The history of beauty – shaping our future

I have long been inspired by make up artist Lisa Eldridge – she is so skilled and passionate about her work and I love watching her tutorials and reading about her latest work at http://www.lisaeldridge.com.

Recently Lisa has been producing a video series on the history of beauty and I find them so exciting and inspiring that I had to share them with you all. Anyone who truly loves beauty will love learning about the history of beauty, to really appreciate what shaped each decade’s looks and how our industry has got to where it has today. Do not think that beauty history is firmly in the past – it influences everything that happens now.

Lisa’s video series on the history of beauty is based upon her meeting with Madeleine Marsh, a writer and historian who wrote The History of Compacts and Cosmetics: Beauty From Victorian Times to the Present Day. Madeleine’s house is truly amazing – she has a room dedicated to beauty products, advertising and other paraphernalia and I desperately wanted to be there myself to take a closer look at all the products. It is like a museum for beauty products.

Check it out for yourselves:

Beauty – Victorian Era to 1930s

Beauty – 1940s-1970s

(My mum had the Mary Quant tin that appears in this video! Seeing this brought back strong childhood memories of it sitting on her dressing table and me and my sister occasionally being allowed to paint our faces with it. I didn’t know it was Mary Quant until I saw it on this video and it bought a tear to my eye to see it again.)

Look out for Lisa’s final video in the series, covering 1980s-present day beauty, which will be coming soon at http://www.lisaeldridge.com.

I bought Madeleine Marsh’s book: The History of Compacts and Cosmetics: Beauty From Victorian Times to the Present Day the moment I finished watching these videos – you can buy it here

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