How Flappers Made Makeup Mainstream

Smithsonian's Threaded blog is publishing a series on the flappers of the Roaring Twenties. The introduction post explains some of the reasons young women changed their style so dramatically as the 1920s dawned. Part two addresses the rise of makeup, which was not all that common earlier.

In the decades before the Roaring Twenties, nice girls didn’t wear makeup. But that changed when flappers began applying cosmetics that were meant to be noticed, a reaction to the subdued and feminine pre-war Victorian attitudes and styles typified by the classic Gibson girl.

Before the 1920s, makeup was a real pain to put on. It’s no wonder women kept it to a minimum. The tubes, brushes and compacts we take for granted today hadn’t yet been invented. Innovations in cosmetics in the ’20s made it much easier for women to experiment with new looks. And with the increasing popularity of movies, women could mimic the stars—like Joan Crawford, Mae Murray and Clara Bow, an American actress who epitomized the flapper’s spitfire attitude and heavily made-up appearance.

Read how technical innovations made different kinds of makeup convenient for women at Threaded. Link

And check back for future posts on flappers in the series. Link


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My mom used to have some cake mascara just like that when I was a kid. Must have been enough of a pain to use that she quit messing with it, because she still doesn't make up her eyes. She won't, however, leave the house without her lipstick on.
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Jeez guys, you posted this same one a couple months ago, but it was kids playing baseball. Exact story otherwise, right down to the missing coins. If you're going to run a puzzle series, could you try not to repeat yourself so soon, and try to make them even slightly tricky?
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Maybe the treed balloon was there all night or a mylar balloon. And the other balloons had helium in them but it leaks out at a slow rate. Haven't you ever gotten a bunch of helium balloons and after a day they are just barely floating or not floating at all. They still look filled but helium will escape thru rubber balloons at a faster rate than mylar balloons.
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