Buy
it now
Vintage Face
by Angela Bjork, Daniela Turudich
Bombshells.Com
Rating
|
Vintage
Face
This
book intrigued me since it came out last year and I couldn't
resist picking it up. A little disheartened by the negative
"reviews" on Amazon by alleged "make-up artists"
about this book made me a bit apprehensive about its' content.
What I found was a pleasant surprise.
The
book's prologue states that it is by no means a definitive
guide of makeup techniques from the 20s - 50s, but an overview,
with this in mind, I read the book in one sitting. One of
the complaints of the negative Amazon reviews was that it
didn't give good enough diagrams. Not being a professional
"make-up artist," frankly, I fully understood what
the author and editor was describing in their pages and if
a "make-up artist" can't figure it out, perhaps
they are in the wrong profession. The only thing I didn't
like about the book, is that I wished it had the color palettes
printed in the era of makeup it was describing. It does have
some of the colors of the eras printed on the back cover of
the book though. However, for example, I think most people
know the difference between a bright red and a dark-red. Another
complaint by the "make-up artists" was that the
authors chose to publish various recipes and processes that
women of the past eras created their cosmetics with. Stating
it was "irresponsible" to publish these recipes,
my response is this, if you can't read the disclaimer
that these recipes are there for informative purposes only,
not recommended to try at home and you think it's okay to
use Borax in eye shadow, you are probably not the brightest
bulb on the tree. Come on, let's be realistic about this.
Throughout history women have made cosmetics with some strange,
unusual and sometimes dangerous ways. What we know now is
wonderful, however, does that mean we should be ignorant to
our past and not acknowledge the old processes? I think not.
Without getting into too much of a tirade about our modern
"politically correct" litigant society, I am sick
and tired of the "no tolerance" attitudes that people
hold today and their own inability to take responsibility
for their own actions. ("It's not my fault I put Borax
in my eyes! The book SAID I could!" - Yeah, whatever,
get a clue.)
But,
I digress, okay, back to other details about the book. If
you are actually interested in the history and culture of
cosmetics in the early part of the 20th century, than this
book is definitely for you, but if you are looking for pretty
pictures and step-by-step diagrams about how to apply your
makeup, move on. Maybe you should pickup the Color
Me Beautiful Makeup Book by Carole Jackson. This book
is definitely for the thinking woman who wants to find out
about the old techniques and attempt to incorporate them into
their own beauty regimen.
Original
review, written by Dawn Marie, Bombshells.Com, 2002 ©
|
