The Lipstick of Summer: Coral

Leave a comment June 20, 2016 aimeevictorianarmoire

I have exactly one tube of coral lipstick. I wear it maybe once or twice a summer and only on occasions when I am feeling bold or adventurous. I am not sure where the hesitation comes from, but I find coral to be a brighter color to wear than red. Sometimes I feel the need to talk myself up to slathering on a layer….a problem I never have when it comes to wearing hot pink?

But apart from my own oddities, coral truly is the happiest of colors to wear during the summer months. It speaks of sun, health, and (in my case) courage! But just like many colors, not every shade of coral works on every skin shade. You have to play around a bit to find that perfect blend which adds to your overall glow… not the other way around.

To help you on your search, I have found four lovely shades of coral in differing color tones, finishes, and prices! I hope they encourage you (as they have me) to embrace this happy, “beachy” color!

Maybeline Coral Ambition $8

Maybeline Color Whisper – Coral Ambition

MAC Ablaze $17

MAC Ablaze Bright Apricot Cream Matte

Rich and Famous Coral Lombard $26

Rich and Famous Coral Lombard

Besame Cosmetics Carmine $22

Carmine Lipstick

So go and let your lips match the wonderful summer fun around you!

First Aid For Hair: A Fun Look at Your Face’s Neighbor and Best Friend

3 Comments September 25, 2015 aimeevictorianarmoire

“Next door neighbor and best friend to your face – your hair! How have you been treating it? Something like this – if I know women: flipping a comb through it several times a day, giving it a painstaking wave once a week and a casual shampoo when decency demands it, and otherwise doing nothing whatever for it. “Long may it wave!” is the modern maiden’s prayer for her top knot. She asks for Francois at the hairdresser’s because he has a deft way with the curl over her ear. To her the fact that he skimps on rubbing and rinsing and often leaves soap on her hair is unimportant beside the fact that he gives the best wave in town.

This is all wrong. To keep its nice, healthy color and luster, your hair must have proper care – most of it simple and inexpensive, but necessary. I wish I could make every woman who reads this article realize the importance of brushing. I am told that there are women nowadays who don’t even own a hair brush, and I am certain that very few of us use one as often as we should. Brushing for a few minutes night and morning accomplishes surprising results. It cleans the hair of an amazing amount of dust. It distributes oil the length of the hair and thus helps to keep it glossy and free from split ends and that dry, strawy look that annoys so many women. Try fifty stroke morning and evening, and I promise you your hair won’t be listless and stringy.

Next in importance to daily brushing and massage, is the shampoo. Hair can not be clean-smelling, healthy, and manageable unless it is washed often. Just how often depends on whether your hair is dry or oil, whether you live in the country or in a city, and what the climate is. Wash your hair when it looks dull or oily, when the brush shows undue grime, when you notice dandruff. Wash it more frequently in warm weather when the scalp perspires.

Another interesting product (prepared shampoo) is a help to blondes whose hair begins to get oily and darker three or four days after a shampoo. By applying it sparingly, letting it dry, and brushing out the white deposit what has absorb the extra oil, you can make your hair fluffy and bright without disturbing a marcel.

Blondes also like a lemon rinse because it is believe to have a slight bleaching action. It also helps to remove soap curds from the hair, especially if the water used is hard. A little brilliantine will give gloss and softness to the hair that seems too dry after the shampoo.

There would be more lovely coiffures if every woman knew how to give herself a wave. Even after a permanent, many women are helpless without a hairdresser, and very few can do anything with straight hair. Lack of patience and practice is usually to blame. If you are starting out determine to be your own hairdresser, it is a good idea to watch an expert do your hair in order to see just where the waves are placed and how the curls are made. Then buy a good wave-set, some fine hairpins, a net, and some curlers. Wash your hair, and while it is still wet, apply the wave lotion generously. Now puts the waves in place, fasten them with pins, curl up the ends – if you have the short curly coiffure so much in vogue – slip on the net and pin it tight, and let your hair dry thoroughly. The first time may not be a complete success, but try it again. Before long you will be waving your hair as naturally as you now shampoo it.”

I like the last part – “the first time may not be a complete success, but try it again.” So true!

Happy Styling!

~Aimee

Source: Good Housekeeping: Volume 95 Number 3, September 1932

Give Yourself a Manicure: 1940’s Style

5 Comments August 12, 2015 aimeevictorianarmoire

I have been an avid home-manicurest for ages! I love having polish on my nails as I feel more put together and, well, polished. I like to think that I have a pretty good routine down and have learned all the tricks of the trade. So while researching for this month’s theme, I came across an article on performing an at-home manicure from a 1940’s magazine. I was quite surprised to learn, that even though I take great care of my hands, I was neglecting proper care of my nails. While I have to say this process takes about 45 minutes, the quality of the manicure is greatly improved from my normal routine of 15 minutes and the polish lasts a bit longer.

The article itself featured black and white drawing that were very difficult to see, so I have created a visual of my own adventure but with the actual text from the magazine. Enjoy!

1. Begin by laying out implements

You will need file, emery, orange stick, cotton, bowl of suds, oil, nail white, cuticle softener, nippers or scissors, buffer, polish and remover, clear sealing coat, towel, and facial tissues. Don’t work on your lap, a spill or seeping from remover-soaked cotton may ruin your clothes. Besides, you cannot brace your hands properly. (I work on an old book)

2. First remove old polish.

Moisten a piece of cotton with remover. Don’t make it soaking wet, just dampen it. Hold it on the nail a few moments until the polish softens. Then rub from the base of the nail to the top. Do it neatly, so that you don’t get old polish all over your fingers. Never scrape off vestiges of old polish with metal file. Instead, take them off with an orange stitck you have dipped in remover.

3. Next, shape the nails.

If your nails are strong or need to be shortened, use a metal file. If they are fragile or need only smoothing, use an emery board. Hold the file slightly under the nail at an oblique angle. This is important. Stroke from the side over the center. Don’t move the hand you are working on. Move the file. Round nails to round-based ovals, not to points.

4. Then, soften the cuticle.

Soak in warm suds. It is a major mistake, made by most women, to neglect this step – a mistake that results in an unkempt cuticle. (This step added to the overall smoothness of the polish and longevity too.)

Dry and apply cuticle remover. Never use a bulky swab for these jobs. Do this. Moisten an orange stick and roll it lightly over cotton to pick up this semitransparent film.

5. And push back the cuticle.

Hold the pusher, or cotton-tipped stick flat on the nail and push towards the base. Work steadily by lightly. Hard pressure or digging may unjust both nail and cuticle.

(I forgot to mention that it never hurts to have a skinny Caramel Frappucino while you do your nails. 😉 )

Now, scrub the nail with a brush and soapy water, rinse in clear water and dry. Rub with the towel to dislodge any clinging particles of dead cuticle left on the nail.

6. Now shape the cuticle.

Manicurist advise as little cutting as possible; but if the cuticle is heavy or uneven, trim it with manicure scissors or nippers. Never cut deeply. Nails need this delicate frame.

7. Always buff the nails.

This is a step most women neglect, and it is a most helpful one. It planes the nails slightly, so that they do not split so readily, and it leaves a dry smooth surface for polish. Buff lengthwise from base to tip ins tread of crosswise as most people do. This polishes and smooths the entire nail, not just the center.

8. Finally apply polish.

Brace the working hand, lay the other flat, and use a medium-full brush. Too much polish will run to the sides; to little will streak. Learn to make three deft strokes: One, around the moon and up one side. Two, over the center. Three, cover the other side. With the cushion of the thumb, take off a thin line of polish at the edge of nail.

IMPORTANT: There are apparently ways that one should paint their nails based on nail bed shape. Look at the accompanying diagram to find your particular one and make sure to polish accordingly! I apparently have spatulate shaped nails.

Take some personal time to give yourself a truly luxurious and vintage manicure. I guarantee you will feel 100 times better for it!

~Aimee

Source: Good Housekeeping: Volume 115, Number 2, August 1942

Beauty vs. Personality: An Easy Decision

1 Comment August 5, 2015 aimeevictorianarmoire

I know, I know. You have heard it so many times before. “It’s isn’t what’s on the outside but the inside the matters.” Or, “pretty is as pretty does.” Or” looks fade, but a sweet spirit endures.” Well, my friends, stop hearing and go ahead and start believing!

But don’t take just my word for it. A 1920’s beauty expert explains it better:

“If being attractive were merely a matter of good looks, one might with justice feel that the cards had been stacked and a few fortunate personas had drawn all the trump. But, the appeal of beauty is transient. Having no roots, it quickly dies, and one turns for refreshment either to a new type or back to a personality that interests or stimulates or that has in some was grown grateful.

There are two or three women who always have, or always will, stand out in my mind as being singularly attractive. I recall one, in particular. I remember most distinctly the lovely line of her head in profile as it was revelared by the simple arrangement of her hair. Nor shall I forget the whole graceful picture she made in her invariable costume of dark blue, so plainly made that it stood out among the costumes of the day. She understood the art of making herself beautiful in a distinctly individual manner. But suppose she had been only a beautiful picture. You can imagine the disappointment one would have felt if, behind an exterior of so much promise, there had been only an empty head and heart.

We talk a lot about the subtle and indefinable charm of personality. Everyone admits that it is more powerful than beauty or than intelligence. You often see a woman of fascinating personality who is not beautiful, but did you ever see such a woman who was not at all intelligent? I am positive that you never did, for personality is primarily a quality of the mind. It is the result of a warm, alive, dynamic intelligence – a combination of heart and brain, of feeling and thinking.

Let no woman feel that because the gods have seen unfit to endow her with beauty, she must take her place among the unattractive. She may have had a better opportunity than her fairer sisters to cultivate the rarer graces of mind and heart. And no woman who is alert, intelligence, and always warmly and sincerely responsive can long be unattractive.”

I hope you join all our fellow sisters by laughing harder, helping more, and valuing each other.

What a great group we shall all be!

~Aimee

Cover Photo by: Arvid Frederick Nyholm – “Woman Seated at Her Vanity”

Source: Inspiration, 1925