Happy Birthday Jean Harlow! And a Review of Besame's Vanilla Rose Brightening Powder

Tommorow, March 3,  the 106th anniversary of the birth of actress Jean Harlow:

who I think embodied the decadent glamour of Hollywood's pre-code era more then any other star.  With her pencil thin dramatically arched brows, cupids bow lips and halo of platinum curls, Harlow's look was nothing if not distinctive.  Clearly she was a girl who loved her cosmetics, and her appearances in numerous 1930s beauty adverts show that her fans where playing close attention to her look.

One cosmetic that Harlow sees to have been particularly devoted too, powder

 

Considering the platinum goddesses's devotion to the cosmetic I figured the anniversary of her birth would be a good time to do a review of my own personal favorite powder.

Besame Vanilla Rose powder.  

Now Harlow was tragically young, only 26, when she died of kidney failure, so she never had to contend with the problem that has made me leery of powders: aging skin.  In less then a month I'll be 39 and powder is one cosmetic that gets tricky with advancing age.  Powder can settle on wrinkles and dry patches making the more noticeable.   For this reason I used to avoid powder completely.  

However, I wear a very creamy foundation, Burt's Bees CC cream.  I love the creaminess and lightness of this foundation, but it can sometimes get a bit greasy and shiny or rub off completely.  That's why I decided to give the Besame Vanilla Rose powder a shot.  I love Besame, but I had previously tried their Lavendar Brightening Powder and it was the only one of their cosmetics that I underwhelmed me.  I really felt it left a chalky texture on my skin.  So I wasn't prepared to love Vanilla Rose, but I do!




It's a very, very faint pink that suits the fairest of skin tones.  The website says it corrects green and blue tones, I find I have more redness, but I still think this works well for me.  It really doesn't impart any color, just brightens and sets make up!



The video below is from Besame and shows how to apply the powder and then set it with their finishing brush:

I take lighter approach.  I don't have the finishing brush so I just tap the container, while closed of course, against the edge of the sink and then pat on a tiny bit with the puff.  I'm  very careful not to overdo it.  I certainly don't follow Harlow's advice and count my whole face, and no way am I following her step 2 press powder into tiny lines!  

The effect of powder application is definitely subtle, but I think I see a difference:

Here I am minus powder (and yes I was taking a selfie with a can of Spam, I occasionally love to indulge in some spam):

Here I am on another day with powder:

Now all I need is a glamorous boudoir a la Harlow to apply it in!

Besame Vanilla Rose powder retails for $22.00 and can be purchased on the Besame website.

Modern Purveyors of Vintage-Besame Lipsticks a Review

Is there anything more evocative of vintage beauty then classic red lipstick?

I don't think so.  Nearly all the stars during Hollywood's golden age sported glamorous  pouts in various hues of scarlet, and many more average ladies alive during the time period did as well.   

Now I am by no means a make up expert, in fact I'm not very skilled with make up at all, so if you want good vintage make up  tips I urge you to look else where (I will include a list of links later in this post) but I do wear lipstick almost every day and it is always Besame lipstick.

Besame is a cosmetics company that was founded by the beautiful Gabriela Hernandez.

She started the company in 2004 motivated by her life long love of vintage style, vintage cosmetics, and most specifically classic red lipstick!  Here is what the company has to say about their products:

"Through a keen eye for color and historical expertise, we recreate modern reproductions of classic luxury makeup from the 1920s, ‘30s, ‘40s, and ‘50s, designed to make women feel elegant, inspired, and empowered by their beauty. Pairing innovative, cutting edge technology with a historical milieu, our colors and formulations are painstakingly hand-crafted to a minutia of detail, from our custom-designed gold compacts to our signature chrysanthemum motifs."

Besame lipsticks are indeed super authentic from the gold bullet packaging:

To the triangular shape of the lipstick in the tube

these cosmetics are just like the vintage originals   

and of course the colors are spot on too.  

Perhaps most importantly Besame cosmetics are never tested on animals and are made from high quality ingredients.   A  nice thing about Besame is that while they are known for their reds they have other colors as well.  Here are pictures of the 9 shades I've tried.  

Besame Red- This is the companies signature shade a cooler blue-tone red with a nice bright tone.

Cherry Red-A 1930s cherry red shade that can be worn as a stain or more matte.

Red Hot Red- The warm red  made famous by Marilyn Monroe in the 1950s.

Exotic Pink-A matte bright flamingo pink based on 1950s shades.

Carmine-A neutral orange red based on 1930s shades

Portrait Pink- A matte pastel baby pink with no shimmer, based on 1960s shades

American Beauty-A 1940s cool berry shade

Red Velvet-a deep matte 1940s red

Noir Red-A deep plum 1920s shade

The nice thing about Besame lipsticks is they have a high pigment so one coat gives full  coverage.  Also, like traditional vintage lipsticks, they are all matte or semi-matte so that you get that classic vintage look.

Besame lipsticks are available in two forms.  The economical matchsticks

which retail for $6.00 and let you try out the color.  Each matchstick set comes with six samples that are easy to apply.  The matchsticks are how I sampled nearly all the red shades I've shown here.

Besame lipsticks retail for $22.00 



but offer some distinct advantages over the matchsticks.   For one thing the match sticks are difficult to store and after you use one stick its very difficult to store it and use it again even if color remains.  The lipsticks of course don't have that problem and since the pigment is so concentrated they last a very long time.  I've had some of my besame tube lipsticks for over 3 years and they are still nearly full of product.   There are also some shades, including three of my favorites, exotic pink, debutante pink, and carmine, that are not available in matchstick form.  

The shape of the besame lipsticks is designed so that you can line your lips and apply color.  Here is a video showing how:

Being a make up klutz I still find this difficult and for the vibrant red shades I use either the match sticks or the besame lip liner and a regular drugstore lipstick brush.  

If you want to add some vintage glamour to your make up bag you absolutely can't go wrong with besame lipsticks.  The company also doesn't stop at lipstick.  They  make mascara, powder, and perfume.  The cosmetics are available online and in Sephora stores.


I promised I'd end this post with some links to people more knowledgable about vintage beauty, here you go:

Bobby Pin Blog

Glamour Daze Vintage Make Up Guide

Lipstick and Curls

Hollywood Noir

Modern Purveyors of Vintage-Besame Costmetics

I am by no means knowledgeable on make up and unlike many vintage bloggers I don't wear a regular "vintage" style of make up or hair.  I prefer simple make up that can be executed in minutes, is relatively goof proof, and if it has a little bit of vintage flair then that is the cherry on the top. That's where Besame Cosmetics come in.  Around my past birthday I received several amazon gift certificates from friends and relatives and I used them to purchase 3 Besame lipsticks.   Besame is a modern company, founded in 2004, but it has a strong commitment to celebrating, re-creating, and perfecting the cosmetics of the past.  This is from the company website:

 

"Through a keen eye for color and historical expertise, we create modern reproductions of classic luxury make up from the 1920s, 30s, 40s, and 50s, designed to make women feel elegant, inspired, and empowered by their beauty."

 

How could a vintage style lover like myself, no matter how make up dense, resist?

 

 

The lipsticks arrived beautifully packaged

 

image source, because I forgot to take a picture.

 

and I was immediately impressed by their retro look and feel, you really feel like this is a genuine vintage product.   The first color I tried, Noir Red, is a dark 1920s style red designed to create the dark cupids bow look popularized by silent stars like Clara Bow:

 

 

 

 It is very dark and if you want a more subtle effect you can wear it as a stain.

 

I probably wear red lipstick more then any other color, it is after all the classic vintage lip color, popular in ever decade.   I already have a red with blue undertones, MAC Russian Red, that I wear quite a lot.  For my Besame lipstick red I decided to go for a warmer tone with Red Hot Red-1959, billed as a recreation of Marilyn's favorite:

 

 

 

 The last color, and my favorite of the three, is a pale pink, Portrait Pink 1963 described as being perfect for paler skin tones.  It reminds me of the soft lip color worn by Audrey Hepburn in many of her films:

 

 

 

I really love all of my Besame lipsticks.  They are a bit pricier then drug store colors but they offer much better coverage, you use only a tiny bit of product, and the colors are really very true to their vintage origins.   According to the website you don't need lip liners for these lipsticks due to their unique shape, I still needed a lip liner and a lip brush for the red shades, but then I am a makeup klutz.     There are quite a few shades of Besame lipsticks I've yet to try and since I'm quite pleased with  the three I have already I'm sure I'll be purchasing in the future.