Makeup For The 20's

On the week of March 2, 2020, I performed in the play held by my high school called These Shining Lives which told the story of Katherine Donahue, a woman who 100 years ago sued the company Radium Dial with the help of her fellow factory workers after discovering just how damaging the radium they were working with was.

I starred as a background factory girl and played a court judge on the last day of our production. I had a lot of downtime to go over lines, binge eat, and do makeup.
I was new to stage makeup and was shocked when I saw the giant makeup table backstage. Everyone was asking if the next person had setting powder, boys were either doing their own makeup or getting their makeup done, and there was a constant request for eyeliner. There were people around to do hair and makeup at all times and multiple packages of baby wipes were open on the table. This was also when the corona virus was going around so I was hesitant to share brushes with anyone, but that's just a common rule in makeup.

peeking through the flowers

My friend Lilly played a news reporter in the show and had asked if I wanted to help do her makeup and hair. We used olive oil to give her hair a protectant before flat ironing and shaping it into long 20's-style waves (It looked so good and she's definitely better at doing it than I am). For concealer I mixed a combination of 2 different liquid foundations, one a creamy sand color and the other a Nutella shade. I later baked it on with setting powder. The only thing I did for her brows was brush them up with liquid gel. For eyeshadow she let me use 3 of her palettes. I used pigments from the Color Story Decadence palette and used light and dark blues for a base to match her character's dress before blending out the shade with a red on top. The last
touch was liquid eyeliner and red lipstick. You can follow Lilly here on her Instagram.

I had made a Pinterest board of 1920's looks for women for reference with my makeup. Women who worked in the factories during the 20's didn't really have time to go all-out with their makeup, but I still wanted a bold look. For a base I used my Fit Me concealer in the shade Sand Sable as foundation and, yes, applied the communal setting powder with a fluffy brush after.  For makeup I drew on the ends of my already thin black eyebrows and used my friend's eyebrow gel to glue down the curly hairs. Our director told us that if we were going to wear lipstick or nail polish it had to be red. This was so audience could see our features better, kind of like when actors wear super thick eyeliner. I used my deep red e.l.f. balm for lipstick every night (there was tea and snacks backstage so I had to keep reapplying it during intermission and eat food going in teeth first). I lined the inner corners of my eyes with black eyeshadow and used dark shades, blues, and sparkles for eyeshadow. My friend helped with liquid eyeliner and highlighter.

Photos cred:
Georgia Fritsch