Rouge and Illusion

How to apply Rouge -where and why?

I must say I agree with Mrs Colby, rouge, or blusher as we so unglamourously call it nowadays, is underrated.

A lot of ladies shy away from it because they probably had some mini disaster when they were teenagers and ended up going to the school disco looking like a clown instead of a glamorous lady. So now they fear they will look like a cartoon character or an over made-up doll if they so much as pick up a blusher brush.

But the right blusher in the right place does wonders for your complexion. It freshens the face, gives healthy glow, enhances your features and just overall brightens your look. I can go out without eye make up (almost never happens) without lipstick (rare occasion also) but I never leave the house without blusher.

Which Rouge is right for you?

There are three types of rouges, cream, fluid and dry (that's powder to you and me). Mrs Colby prefers the cream version and I agree, it gives a lovely dewy and natural look. Fluid can be quite difficult and messy to apply and there aren't many around. Powders are by far the easiest to use, so good if you are only discovering the joys of blusher.

So be brave and go shopping. Nars does a fantastic cream blusher, YSL powders are delicious and MAC's cream blusher is fabulous once you learn how to use it.
I find that pinks and reds suit most people, browns can easily make the face look dirty and dull and are best left for contouring the face.

How to apply?

For cream and fluid use your fingers and apply after foundation, before powdering your face. Dot the area indicates for your face type (see below) and blend in the shape you are following, working upward and outward gently until you have a natural effect.

Powder blusher requires a layer of powder on top of the foundation as if applied on foundation it will end up looking blotchy and will be impossible to blend. Use a large flat(tish) brush. Take some colour with the brush, run it over the back of your hand to remove any excess and apply on face in light circular movements.

In an emergency if there's no rouge available, you can substitute with lipstick used like a cream blusher.

Whichever type you use, always start with a tiny amount and build the colour up from there as it is really hard to remove without ruining the rest of your make up.

Now that you know how to put it on, pull out your face chart from yesterday and follow the instructions for your face shape. (These instructions are exactly as per Mrs Colby)

Oval
Rouge from centre of cheek toward temples, lightly up under the eye.

Round
Put your rouge on the outer portion of cheek, blending it up toward temple and down to darker foundation on jaw.

Pear
Rouge in flattened triangle, down from temple, under outer edge of eye, down to darkened jaw.

Square
Place your rouge in circle under eye, blend it up toward temple, down toward darkened jaw.

Oblong
Blend area in centre of cheeks in a softened circle.

Heart
Put rouge on highest point of cheekbone, shading out to temple and down very lightly.

Diamond
Use a broadened circle on wide cheekbone, not low on cheek.

Marquis
Use a full circle that blends back toward ear, shades down toward jaw.

Whilst we are talking about camouflaging our flaws and enhancing the good bits, here' s more top Hollywood tricks from 1952.

Nose:

-thin line of light foundations along bridge of nose elongates, straightens it into a more classic effect

-smuding some dark foundation under the tip shortens it, lightening the bridge and darkening the sides makes a wide flat nose seem higher and narrower

Chin:
-light brings it forward

-dark on the tip of a long chin cuts it down

-dark under double chin, straight along jaw to earlobe cuts it down

Eyes:

-light under eyes and in the inner corners, hides dark shadows

-light under brow corrects eyes that are too close together

-light in the corner from tear duct to brow brings out sunken eyes

-light in the deep crevice of bottom of eye bag or dark puffy bag itself diminishes this menace


Study and work on your own face right now, perhaps just a dab of light or dark foundation, skillfully blended in will make a great deal of difference in your illusion of beauty. don't let lack of experience rob you of added loveliness

What Shape is Your Beautiful Face?

To understand what make-up and hairstyles best suit you and how to make most of your features, it is crucial to understand the shape of your face.

The make-up guys in 1950's Hollywood used to scrape back the starlet's hair, go over the face poking and squeezing like a housewife picking a cantaloupe and measuring the the face with a tape measure.

So to follow their footsteps, pull out your ruler, visualise your head as a block and take the following five measurements from outside edge to outside edge:

Centre of forehead width:
under eyes to cheek edges:
Under nose to cheek edges:
Under lips to jaw edges:
Overall length, hairline to chin:

Now take pencil and paper and with your ruler draw a vertical line, the length of you face, then draw bi-secting lines at the proper places corresponding to all your cross measurements.
Connect the outside ends of the lines and... here's your face!

Keep this drawing so you can later mark the right places for make up on it.

Despite Mrs Colby continuously emphasising the fact that we should all proudly be what we are, enhance our best features and not try to look like somebody else, she also says here that the perfect face shape is oval and those among us not blessed with the ideal shape, need to learn how to use foundation create an illusion.

I measured my face and drew the outline on an A4 sheet waiting impatiently to unveil the shape, which I've always believed to be heart or square, but.... Ta-dah! My face is shaped like an upside down guitar. Wide, long forehead, wide, high cheekbones and finally a rather wide jaw narrowing down to a tiny pointy chin.

But enough about me and my odd shape head. Here's a guide to the different face shapes, illustrated with Hollywood examples and also a brief explanation on how to use lighter and darker foundations to correct the contours to a more pefect oval. Personally I prefer using powder, blusher or bronzer, but basically anything slightly darker/lighter than your usual foundation will work, just make sure it's matte.

The principle is simple, use lighter foundation/powder to emphasise and darker to minimise.

Contour your face with the darker shade and then try giving light to your face by brushing lighter colour on your cheekbones, chin, bridge of your nose and the centre of your forehead. Blend, blend and blend once more, then make sure you don't leave your house without checking your reflection in the daylight first, tidemarks don't look particularly attractive.
Experiment and practice, this is actually a really quick and easy trick and I promise it won't look out of place in 2010 as long as you pick and blend your colours carefully.

The Oval
Joan Fontaine, Joan Caulfield

Egg shaped, dominating cheekbones, chin smaller than forehead... If this is you, congratulations! The oval girl needs only basic foundation so you can stop reading and come back tomorrow when we talk about blusher.

The Round
Shirley Temple, Betty Grable

Nearly circular, rounded forehead, full cheeks, round jaw and chin.
Make-up tip: Darken the jawline from underneath the chin to the sides of your face reaching the highest part of your cheekbones, blend upwards.

The Pear
Ann Sheridan, Dorothy Lamourr

Narrow forehead, wide jaw and full chin.
Make-up tip: Darken the "peary" bit of your lower face, the tip of the chin and the lowest part of the jaws.

The Square
Greer Garson, Bette Davis

Squared off forehead and jaw line approximately as wide as cheekbones.
Make-up tip: Darken the sharp edges of your jawline

The Oblong
Marlene Dietrich, Katherine Hepburn, Loretta Young High prominent forehead, hollowed long cheeks, slightly squared jaw
Make-up tip: Darken the jaw and chin, blending upwards


The Heart
Jennifer Jones, Ida Lupino
Wide forehead and cheeks, short, narrow pointed chin.
Make-up tip: Lighten chin with lighter foundation, if you have longish forehead darken the hairline with darker foundation

The Diamond
Claudette Colbert

Narrow forehead, broad cheeks and jaw, short pointed chin.
Make-up tip: Lighten the tip of chin with lighter foundation

The Marquis
Ava Gardner, Lauren Bacall

This is a lengthened version of the diamond, long narrow forehead, high cheekbones, narrow jaw, long chin.
Make-up tip: Darken end of chin and if you have a long face, forehead too.

Back to Beauty

Apologies for the long silence. Life, work, summer sales, sunbathing, ice cream eating, shoe shopping and the French highway patrol have come in between me and Mrs Colby recently.

I did an unplanned and rather speedy mini tour of Europe (Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium and Germany) and spent a blissful week chilling out in Provence without internet connection.

But as of today I'm back with the programme and will post the next few installments of Mrs Colby's beauty and charm course later this week.