A Vintage Spring Look

My favorite makeup artist, Lisa Eldridge, recently posted a makeup video that she calls “Baby Bardot.” It shows a young model with a beautiful, soft vintage makeup look a la Brigitte Bardot. Lisa also did this look on Kate Winslet for UK Harper’s Bazaar (pictures here). At the time, I thought the look was absolutely lovely and that there is no reason why a woman over 40 couldn’t look just as good!

The high points of this makeup are flawless skin with a matte finish, muted colors and bold, black eyeliner that has been “winged” out to the sides.
The face is flawless and matte so I used Revlon’s Colorstay Makeup (the one for dry skin) and combined two colors: Ivory and Buff. I applied it with a Bobbi Brown flat foundation brush in thin layers. When I was satisfied with the finish, I applied It Cosmetics Bye Bye Under Eye concealer in a combination of Light and Medium under my eyes, around my chin and where ever I had any dark spots. Then I powdered with Revlon’s Nearly *aked pressed powder in Fair.

For Eyes, I happened to have the same eye shadow palette that Lisa uses---Pixi’s Shade Quartette in Shades of *ude (I bought it at Target). The lightest shade was applied on the lid and almost up to the brows. Then I used the brown shade directly opposite the lightest shade in the pan in the crease. I also applied it under my lower lashes. This Pixi quad is lovely and the colors really last.



As Lisa explains in the video, the liner is thicker than the liner of the early 1950s but not as heavy and thick as in the 1960s. I used Bobbi Brown’s Gel Liner in Black with a very fine liner brush to line the eyes and make the “wing.” You can see that the liner is thinner closer to the nose and then in the middle of the eye it begins to thicken to meet the end of the tail, forming a triangular wing. Then I used two coats of Trish McEvoy’s High Volume Mascara in Jet Black. Lisa uses both mascara and individual false lashes in the video but I skipped the lashes. On my brows, I brushed on an Espresso brow gel by Anastasia Beverly Hills to cover the white hair in my eyebrows.





I can see that I didn’t quite get the left eye as even as I wanted but you get the idea! If you’re like me, your eyes may be getting more and more hooded as you age. That’s a really normal part of the aging process (or you may have been born with hooded eyes) and at some point, I may decide to do an eye lift. For now, I adjust my eye makeup by avoiding shiny shadow anywhere near the brow bone and bring my crease color up a little higher to help the area recede. When doing a winged eye liner, I also have to draw the wing a little bit longer to get the same impact. Here’s a better view of my hooded eyes:



You’ll be able to tell if your eyes are hooded when you look straight in the mirror. If you can’t see your eyelids, your eyes are hooded! You can also scroll up to the first picture and see that my eyelids are covered when I’m looking directly at the camera. It’s not a big deal to me and I just adjust what I’m doing to compensate for it.

The rest of my face is dusted with Revlon’s Photo Ready Matte Bronzer in Bronzed & Chic under the cheekbones and then Physician’s Formula Se*y Booster blush in Natural. I also used a Mac lip pencil in Subculture all over the lips and then OCC Cosmetics’ Lip Tar in Ophelia to finish it off. This is a beautiful, soft look that will look great on most people, adjusting for skin tones. At some point, I’ll try it with black/brown mascara and a dark brown eyeliner instead of the black.

Do you have any favorite looks for Spring?