Hair discoveries and must haves
Hot sticks
Remember these from 1989? My mother was a popular hair stylist, make up artist and photographer during the 80's and 90's and these were a go to for her. I remember her making some really really big hair with the assistance of these rubbery sticks. I recently gave them another go around as I heard that they are a good alternative to pin curls, something I hate doing and am even worse at doing. Turns out the advice was spot on. These are a bit difficult to work with your first few times but with practice serve to be far faster and easier than a pin curl set. After releasing your curls simply brush out your curls thoroughly as you would a pin curl set. So far my hot stick sets have lasted up to two days! The only issue is how hard they are to find. You can find them on Ebay and Amazon.
Second but just as important the proper brush for brushing out your pin curls, A Denman brush is going to be your best friend for this type of set.
Now that you have brushed out your very tight hot stick curls you have a wild frizzy afro. How to tame and smooth. Brush, brush, brush your curls repeatedly against your hand with a Denman brush. Some shaping with your fingers is helpful to. Need more direction? Check out Lisa Fremont's you tube tutorial featuring both hot sticks and this brush. She is a bit of a hair genius.
Onward to make up! My newest must have cosmetic find is
ANASTASIA BEVERLY HILLS
Brow Wiz
This spendy but worth every cent brow liner is the answer to my eyebrow prayers. Why? Well let me give you a with and without pic.
Without, natural brow
With, enhance brow
The change is subtle there for natural looking but as you can see my eyebrows are not naturally arched and with this pencil I can create a natural soft looking arch.
And lets not forget the fabrics!
Proper Foundation garments are absolutely necessary under certain vintage clothing. Every vintage wearing gal should own a good well made long line bra and either a pair of spanx or a open bottomed or shorts style girdle. Regardless of how slim or voluptuous you are these items are going to give you a vintage shape like none other. A decent unworn or gently worn vintage long long bra may be incredibly difficult to find depending on your size and how much money you can afford to spend. The best vintage and new long line bra in my opinion hands down is Goddess. These bras are heavy duty and will last forever if you take good care of them. It is essentially a strapless or strap bra (if you use the straps) and waist cincher in one. This will either give you an hour glass shape or enhance your already hour glass shape. Most contemporary shape wear has a smoothing effect but does not have any or much effect on your overall shape. The Goddess long line bra's design is essentially the same as it's debut in the 50's.
In addition, the cups have a classic shape and will fill out the more pointed bust of your vintage frocks. I have a few of these in different band sizes depending on how much I want to cinch my waist. Just keep in mind that you do not want to go down more than one band size of your rib cage measurement and if you do you will need to go up one whole cup size.
It is somewhat noticeable in the pic how this may create a bit more extreme of a hip curve than you may want. This is where your girdle or spanx come in to play. I prefer spanx as vintage girdles tend to make my bum look even more like a pancake than it already is. My favorite is Spanx higher power
You can purchase these from Nordstrom or a variety of online businesses. I wear these in a specific order in order to achieve the smoothest look. I first put on the long line bra and then the spanx and pull them up over the long line bra up to my bra band.
Without long line bra and Spanx
Not bad but
This is a cropped close up of just the areas of my body that are in the garments. I actually am 8 lbs heavier in this photo yet look slimmer and more hour glass shaped.
These garments are a three out of five on a scale of comfort and the best I have yet to find without resorting to a corset.
That's my rant!
