When we look at photos of women from the early 1900s, their faces can look remarkably natural.There’s no obviously sculpted eyebrows, glossy lips or contoured cheekbones. Nothing like the makeup we see today. So it made me wonder, did women actually wear makeup when they went to have their photograph taken 100 years ago?
The answer is yes, but perhaps not quite the way we might imagine. The more I looked into it, the more fascinated I became by how much has and hasn’t changed.
Women did use cosmetics, face powder, rouge and lip colour, the aim was often to look naturally healthy and fresh rather than obviously made up. Then I discovered photographers were retouching photographs more than 100 years ago could work directly on the photographic negative to soften skin, remove blemishes and make small changes to someone’s appearance.
One photographer I came across was Lallie Charles who became famous for creating idealised portraits of women, and her work helped shape ideas of feminine beauty during the Edwardian period. Her images appeared in magazines and were collected and circulated widely. The National Portrait Gallery describes her as being generous with her retouching of negatives, producing highly flattering portraits of her clients.
That incredibly smooth skin you see in some old photographs may not have been quite as natural as you think!
The BFI notes that developments in filmmaking including new lighting techniques and the close-up helped drive the development of makeup products and the search for the perfect “film face.” Suddenly, makeup could be much more obvious and creative.