From cold cream to Chanel No 5 – classic vintage beauty products

Whilst some cosmetics seem to pride themselves on their futuristic scientific credentials and their baffling talk of polypetides and liposomes, there are some vintage formulas and products that remain so popular that they continue to be manufactured, used and loved years after their original creation. From wonder balms to miracle creams, Frances Ambler salutes decades of beauty classics.

Keeping lips kissable since the 19th century, Smith’s Rosebud Salve and its pretty tin is a staple for every vintage dressing table. Originally created by pharmacist G.F. Smith in 1895, it is a wonder salve suitable for use as a lip balm, but it can also be used on cuts and grazes and even for smoothing down flyway hairs.

Still owned by the family company based in Maryland, USA, other suggested uses are as an eyebrow groomer, to enhance pretty cheekbones or a collarbone, or as an eye shadow base.

All this and it still smells divine.

Moving across to Europe at the turn of the 20th century where it was the fashion for ladies to dye their hair. In 1907 Eugène Schueller came up with the first synthetic hair dye, which he then sold onto hair salons. His business would eventually become L’Oréal. From these humble beginnings, L’Oréal has of course since become a massive global industry and now owns many of the companies featured in this article.

1914 saw the introduction of Ponds Cold Cream Cleanser still used to deep cleanse skin and as a night cream. It was originally marketed alongside Pond’s Vanishing Cream – now since discontinued – which was intended as a moisturizer. An advert of the period reads ‘every normal skin needs these two creams’.

With one of the primary ingredients being water, the cream is suitable for dry and sensitive skin, soothing skin and leaving it cool (hence the name). There is also something very soothing about the ritual of gently tissuing the cream from your face, as millions of women have done before you. The idea has been adopted by more contemporary firms including MAC who now manufacture their own Cold Cream.
‘As if it were the first time’ reads the current advertising campaign for the legendary Chanel No. 5 fragrance, first introduced in the Twenties. Its exotic combination that includes notes of Ylang Ylang, Neroli, jasmine, sandalwood and vanilla still enchants: apparently a bottle is sold somewhere worldwide every 55 seconds.

Coco Chanel’s claims for the perfume were typical of the ambitions of the modern age: “I want to give women an artificial perfume. Yes I really do mean artificial, like a dress, something that has been made. I didn’t want any rose or lily of the valley; I want a perfume that is a composition.”

The new mood was also reflected in the modernist bottle, designed by Chanel herself, which has become a classic in its own right. It is part of the collection of New York’s Museum of Modern Art and has been immortalized in work by Andy Warhol.

Read on!

Pages: 1 2 3

Tags: Chanel No. 5, Clarin’s Beauty Flash Balm, cosmetics, Elizabeth Arden’s Eight Hour Cream, Elnett, Eugène Schueller, Great Lash Mascara, Lipcote, L’Oréal, Maybelline, Pan-Stik, Ponds Cold Cream Cleanser, Rosebud Salve, vintage

Category: 1930s, Beauty, Vintage news