the first one was meant to be Lana Turner - instead I received different variations including Tina and Anthea! I also got Gene Simmons instead of Tierney and Lily Savage instead of Anne... We did have a winner though, and she received a free 'Vintage Glamour' shower gel from Avon - can't complain :)

We were naughtier than usual as it was a Friday night, so we brought along our own bottles of bubbly and just paid a £3 corkage. We whiled the rest of the night away with Billie Holiday, Judy Garland and lots of cake. 

So get yourself down to Crimson Heart on Tuesday 12th June for the next event! If you have any questions or any requests for tips/tricks at the next one you can e-mail me at theteasemaid@gmail.com or leave a comment on here. Until next time! xox

See http://www.theblitzparty.com/ for information on the next Blitz Party

Tuesday Tip #5 - Red Lips

The Perfect Red Lip
I may be an Avon Lady but that doesn't mean I'm only going to push my own products as one company can't possibly cover all bases. 
For example, one of the things I really hate about wearing make-up is lipstick! It doesn't matter if you buy a long lasting one and blot a few times between layers and put it over foundation and maybe set it with powder...the fact is it comes off! On your teacup, on your food, on someone's face...whatever.
I have one tip for this and it's to use a product like Maybelline Superstay 24 colour:

"Red Passion"

I used to use this all the time and was sure they discontinued the red I like (above) but in Superdrug the other day I found it. I tested it on my hand to see if it was the right colour then toddled off home excitedly clutching my new lippy. I spent the rest of my night relaxing and had an hour long bath with oils and bubbles and everything...and the below pic is the same dot of colour on my hand after all that!!

I'm certainly not an expert on make-up but I know when something does what it says on the tin and honestly this lip colour is food, drink, wine, kiss...and anything else...proof!

Avon do a similar product but as yet there isn't a red (which you need for vintage) so until they introduce it this Maybelline one is definitely my favourite and considering you can get it between £7-8 it's also a bargain! xox

It's finally Friday..!

Is it Wine O'Clock yet??
Don't get me wrong - I absolutely love my job, but I feel like I havent't stopped these last few weeks! Strangely, I missed out my 'Tuesday Tip' this week because of course it was a Bank Holiday on Monday and in general I just seem to have no idea what day it is. And I have no idea why I'm so shattered if it's only been a short week anyway...? All I know is I will be trying to get some quality time by myself this weekend for a bit of pampering and a cocktail or 2....
Last Cake It On! I gave away some cocktail vouchers for B@1, a bar which you can find all over London, and it was with the intention of getting people to go out and ask for these cocktails named after some of our favourite vintage stars:

Hopefully I shall partake in some myself this weekend, with an old movie or two and a bit of me-time. You can do the same thing, especially after the next Cake It On! as I will be giving more of these vouchers away :)
have a great weekend - until next time....xox

The Blitz Party

Saturday May 5th - Shoreditch

No self-respecting 40's obsessive (like myself..) would be able to live in London and not go to The Blitz Party! I just thought I'd add a few pics of my hair and make-up etc to this blog and maybe next time we can do a 'Blitz Party' Cake It On! Special if anyone else has tickets for it and want tips on how to achieve the look.
So the clothes are pretty important and I was so pleased to pick up this Tara Starlet dress at their sample sale last weekend. The lovely Tara Scott, who is a committee member of my W.I, basically is Tara Starlet and her company make reproduction clothing from original vintage patterns...and they do it all ethically - it's well worth checking out their website:

http://www.tarastarlet.com/

Then of course the second most important thing is hair and make-up! I used my usual trusty tools for the hair: setting lotion (about £1.50), hot rollers, kirby grips (about 99p) etc (Ooh my nan would be proud...! All those old fashioned products and cheap too! Well, there is a war on...) 

Now the make up was mostly my usual stuff ....

Liquid Eyeliner

Red Nailpolish

Red Lippy - no that's not mine on him!

But I have a new foundation which is AVON 'Calming Effects Illuminating Foundation' in Ivory and it's fantastic! I love being able to buy little tiny ones to keep in my handbag, and that way I can try the shade before I buy the big one too...it's win-win! (unlike the war which was just WIN...by England). 

Anyway, back to make up.

One thing I also got was new lipstick samples and I really wanted to wear one for Blitz Party so I tried these two on:

"Really Rosy" and "Charged Cherry"

I'll be honest with you, they were lovely colours but the consistency wasn't right for an event like this as they're actually quite sheer and you need gloopy matt lipstick to recreate vintage looks. However, they'll be fantastic summer lipsticks and I'll definitely be wearing these as a 'day' lip, even at work I'd get away with it.

It was such a great event to go to and I know there's one again in June so if you want any tips on how to do Victory rolls then let me know

Right I'd better go - those socks aren't going to Make-Do and Mend themselves...xox

Tuesday Tip #4 - Eyeliner

Glamorous 'Retro' Eyeliner
The easiest thing to do to give yourself a little vintage glam is the eyeliner flick which got progressively bigger from the 40's through to the 60's. No matter what other make up you have on your face or what you're wearing, this is a nod to a bygone era which will change you from 'half asleep' to 'hottie' in seconds. 
I wear this look for myself, not because I want men to 'fancy me' but because it's my own little homage to the women of the past and it's the one part of my personality I can get away with displaying at work (more than I can with hair and clothes).

But it's worth noting that the look can really only be achieved with liquid eyeliner that has a brush attachment, or a brush and an eyeliner pot - don't buy those crappy pointy foam wands (like the one below) which are meant to make life easier because they just won't work. It's hard to tell from the pics but this is too rigid...

I bought this one by mistake once when I wanted a brown liquid eyeliner, but I kept it as it does have a use even though it's not it's intended use: I think it's really good to use to put a beauty spot on when you're doing vintage looks like Marilyn or Jean Harlow. Pencil is a bad idea for that - use one of these instead.
Anyway, the liquid eyeliner I use at the moment is a Rimmel one that looks like this...

as it's one I bought ages ago. Now that I'm selling Avon I've ordered an eyeliner brush and Supershock Eyeliner so I'll let you know how I get on with those when they arrive. (I think it'll be better for late 50's looks more than anything, as eyeliner got thicker then) but I'll give it a go so I know whether to recommend it or not. The basic idea is that the bristles are what allow you to 'glide' and create the winged effect, so anything too rigid is just more hassle, not less. Also, take a look at the below pic:

Any Marilyn Monroe tutorial that tells you to use a black liquid eyeliner is totally wrong - she wore a brown pencil! I'm not a pencil eyeliner user (in general) but I've ordered an Avon one, especially because Pixiwoo recommended it (below) and I'm going to show you how to recreate the Marilyn look at the next Cake It On. 

It's soooo interesting the lengths she went to with her make-up, and last time I re-created the process it did make me look quite like her!

Just as a final thought, Pixiwoo are usually really incredible at doing vintage make-up tutorials such as Elizabeth Taylor and Marlene Dietrich so check them out on their YouTube Channel :) See you soon xox