Sex and the Single Girl: The Unmarried Woman's Guide to Men (26 page)

The chap who strolls under my window at Hollywood and Vine with his soft flowing brown beard and wavy brown hair, sheathed in the latest gunny-sack dress and barefoot, is
natural—
but appealing only to barbers! If we all ever went really
au naturel
we’d scare each other to death.

The natural look is what we get
used
to. One generation it’s bee-stung lips, the next it’s the Bardot pout. It hasn’t been
no lipstick at all
for millenniums, except for a brief abortive fad recently. The girl who sticks with the pale coloring God gave her, when everybody else is tawny and sun-bronzed, is the one who looks spooky.

Make-up as introduced by the ancients was never intended to deceive, just enchant. In Egypt, long before Cleopatra’s time, girls painted their eyes black all the way around with kohl to give them a distinctive almond shape. In the waning days of the Roman Empire, women rouged their bosoms and knees. How about
that
!

If you’ll stop thinking the ultimate good is to wear as
little
make-up as you can possibly get away with and employ all of it that can add lure to you, you’ll be happier!

Of course, you want the color to be true … your brand new flaming red hair to look as though it had
always
flamed. And you want the foundation to look like your skin—only better!

OBJECTION
6: You haven’t the courage to face the results of looking glamorous every single day.

You’d be saying to the world, “Look, I’m a beauty! Or at least I’m
acting
like a beauty!” And people who “act” any role with authority are apt to be taken at their own value. Think hard. Is it possible you’re a little afraid to be
on—
in the limelight—every single day. If your make-up were always flawless, you’d be making an open bid for attention. You’d probably get it. Then you’d have to follow through with no telling
what
kind of adventures.

Yet maybe, just maybe, you could steel yourself to the disagreeableness of being looked at and admired, once it happened. Worth a try?

Where To Begin

Would you like some make-up secrets of the stars? I’m not about to give them to you. I don’t
know
any!

I take that back. I know one blonde bombshell with twin initials who wears white eyeshadow all the way around her eyes, then outlines them a good eighth of an inch bigger with a black pencil. But you wouldn’t like it. That doesn’t even look natural to
me
!

Make-up secrets of famous women are really not all that special … or secret. If you read every last one of every last dazzler, they wouldn’t be any different, nor as interesting, as the excellent “how to” beauty pages of
Glamour
or any of the other excellent women’s magazines.

And anyway … the foundation that does wonders for Jean Simmons might leave
you
looking ectoplasmic.

Movie stars and models use the best foundation they can find, the best mascara, the best lipstick … the same stuff that’s available to you and me. No cosmetic maker is hiding anything on the back shelves for them. If you’ve got the money, he’s got the desire to sell you.

Whatever you read isn’t going to do you one little itty bit of good anyway until you try it! Five magazine articles can tell you to sharpen your eyebrow pencil to a fine point and sketch in extra brows, and that won’t sharpen
you
while you’re still doing a crossword puzzle and sipping Cokes.

I can’t begin to write down all the instructions for putting on make-up because that’s a book by itself. Furthermore, I think I can be much more helpful to you by bullying you into acquiring some new cosmetics and insisting that you start the fun and games with them this minute.

I
am
going to jot down a few special tricks I’ve learned while working on a cosmetic account in an advertising agency for three years, as well as some basic truths you may have misplaced.

Lips

Since they’re virtually colorless, you can do marvels at changing their size and shape with color. I
know
because I draw on a completely different mouth than my own every day of my life. Takes about thirteen stop lights.

Go fuller or smaller, or even up one side. Jeanne extends her upper lip line slightly out beyond its natural border, but doesn’t do it to her lower lip. I don’t know why, but it looks terrific.

What’s the matter you aren’t using a lipstick brush? Got the shakes? The holdouts? The stubborns? Do you think people keep telling you to use a brush because they don’t like you?

It isn’t that complicated, honest, and a brush is absolutely vital if you’re to achieve the chiseled, beautifully modeled lips men like to commit to sculpture … or kisses. Remember “natural” means smooth, even, flowing lines … no fuzzy edges. You can’t possibly do any reshaping without a brush.

If you already have the beautiful lip line of Ava Gardner, all the more reason to make it more lush with a brush. (My copywriting training crops out every once in a while.) Outline first, lips closed, then part your lips and go round and round them with the tube. Stroke on positive, generous color. Carry it just inside the lips too. Blotting takes away something (like half the shine!), so I don’t. Check your teeth in ten minutes to see if
they’ve
been blotting.

I prefer a thin black brush like a watercolor brush. You can buy these in an art store. The long handle makes it easy to use. I keep three lip brushes—one for oranges, one for pinks, one for true reds—out on a bathroom shelf where they’re easy to get to.

Have a wardrobe of lipsticks … from pale to passionate. Although some shades will look better on you than others, you can probably wear two dozen successfully! lipstick that exactly matches an item of clothing is pure chic … not just nearly matches but
really
matches … the cyclamen of your blouse, the pink of your headband. Hot orange (
orange
, not orangey) with an orange knit swim suit … the
most
!

Take every trace of stale lipstick off in the morning before you put on the day’s new. (You took it off the night before, but make doubly sure.) Soap and water on a washcloth does it best.

Eyes

You need mascara, eyebrow pencil, fluid eyeliner, brush, shadow in several shades and a regular brushy eye brush …
all
of these for eye-citement! Your look will more than justify the investment because eyes, above all, respond to make-up.

Jeanne outlines her not too large eyes with jet black fluid eyeliner all across the upper lids around the outer eye halfway across the under lid … almost Egyptian fashion. Her eyes look twice as definite and important.

Alice uses liner from the center of the upper eyelid to the outer edge, ending it in wing-swept effect beyond the eye.

Some authorities say eye shadow mustn’t show … it’s just supposed to be a
shadow.
Piffle poofle to that! Why shouldn’t eye shadow show when it’s so pretty?

Marguerite wears eye shadow to match her dress every day, and
it
shows … enchantingly. One day her blue mist shadow exactly duplicates the shade of a blue silk blouse. Another day it’s chartreuse to match a chartreuse frock. With a persimmon-red suit she strokes on black eyeshadow … one of the most glamorous hues ever hued for blondes. It makes Marguerite look like Lorelei in
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
… insouciant and devastating.

Iridescent brown carried beyond the edges of huge brown eyes makes them huger.

Nearly everybody says to blend your eyeshadow all over your eyelid. Well, that happens to make my eyes disappear, so I wear a heavy, narrow ribbon of color right next to the lashes. Winifred blends her shadow not only over the lid but all the way up to the eyebrow.

Marguerite powders over shadow to keep it set all day. (Powder absorbs oil and prevents streaking.) “Setting” seems to dim my shadow, so I skip it. You must experiment to see what
you
think.

For a real glamour touch, dust sparkles from a small bottle—silver, gold or pink and blue—high on the lids. They shimmer and they stay.

Instead of the standard sharp pencil to thicken brows (a pencil sharpener
is
a great honer), try fluid eye-liner on a brush practically wiped dry. Just stroke, stroke, stroke in extra little brows.

Agnes uses black
and
brown eye pencil to get a very believable shading of brows; then she brushes to “subtle” the color.

Keep your brow brush where you can get
to
it. If it’s in plain sight, you’ll remember to brush your brows and lashes as often as you do your hair. I keep a brush in my purse and office desk drawer too.

Here’s the recipe for really thick, sooty eyelashes: apply mascara; then separate lashes with your brow brush. Dust them with talc or face powder. Apply another coat of mascara, brush again, and another coat of powder. Brush again. Apply mascara one last time.

To have even thicker, sootier lashes get false ones!

The best cost about four and a half dollars, and those are the only kind to bother with. I think you’ll love them if you’ll just
try
them! They are so utterly flattering, so able to make you feel
femme fatale.

Trim off a quarter inch or so from the original length and buy a tube of Johnson & Johnson’s adhesive to put them on with. Give yourself plenty of time. Jeanne has cut hers in half and wears them only toward the outer eye. I like mine full-blown and Southern belle.

Why even pretend they’re real lashes? Do you try to convince people your chiffon cocktail dress is real skin?

Rouge

If you think rouge went out with the Stubs Bearcat and tea-dancing, you’ll be pleasantly shocked at how pretty and “blossomy” it makes you. Creme rouge is a snap to apply. Place in the middle of your cheeks if they’re full … high up and far out on the cheekbone if your face is thin. You
can
rouge your earlobes—and make them blush.

Make-Up (Foundation)

Fluids, tubes, cakes, compacts, sticks—they’re
all
good. Isn’t it bewildering? I can’t tell you which one is right for you. I don’t see why your complexion should wear the same look every day. Why not have the lady-in-the-drawing-room matte finish on one occasion (from the new tube make-ups), a dewy schoolgirl glow the next (from fluids).

The two most glamorous make-ups I know are Anita d’ Foged Day Dew—all creamy and blendy and blemish-hiding—and Max Factor’s Pan-Cake. I started using Pan-Cake twenty-two years ago to hide acne scars, and I still don’t think there’s anything like it for changing mere skin into porcelain.

This trick I learned from Max Factor’s make-up director, Hal King. When your make-up is complete, go over it—with powder to set it—puff, puff, puff. Then with a small damp silk sponge go over
that—
pat, pat, pat. This gives your face an
alive
fresh look.

No need to clobber your neck and shoulders with a coating. If you’ve picked the
right
shade make-up for your face, just blend it down barely under your chin.

There’s no easy way to
find
your best shade. An experienced saleswoman should be able to help. After years of mistakes you finally can tell by looking whether it’s too pink, too tan, too pale or just right for you. Usually it should be darker in the bottle than your skin is.

Want to reshape your face?

Use
darker
make-up than
you
to make an area smaller, pale and light to make it larger.

To minimize a big nose, run a streak of dark make-up right down its center. To make it shorter, concentrate the dark make-up at the tip end.

To make a protruding chin smaller, smooth dark make-up over it.

To make a “weak” chin stronger, use a
light
shade.

To give a round face contours, apply dark make-up in hollows of cheeks.

To set eyes farther apart, apply a light shade between them.

Powder or use your regular fluid make-up over all the re-contouring.

When
don’t
you wear make-up?

My husband told me of a girl he used to go with who never let him see her in the morning without her “face” on. (He didn’t say just how early in the morning this
was
!) I think that girl was missing a bet.

It’s great fun to be
super
natural at times. Alone with him in your apartment is the best occasion to play Lady Eve. Leave off your lipstick and let your freckles show. He knows you as a glamour girl. Let him see you as a kitten.

Fingernails

Gorgeous nails can make you look rich and pampered. Ever notice how wealthy women’s toes and fingernails are nearly always freshly lacquered … not gone over with ninety coats of new polish?

A good manicure should last a week, however.

Start with Sally Hansen’s “Hard as Nails” (59 cents at the drugstore). Hardly
anything
manages to break off under it. Use three coats of polish. Between coats, you can lie down in bed and read. Let them get
really
dry. Now a top coat. Here’s a manicure you can
peel
off in six days, if that’s your weakness.

All polish seems to deteriorate in the bottle, so don’t try to keep too many shades.

If you have scruffy nails, the Knox Gelatin people have some impressive research to show their product, downed daily, makes your nails hale and hearty. Use one package in fruit juice, water, milk, cocoa or whatever you drink. (P.S. Us health nuts have strong nails anyway.)

Hands

I once asked a beautician how to make hair grow, and she said, “You won’t do it, but I’ll tell you. Pull on it every night about an hour while you’re watching television or reading. Just take a hunk at a time and pull.” I resented her saying I wouldn’t do it, and she was so right!

You won’t do this either, but I’ll tell you how to have nice hands. Goop them with cream at bedtime and wear soft white little cotton gloves (35 cents at the drugstore) all night. Your hands come out like kitty fur and velvet next morning.

Massage your hands with lotion—feet too, okay?—every possible chance. It’s a good idea to keep cheap lotion in your bath, bedroom, kitchen, car and desk. Very Lady Macbeth, all that rubbing, but it definitely softens.