A Lesson in 1950s Eyebrows from 1,000 Hints Beauty Magazine

Beautiful Eyebrows from the 1950s

Here is another vintage makeup lesson courtesy of 1,000 Hints Beauty Magazine. We are now on to eyebrows. I personally feel that eyebrows are one of the most important parts of a makeup routine. Shaped and filled correctly, they can make you look younger, happier, more put together. Left alone or done poorly, they can make you look sad, angry, even sick. Please ladies, if you do not bother with any other beauty routine because you are tired or in a hurry, please do not neglect your eyebrows!

The article doesn’t say that. That is how I honestly feel. But on to what 1952 and Ms. Mary Brown thinks you should do to your eyebrows.

Full Article

Give Your Eyes A Lift
Your eyes can look larger and farther apart if your brows are skillfully shaped and pencilled.

“She raised one shapely eyebrow and considered him coolly before replying.” That’s the kind of thing you come across in your reading now and then. Doesn’t it make you realize that people are always noticing eyebrows? It is likely, too, that our heroine had calculated, to the last hair, how wide or narrow her brows were to be to lend distinctive beauty to her face. Eyes can look larger and farther apart if brows are discreetly tweezed; the complexion creamier in contrast with delicately pencilled arches. Re-shaping eyebrows is one of those beauty tricks which doesn’t cost more than the price of a pair of tweezers and a long-lasting eyebrow pencil.

If you want to experiment with your brows to see what shape best fits your face, blot out the brows you have with foundation, using an applicator of cotton to help the last traces disappear. Then begin to play; beauty experiments are fun. Draw in the lines you think you would like to have, but always feather them, Don’t draw a hard line that couldn’t possibly look like a natural eyebrow. Try a natural arch, a V-shape, a straight across pattern, or one that slants toward the temples if you long for the slightly exotic. Elongate them-shorten them-raise them-lower them, all without plucking out a single hair.The results during your experiments might be a little shaggy, but it will give you the general idea of how you would look with some other eyebrow style.

The average girl approaches her eyebrow problems with just one implement usually, her tweezers. Sometimes, however, there’s a special problem, such as heavy, long brows. More women than you guess have brows that are too long and there problems are not eliminated by tweezing them out wholesale. A hair-cut is indicated; First brush the brows upward with an eyebrow or water-softened mascara brush. Then clip the brows that extend beyond the natural brow line at top. When you brush them after that, you will find that they sit neither up or down, but are in a delightfully arched position that is not changed by there growing in. They’ll grow back, of course, but you can trim them again when they need it. This cutting doesn’t make the eyebrows grow longer. After you have clipped the hairs which extend beyond the top edge of your brows, pluck out, with your tweezers, any stray hairs below your brows or over the bridge of the nose.

Darken the brows with a pencil, if necessary. Light, little hair-length strokes, just as though penciling in single hairs, give a natural effect.

According to the article, the most flattering eyebrow shapes for face shapes went as follows. I have added the tidbits of actresses to give you readers a better understanding of what the face shapes with the eyebrow shape look like in lifelike form.

If a face is long, eyebrows straight across give appearance if width illustrated by Cathy Downs.

An upside-down V-shape is usually flattering on a broad or square face illustrated by Jane Russell.

While the ideal oval looks well with eyebrows of any shape, a delicate arch is best illustrated by Joan Weldon.

If the oval face has almond-shaped eyes, however, brows slanting to the temple are most becoming illustrated by Elana Eden.

Read more from the 1950s vintage beauty guide 1,000 Hints Beauty Magazine:

• Introduction
• Lesson…Blush/Rouge
• Lesson…Eyebrows
• Lesson…Lipstick
• Lesson…Foundation
• Lesson…Eyeshadow, Eyeliner, Mascara
• Lesson…Contouring