Roughly six months ago, a good friend of mine organized a vintage party. Due to it’s success she revisited the concept and this time the theme was 1920s, 1930s AND 1940s inspired. Since last time I dressed up as a Roaring Twenties flapper girl (click here if you’d like to see that), I decided to do things differently this time. I had a look at my closet and found out I already had the perfect outfit for a 1940s inspired look. With some googling and the help of Youtube I also found the perfect hair tutorial and the make up I pretty much figured out myself. This is my completed 1940s inspired look (and I will also tell you how I created it).
NB: Excuse the lighting and the overkill in pictures, but I had to use flash and since this is a how to + showcasing a very particular look in one go, I decided that there is no such thing as too many pictures.
Wavy hair: check. Winged eyeliner: check. Bold red lip: check. If you want to know what my inspiration was, then check out this picture of Christina Aguilera for my hair look inspiration, this picture of Dita von Teese for my make up inspiration and this picture of Veronica Lake (a 1940s actress/ pin up girl) for the overall feel I was going for.
This is just my hair and make up though, you will find outfit pictures if you scroll further down. First, I will go over the steps I took to create this look. I started with the hair because it took the most time. Approximately 6 hours before I had to get ready I sat down to put my hair up in pin curls to create the pin curl waves you see in the pictures above. For this I used this two part video tutorial (part 1, part 2). I tried out the hair on Friday night but my hair was too clean and I didn’t wait long enough. So I started with dirty hair (I simply skipped a day of washing it), added two hands full of mousse on my lengths and dosed my roots in dry shampoo. All that just to give it a bit of texture. I then took 1 inch pieces of hair, wetting each strain with my fingers, then rolling the hair around my fingers and bobby pinning it to my head. I ended up looking like a retro housewife:
After letting it set and dry thoroughly for about 5 – 6 hours, I removed the hair pins and ended up with Medusa hair:
I then used a rounded brush to brush out the curls, folding them in towards my fave on one side, while brushing them outwards on the other. Since my hair is cut in layers the result is not as uniform as in the video, but after about 30 minutes of brushing and a whole lot of hairspray, I pinned one side behind my ear with a bobby pin and ended up with this result:
Ah! No make up, so let’s complete the look. After applying a full face of make up I looked like this:
I used quite a bit of foundation and concealer to make sure I evened out my skin tone as much as possible, which I paired with a neutral matte blush and a matte bronzer to shape my face ever so slightly. I drew on my eyebrows much heavier than I normally would using a darker pencil and making them very full and extending them a bit, but keeping my natural shape. The eyes were simple: I used a base to even out my eyelid color, applied matte white eyeshadow to my brown bone and all over the lid. I used a matte ashy brown color to my crease to add a bit of shading. Next I used a black liquid eyeliner to line my eyes and create a wing by utilizing a piece of sellotape/ scotch. For my lips I first lined and filled in my lips with a red lipliner. I topped it up with a matte red lipstick. I opted for adding false lashes but since they broke and I only had 5 minutes left, I left them out.
Products used:
Face: MAC Face & Body foundation in C1, MAC Studio Sculpt concealer in NW15, MAC Prep & Prime Transparent pressed finishing powder, NARS blush in Sex Appeal, Sephora disk bronzer in Light, Famous bronzer/ highlighter in Shade 1: Miami.
Brows: Benefit brow pencil in medium, HEMA eyebrow gel.
Eyes: Too Face Shadow Insurance, MAC Painterly Paint Pot, Bodyshop eyeshadow in no. 13, MAC eyeshadow in Omega, L’Oreal Superliner in black, Maybelline One by One mascara in black, MAC Chromagraphic eyeliner pencil in NW15/20.
Lips: Essence lip liner in Red Blush, MAC Russian Red matte lipstick.
Complete Look
For the complete look, I kept things simple outfit and accessories wise. I wore a nude dress with a black lace cover which I bought years ago. I wore black maryjanes with a t-bar strap and black pantyhoses with a seam along the back. It’s all in the detail!
What I’m wearing:
– Black lace covered dress (M&S mode)
– Black pantyhoses (Bijenkorf)
– Black mary jane shoe (Manfield)
Accessories: faux pearl necklace (Claire’s), matching ring & earrings (my grandma’s)
Once more the complete look. Let me know in a comment below what you think. Did I succeed in creating a 1940s style?
P.S. I also shot some video during the party. So if you want to get a feel for what it was like, then have a look here.
24 responses to “1940s Hollywood glamour inspired look”
Wow deze stijl staat je echt goed! Je bent er absoluut goed in geslaagd!
Thanks!
Goed gelukt! die jurk staat ook echt GOED 😉 volgens mij had je zo’n exemplaar ook aan op onze bruiloft 😉
Dit is idd dezelfde jurk!
Je ziet er stunning uit! De make-up, de kleding, alles klopt. Mooi gedaan! 🙂
Dankjewel voor je lieve comment.
Wauw je haaaaaarrr!! Wat een prachtige krullen zeg, je ziet er echt super uit!
Dankjewel 🙂 Was zelf ook erg tevreden met het resultaat.
Te gek! Echt een heel geslaagde look! Staat je heel mooi. En volgens mij zag ik je vorige week donderdagavond in de Hema in Utrecht 🙂
Dankjewel! En ja dat kan. Ik was aan het shoppen met een vriendin en we hebben bij de HEMA wat gekocht en later nog wat gedronken.
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