Vintage beauty products have a special place in my heart and home. As a child, I was always fascinated by my grandmother’s beauty routines. She had all manner of fanciful items meant to enhance her looks. So fascinated, in fact, that I still have some of those items. I was so enamored by her routines that for many years I worked in the beauty industry.
Having recently come across some of those items lead me down a path to learn more about them and why beauty implements were so plentiful in the early 20th century.
I remember my grandmother removing her make-up diligently each night with Pond’s Cold Cream. As one of the first American beauty products companies, Ponds began in 1846 in New York City and sold all manner of skincare products as well as pet products. Today, it’s still a beauty staple found on the shelves of stores everywhere.
As a former manicurist, I am especially interested in the history of vintage beauty products and brands catering to all things fingernails. One of the items in my collection is a Cutex fingernail rest. Cutex began in 1911 by creating the first cuticle remover along with modern nail polish. Back then manicuring was big business and the proliferation of implements grew to mammoth proportions. Elaborate manicure sets made from early plastics are fairly easy to find today. The plethora of implements exploded in the early 20th century as modern advertising took off and women were enticed by a wave of new products meant to enhance their beauty.
While the first nail lacquer as we know it was produced by Revlon in 1920, the concept of nail polish has been traced as far back as 3200 BCE in Babylonia and 3000 BCE in China. For centuries it was a powder applied to the nails and buffed to a high shine. Made of everything from vegetable and plant coloring to mineral dyes, coal, and even blood. Nail coloring was not only worn by women. There was also a hierarchy in many cultures as to coloring. Certain colors were reserved for royalty and the upper class while others were worn by the lower classes. Most notably in ancient China and Egypt where red and black were worn by high society and pale colors were worn by average citizens.
This article from Popsugar talks about the oldest beauty brands. Did you know that Yardley, makers of English Lavender soap began in 1770?
The process of coloring hair is even older. Evidence has been found dating to the paleolithic period using iron oxide and plant materials. Ancient Greece even required its prostitutes to color their hair blonde. In 1907 Eugene Schueller discovered he could use chemicals to create hair color. in 1909, he created L’Oreal which was the first commercial hair dye.
The first documented uses of make-up are from ancient Egypt where kohl was used by men and women to color and enhance the eyelids. Multiple accounts of the use of make-up and cosmetics have been recorded throughout Asia, Europe, and the Mid-East as well as Africa.
The explosion of beauty products truly began with the rise of cinema in the early 20th century. Film and the confluence of women like Elizabeth Arden, Madame C.J. Walker, and Helena Rubenstein started the beauty juggernaut we still see today. Each of these women created businesses that changed the concept of beauty as we knew it. Many of these companies are still in business today. Some of the original formulas created years ago are still used in current products as well, and you can still purchase vintage beauty products from sellers today. As for those manicure implements, they work just as well now as they did one hundred years ago.
5 comments
Your grandmother’s beauty regime must have worked, Pam, because she is lovely.
Thanks Linda, she truly was, both inside and out.
This was really a fun post!!
Hands tell a woman’s story. Enjoyed this article!
Beautiful post and a lovely young woman. I am seeing encouragement nowadays for self care stating it is taking time to do something special for yourself. We all need this post right now. Thank you for the story and the encouragement.