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History of  Makeup The Evolution of Beauty Through TimeHistory of Makeup
The 1950s Era

1950s Makeup: The Finished Face

A lipstick that promised to stay, colour sold by the season, and makeup sold between the questions on prime-time television: the decade that built the machinery of modern beauty.

The essayThe Finished Face

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A 1950s collage: a black-and-white photograph of a woman with set curls, arched brows and a dark lipped smile on the screen of a wood-cased television, with a gilt lipstick, an engraved mascara and its brush, an open compact, a stick foundation and a fashion drawing of a woman in a red dress.
Commissioned illustration
1950 – 1959Polish & Persuasion
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The 1950s Era: The Chronology

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In short

The 1950s opened with Hazel Bishop’s long-lasting lipstick and the race it started, sold colour by the season and makeup on prime-time television, and ended with the automatic mascara moving attention from the mouth to the eye.

The 1950s Era at a Glance

  • A Red That StaysThe decade opened on a race to make lipstick last.
  • Sold on TelevisionSponsors bought whole programmes to sell a shade.
  • New FormatsSticks, automatic pencils and mascara in a case.
  • Fashion FairA touring show that put Black models on the runway from 1958.

In the 1950s Era

Polish & Persuasion

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Ingredients

What the face was made of