Classic Beauty, The History of Makeup with Gabriela Hernandez [7 Days to Amazing Podcast]

Classic beauty from then to now.

Makeup tutorials, tips, trends and how-to apply makeup videos are all the rage, but how did beauty get to where it is today and why is it critical for you to step into your star power with your personal brand?

What defines beauty is not only subjective but based on the perception of the times. From as early as the primal ages, personal adornment has shifted and evolved into what it is today.

In this passionate episode of the 7 Days to Amazing podcast, Gabriela Hernandez, author of the magnificently illustrated book, Classic Beauty: The History of Makeup, and I talk about everything from fun facts about the history of makeup, makeup in marketing, and how you should present yourself for a timeless, relevant, and simply beautiful look.

It’s time to tune in…

     

Guest Resources…

Visit Amazon to purchase Gabriela’s book, Classic Beauty: The History of Makeup today!

 

You can also visit Gabriela’s very own luxury makeup store, Besame, at www.Besamecosmetics.com

 

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History of Beauty - Gabriella Hernandez

 Episode Transcription…

Announcer:

Welcome to the Seven Days to Amazing Podcast where you learn how to make your life, business and style even more amazing in the next week! Now your host, Sharon Haver of FocusOnStyle.com.

Helping you live the life that others only dream about, so you can be the best at being you.

 

Sharon Haver:

Hello Chic-sters, I am Sharon Haver and you are about to be amazed, I have a fascinating guest on today’s episode of Seven Days to Amazing. Gabriella Hernandez is a beauty historian as well as a cosmetic formulator and designer, she has devoted her life to what she calls the traditions of glamour, where you fond your best look and in turn you find it is a mood booster inspiring you to be your best when you look your best.

 

Gabriella is also the author of Classic Beauty the History of Makeup and I am so excited to talk about this today.

Classic Beauty is a gorgeous heavily illustrated and highly informative book that delves into how political and social climates have molded accepted beauty rituals as well as the evolution of cosmetics from ancient times through today.

A quantical systolic for eyes, lips and face and offers in depth aesthetic reviews of each decade from the 1920’s to today.

The book has 430 images and believe me I have ogled every one of them, it shows everything from timelines in beauty history, vintage color palate’s, makeup innovation, first mascara…lip stick…eye shadow…etc. When you see back in the day makeup it is like reconnecting with a long lost friend of yours, remembering where you were in your life when you wore it.

I particularly love the vintage makeup ads, where you not only see the beauty trends of the time but how the women were portrayed in society.

 

Gabriella is also the founder of Besame Cosmetics; she has a long love affair with vintage beauty.

At 12 Gabriella immigrated to the United States from Buenos Aries and always fascinated by her grandmother’s sophisticated beauty routine, she fully realized her passion for the creative arts with a fine art degree from the Art Centre in Pasadena California and became a photographer, Art Director and published author.

With a creative background and historical know how and cherished memories of her grandmother’s makeup Gabriella finally developed the beauty brands of her dreams which filters rich historical details and wearable long lasting formulas, she wanted Besame to bring romance back to the makeup industry allowing women to feel excited and passionate about their own beauty rituals again.

 

Gabriella is currently working on a large Collection for Disney for Snow White’s 80th anniversary…. Sounds like fun.

So welcome Gabriella Hernandez, I am thrilled and excited to have you here today.

 

03:11

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

Thank you so much I am so happy to talk to you.

 

Sharon Haver:

Thank you so much too, I can’t wait to delve into Classic Beauty, before we started the show I was talking to you off camera, what do you call it… off podcast.

And saying how I am just so mesmerized by this book because it really is like looking at an old friend, besides the historical references, I loved art history when I was in school, not only did you appreciate the art, you got to see society in a way how they saw it at that time in history. It’s the same thing as makeup, looking at different beauty rituals and things that we don’t think and take for granted and see how they have transcended through history and also I love looking at all these old makeup ads. It reminds me of where I was at that time in my life, the first time I used Great Lash mascara as a stylist also looking at some campaigns… I actually haven’t seen any that I worked on in here, but some campaigns that were similar in time when I was I was working on them.

 

I find this so fascinating, I want to talk to you first, what I find really interesting and I think so many women will get a lot out of this, what is glamour really? in the book you say that glamour is the art and science of optimizing the gorgeousness that is part of your DNA and I think that is such a brilliant statement, what is glamour through time to most women?

 

04:46

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

Well its an interesting concept because if you look at the book you can see what is considered glamorous or beautiful changes through time, and when you look at these pictures a lot of them you wouldn’t consider those people necessarily attractive now, especially when you look at women that shave their eyebrows and make their hairline really receding so that they have very large foreheads, this was considered attractive. You look at it now and you go “That is not that attractive, I would never do that”, but at that time it was because the ideal of beauty was to do with the persona of the woman and what the woman represented in society at the time.

 

At that particular time women were supposed to be very naïve and the woman was supposed to be the protector, so they had a child like look to what a virtuous woman was supposed to look like and that is why they made the face so round and big and got rid of most of the hair on the face and had very small lips, to kind of resemble a younger child.

This had to do with how they saw women in that society and then it changes over time because you see that woman re portrayed as different things, you still see a lot of influences of society on how women looked because what was acceptable was what women did and sometimes even though they didn’t want to do these things they had to because it was morally the acceptable thing to do and if they wanted to get married and find a partner they had to do these things, so they had to wear their hair in a certain way, they had to pinch their waist a certain way to look attractive to the opposite sex.

Really finding your partner had a lot to do with what women did and how they looked for a long period of time, we didn’t actually necessarily do it for ourselves until probably the 90’s or 2000’s where we started to actually think of beauty as… in the 60’s some of that came about as well because women were starting to go into the workforce, so we started to do things that was convenient for us and we found it liberating and easier on us, before that all of the beauty things that we did were really because how we wanted to look to other people.

So that was fascinating if you look through the book, how that has changed through time.

 

Sharon Haver:

It is, it is beyond fascinating and the other thing that I find so interesting too is the time when women finally were in power and I guess you say more of the 80’s when you say their war paint was a sign of power and control. And I know form being part of the 80’s, I wouldn’t go out at night without my black liner and a certain shade of lipstick that was the big black eye and that punk look, I had a really weird background then, I started out in having a very straight job in PR and then I became a stylist so that was more about me but then also at the time I had a boyfriend who owned a bunch of clubs and I was kind of in the cool New York club scene, so during the day my makeup was very glossy and pretty colored and soft and at night it was black and smoky more than my clothes, I think how I put my own glamour together especially at that point in my life was really in direct correlation with where I was in my life and how I wanted to be perceived, more powerful during the day and more cool and edgy at night, I found it fascinating.

 

Can you tell us a little bit more about the signs of power and control in makeup, you talked about it a lot in the 80’s in your book, you talk about it all through the book actually.

Just a little bit of how makeup represents your power.

 

09:8

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

Its interesting as we use makeup to feel part of a tribe, this has been done for a long period of time, you want to belong to a certain group, so either like you said with the people that work and considered serious or you were one of the party people at night. So your makeup reflected that you were in that group or the other group, the makeup is used to be part of some kind of group and it is still done in that way today, you can see that to some people who use Cayenne makeup because they want to be part of that group, they want to be associated with that whole lifestyle.

 

Sharon Haver:

Yes with the Kardashian.

Gabriela Hernandez:

Yes … you still use makeup to be associated with lifestyle or a group of people or a certain type of person, so the makeup kind of defines what people perceive as you belonging to a certain tribe basically.

So you are either an intellectual or a corporate person or you’re a party person or you’re a fashionista, so all these makeup choices that you do put you in different buckets of what people perceive you as, its up to you to use that, to put yourself in the positions that you want to be, because you can choose the makeup that you want to wear and that makeup will put you in different perceptions for other people to perceive you in different ways, so you really have the power to put yourself into whatever position that you want in how you style and groom yourself, it has a lot to do with that.

 

Yeah you might not be that person but you will look like that person and that first impression you will be perceived as that person, whether you can carry it through or not, that is up to you.

After that you’ve got to either do it or fake it, your first impression is going to put you in that category, and that is what you want as it basically gives you a leg up… basically. If you want to look like the President of the company for example you… you style yourself a certain way so that you are perceived as a person of power and then at that point you act that way, it is actually easier to act that way when you look that way because you convince yourself actually first before you convince other people.

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Sharon Haver:

It is so fascinating… so fascinating and I know it is so true, looking at it also from a business perspective… I know a lot of times with people… women in particularly who have online businesses, a lot of the times they didn’t grow up in a fashion beauty way or… so they are looking at the internet influences that they see and you see people who …when they coin their personal branding photo shoots, they make look a certain way but then they want to loom like someone they perceive as the leader, so all of a sudden you see these women… and when your not comfortable in your skin… it shows, it shows to the camera it shows in the first impression.

 

You see these women and they obviously must have pulled somebodies photo who they thing… they perceive as making a lot of money, so they will have the looking diva hair extensions to the middle of their waist and they will be wearing Carl Guppy lipstick and tons of foundation and lots of powder that is very makeupy, they kind of look Orange County Barbie doll-esque because they feel that creates the look, or they try to look French and they put their hair in some overdone French chignon and eat a macaroon with very pink nails and they put up a picture of the Eiffel Tower that they probably got a TJ Maxx, thinking that it is really French, but in reality that French woman barely wear any makeup and spend their time in skin care, they just wear the right amount of make up.

 

It’s interesting to me when you see people trying to… especially online developing their business presence instead of stealing someone else’s look that is not congruent or natural or authentic to them thinking that they are perceived that way, it kind of smells…it stinks of looking pritty and fake, so how do you get … face up to someone that really isn’t attuned to makeup, how do you steal the look but make it yours and not make it dated and not associated with so many commercial mediocre looks?

 

14:08

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

I think you have to step away from looking like somebody else and look at your face and look at yourself and say, “What are my best assets? do I have pretty eyes?, do I have pretty lips?, how do I enhance those?”, then stick to a neutral palate that is not going to change that much through time, so stick to neutral brown shadows and neutral nice pink cheek and rosy lips, those things aren’t going to change as that is concerned as a very much naturally pretty person.

If you go with the green shadow or the Smokey or the winged eyeliner, all of these things are more of a stylistic choice that has to do with definitely a period of time or a type of makeup, so those types of things I would steer away from so that the look is not really relegated by people looking at your shadow.

 

You don’t want people looking at your shadow, you want people looking at your face, the main thing I think is grooming, having your hair nicely styled, it is such a huge part of it, your eyebrows nicely tweezed, you’re starting out with a good canvas at that point, the makeup is really … less is more is what I say when people are not comfortable wearing makeup all the time.

 

Put a light foundation on, put a bit of shadow to see the crease, obviously when you take photos you want to see the shadows, that is what creates depths in the picture, not necessarily color but the shading of it, so if you sue the shadow to do your crease that creates depth in your eye without having to add color to it, it just looks like a shadow really, like a natural shadow and then a nice brow and a bit of blush…a nice color of lip that isn’t too saturated because the camera definitely picks up saturation and a lot of time will make things look more saturated than they are, so brighter than they are, especially bright colors, reds pinks or things like that.

 

So you want to do more muted colors so that it looks more natural and it doesn’t attract so much attention when you look at it and people see your whole face instead of just your lips or just your eyes, I would say that you need to really look at what you look like and what makes you look pretty and not necessarily trying to emulate other people, especially if you are trying to do a corporate look for yourself because if you look like other things you are going to end up looking dated in one form or another as all those other people are all doing trends and the trends come and go, so if you copy somebody else that is really on trend now, in 6 months that trend is going to be over and your picture is going to look dated as well as their picture is going to look dated.

In order to avoid that I would think of the Queen, it is kind of funny… if you look at the Queen they never change… she never changes her style or her makeup and they do this on purpose, so that when you look at pictures of her you cant really tell when they were taken, it is kind of an ageless thing. You can look at her picture from 10 years ago or 20 years ago and she still has the same makeup…the same hair, so you really don’t know

 

Sharon Haver:

She always looks dated

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

She always looks dated, but she always looks dated. Like tricking the camera kind of thing.

 

Sharon Haver:

That is what I find a funny thing with so many women of a certain age, they will find a photo of themselves and use it for social media, “Oh yeah I look great” in 1978, 1998 or whatever it was, but your not fooling anybody, look at that color of lipstick you have on, look at how you plucked your

C96W61 TWIGGY UK fashion model in 1967. Photo Tony Gale

eyebrows, you look so dated.

That is one of the things I just love about looking like you but better than you and its exactly as you’ve said, as I am going through the book right now I am looking at pictures form the 90’s, it wasn’t that long ago, it looks beautiful and natural even this early one of…when Lauren Hutton came back … in 1991 actually one of my friends…my art director was the art director that brought her back on that Avon campaign, I worked with her really early back then, that was really fascinating what was she 50 when she came back to being a model again.

But it still looks beautiful and natural and then you look at some other pictures form not that far back and it’s like WOW, growing up in Brooklyn we used to say they had been side-swiped by the makeup van.

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

That is a good going… that is a good point, she looks that way and she still looks pretty because you cant really look at her and say “Ok she is wearing this type of makeup or this type of eye shadow”, it just looks like her, but very nicely groomed and nicely put together, you cant really pinpoint what she is doing with makeup as far as shape and things as she has always done her makeup just to suit her own face, not necessarily following a certain trend of makeup but just to suit her face, so that’s why she just looks great and she still looks current if you look at the picture now.

If you look at a picture form the 20’s or the 30’s you can tell those pictures because of the fact that people used to really over tweet the brows and the brows were really thin and really curved so when you see that you know you are looking at a photo from the late 20’s because this is what everybody did, this was the style of the period but if you do that now people are going to think ”Okay you are doing a period look for the 20’s”, it defines that look.

So when you do anything in your makeup that is so defining that you can pinpoint it to an era then that picture will definitely look dated to other people because of the fact you picked up on a certain style that is so recognizable, the shape of the lip is another one, if you do a cubist mouth or you do Joan Crawford overdrawn lip, people will pick up on that and say that looks 40’s because of the way that you style the lips or if you are doing a navy thing and you have these swashes of blusher across the cheeks, people pick up on that really quickly as it is a signature of that period so if you see those very prominent cheek colors that was around in the 80’s you right away think this has to be 80’s, or you see that magenta lip color, you think again this looks like an 80’s photo.

So I think if you try to avoid these very common looks or styles… trends or looks I think your photo will last longer and look more professional if you avoid these kind of things in the photo.

 

22:29

 

Announcer:

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Where you will find episode transcripts and additional resources, thanks for letting me jump in, back to the episode.

 

Sharon Haver:

And what people don’t realize too, when they are looking at makeup ads… they are selling makeup.

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

Yes.

 

Sharon Haver:

You are selling the makeup so obviously you want it to be more obvious if you were selling skin care you would be selling a very beautiful luminous completion but your selling makeup.

Another thing that I want to ask you, I know a lot of makeup trends can be very regional and in certain regions around the country particularly people seem to get stuck in makeup trends, I am looking at this thing and it reminds me as I am looking through Classic beauty, I can’t tell people enough on how it is just so fascinating, there are just so many photos in here… and so many memories. This book is amazing.

On page 150, I remember this ad, I don’t remember form where or from why but I remember it was for Faberge and it is Sue Diamond…Faberge new comer, so is a professional race car driver but more important she looks like… her makeup is classic 70’s, 80’s newscaster, big bouncy hair, she has got the wing-tipped eyes, the coral lips, the coral blush on it, she is selling compact cheek color blush from 1975 but her look, which to me reeks of 1975 pushing it to 1980, you go across America and there are still women with that big bouncy hot rollered hair with winged eyes and corralled lips and you can tell they have been stuck in it for so long and it is not just them, it seems to be the Stepford Wives, everyone around them is still stuck in that very … I don’t know what you want to call it… very feminine portrayal of women with just the right way and the bouncy hair.

So how is it that certain areas get stuck in trends, just like we said earlier in Orange County, California, they love big makeupy makeup and big eye lashes and long fingernails and it works for them … and that is fine, but if your from another part of the country or the world and you are looking into it, you see how it is so specific and can get dated.

 

25:31

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

Yes I know what you are talking … I was at a trade show in the southern states and I saw exactly what you are talking about. People seem to be stuck in this period with the kind of frosty blue or green shadows, huge mascaras like tammy Faye, big hair and pink lips. I think there just… some parts of the country are really not exposed to fashion as much as we think, we are on the coast if you are in New York, LA or Chicago or any of the major cities you are exposed to a lot of different people, we have so many different people from all over the world here.

 

Trends can be seen across not only the US but across the world in these cities but in smaller cities in the middle of the country you don’t have that thing, you don’t have that diversity in the population, you don’t even have that many people that are not from there, when I went there people didn’t know where I was from.

They actually thought I was French and they said I was speaking in French when I wasn’t, I was speaking in Spanish with somebody that actually worked at the convention center that I had an exhibit in but everybody around there did not think I was Spanish, they thought I was French, they thought I was speaking in French, it’s the oddest thing, they have that in their mind actually and not something I did.

 

It has to do with their perception of what I look like, I did not look like a Spanish person from the Spanish people that they had seen around their area, so I must be from somewhere else, right away they thought I was European, it is interesting they are just not exposed.

 

Sharon Haver:

They are not exposed yet… the internet has made it, I say that every time you see your photo online it is like your magazine cover shot, and we said this earlier, you make a first impression, every study is different under 7 seconds under 5 seconds… 2 seconds whatever, you invite the first impression.

If your online and that’s your business and you are on social media, when your picture goes down the stream you have now become an international superstar, people are looking at you and they are looking at somebody who is more global, somebody who is more national, somebody who maybe is a celebrity and then your sitting there and you might be stuck in your specific town when you go online you need to address your self in a way that’s global, timeless, classic.

Without giving yourself up in the process but you still need to step it up.

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

I think they just don’t know what they don’t know over there, they think that what they are doing is actually correct and that is the height of fashion for them because they haven’t actually explored other things, they are very secluded in these areas. They don’t see anything different, they think this is the acceptable norm and this is what they do over and over again.

 

Sharon Haver:

Exactly.

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

That is why you see all the bling over there everybody has got rhinestones everywhere. Obviously they like this bit nobody else in other parts of the world necessarily does this but they seem to think that this is high fashion in their area.

I think it is a matter of exposure and actually knowing, it is just like when you see American Idol and people remember when you go in there and sing “Well everybody in my town thinks I am the best singer there”, then the judges say “I am sorry, you can’t sing”, they are convinced though.

Sharon Haver:

It is the same thing I use in one of my training webinars I use Susanne Boyle from Britain’s Got Talent, she came out the first time and she had the Queen’s hair do, no makeup and caterpillar eyebrows and sweaty armpits with hair coming out of it, she was pretty disgusting and everyone rolled their eyes, then she opened up her mouth and it was like, WOW.

Then the next time she came back they cleaned her up, she was beautiful and timeless.

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

Yes very much so, they cleaned her up… oh yes.

It is really what you were saying these people… unfortunately in certain parts of the country they just don’t know and they don’t look around that much to see that other people aren’t doing this look, they still think this look is attractive and maybe in their part of the country it is, and it is around their friends and is around the men in that area, they all think that this is attractive, they will continue to do it as this s the feedback they are getting, they are not getting any other feedback, other people around them are not saying “Hey you look dated “or the guys aren’t saying “I don’t like the way you look”.

If they did I am sure they would be changing it but at this point this is what they think is attractive.

When you go tribes in the middle of Africa, tribes in South America they have different ways of doing their own fashions and they think this is attractive, obviously other people might not, in their own segments and between themselves this is attractive.

 

Sharon Haver:

You started out saying beauty is tribal …beauty is tribal.

It is not necessarily the tribe in Africa; it is the tribe you hang out with in your town, in your community, in your business, in your network.

 

32:20

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

Exactly, tribe is whatever… whoever you associate with that is around you, so it could be any… even your office… where you work, it is sort of a tribe, people dress in a certain way that everybody thinks is acceptable in that particular location.

You have people that belong, people that are outsiders, there is certainly a common look for an office and when you step into any office you can see it.

 

Sharon Haver:

It is really just fascinating, so we are coming towards the end, there is two different thing I want to go over with you and make sure everyone does it, I know it is like picking a favorite baby but as we are going through your book, I know personally I couldn’t answer this question but you even start with timelines in 25 000 BC in here, besides having timelines there are also photos of makeup trends, makeup ads, makeup products, what would be your favorite baby… what would be your favorite product or time or something in here out of all of these?

 

33:36

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

I think… I am very fond of the 30’s because of the fact that it is when makeup started getting into its own, becoming a thing that people did on a regular basis, before the 30’s it was really kind of relegated to people who wanted to make a statement or your artsy people that would wear it for shock value or your party people that would wear it just for that as they wanted to be different and make some kind of a statement.

 

Before that it was used for those purposes so not everybody used it, but in the 30’s it actually became a more whole thing where women would use this product on a daily basis and most women would use a lipstick on a daily basis, so makeup really became a necessity at that point for women, so everybody wore it… or mostly everybody wore something, not a full face of makeup that we wear today but something, they either wore lipstick or a pencil to do their brows… draw their brows to fill them in or they used a bit of cake mascara or a bit of rouge but something… they used some kind of product, so product selection and product manufacturing kind of viewed from this because we had so many women using it and it was so common and it got cheaper for women to purchase, so this is where makeup became more of a mass thing and it is fascinating because it just provided so many jobs in the industry of actually making makeup because companies blossomed everywhere, they were manufacturing facilities all over New Jersey that made all kids  of makeup and powders, before this we would only get things from Europe because they were the only ones that would make makeup products, they all came from Italy, France and Spain, we didn’t really make anything here, after the 30‘s we started to make all kinds of stuff here.

We had a huge American cosmetic industry that blossomed out of this, it was kind of the heyday of makeup and obviously we went up from there but this is where it all started, I love that period because it was such a huge period of innovation and development and women really getting comfortable wearing makeup because they saw it in film, they saw it in their favorite actresses and they were wearing it.

 

We had color pictures, as this is when Technicolor became a thing in the late 30’s… 1937,38 when we first had the first Technicolor films come out, people saw the actresses in color and this was a huge thing to sell color. You can imagine how well it worked for people to go to a movie and see this very sensual and alluring actresses wearing this product that they would want to purchase it after that. It was such an easy thing,

 

That is how Max Factor sold so much makeup because it was a slam dunk… slam dunk in the marketing arena as he had these actresses and he could use them on his ads because they were under contract for the studio and he worked for the studio.

Yeah without paying them a dime.

 

Sharon Haver:

It’s a good deal, not for the actresses.

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

Yeah I know… not at all, they were already under contract, this really became a huge thing and grooming, fashion, how to wear your makeup became something that women paid attention to and all kinds of magazines wrote about it and told you how to do different things. It sparked the whole movement in makeup that is why I think the 30’s is such an exciting time and that is why it is my favorite.

 

Sharon Haver:

It is actually my favorite in fashion too because it is also the start of fashion and how we think of it today, the buyers cut sharmoose dresses there, those little flip dresses, they were so different and revolutionary.

The shapes and silhouettes started in the 30’s and the fabrics and the lack of heavy under garments really just went into how we see fashion today.

Women started wearing pants, it was amazing it was just a beautiful time. I was always a fan of June Harlow even when everyone else was in color she was in white so her absence of color was even more striking in that world and white is a color and I just felt that she had such a strong visual image in those white slinky dresses or even Dietrich in her glamour at the time or Garbo, I actually met Greta Garbo on a bus in New York, that was awesome, let me tell you.

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

The thing is… when you look at those dresses today you can see them on the red carpet.

 

Sharon Haver:

Absolutely.

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

They are timeless, you cannot say that about dresses from other eras as much but if you take 1930’s dresses you can see them on the red carpet tomorrow and they would look exactly in place.

 

Sharon Haver:

You can collect dresses like that from flea markets and thrift shops when I was really skinny, I would still wear them and people would have no idea how old they were as they were just beautiful, you just had to make sure the fabric didn’t fall apart put it still looked as gorgeous because it didn’t have any seams it didn’t have any construction, they were always just beautifully draped and as long as you had the body underneath to make it work they were fantastic, the tops too… the blouses were amazing, those silk sheer crepe tops.

 

39:56

 

Announcer:

Hey excuse me let me jump in for a second, we are sharing a lot of amazing things today but you know there is more, hop on over to www.focusonstyle.com

And be sure to subscribe to become a Focus On Style insider, so that you can start to live that others only dream about, not only will you get instant access to the star power flash kit curated to help you and your business get out there but as an insider you will also receive exclusive bonuses, amazing content and access to special events that Sharon only shares by email, so subscribe now at www.focusonstyle.com/insiders it is your time to be the best at being you. Thanks for letting me jump in, back to the episode.

 

Sharon Haver:

Let me just end this with what I think is important for everyone here, I like to ask my guests, what would be the top two things that someone can make … just do in their life to be more amazing in the next week, so if someone wanted to really find… come to terms with their beauty, accentuate it, highlight it, whatever it is.

What three things in beauty can you do to be more amazing?

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

I think if you spend a little time on your grooming in general because women used to spend a lot of time grooming every evening and I think we have lost a lot of that, so now you don’t put oil on your cuticles and you don’t buff your nails and brush your hair through, put maybe your moisturizer or put a mask on and wait 20 minutes with your mask on then take it off and wash your face, all of these little things that women used to do every night, iron your suit or iron your dress that you are going to wear tomorrow, women did this every day, we don’t do that anymore.

It makes you feel put together, in the army I read a quote a long time ago, the first thing you do is make the bed because then you have accomplished something already, starting your day if your bed is clean and made.

It is the same thing with yourself, if you’ve pressed your clothes the night before, if you have done your hair… if you have curled it the night before, when you get up you just brush it through and it looks nice, I think you will feel that you have accomplished something the minute you got up already, instead of feeling that your behind…like you always do, your always behind, your late, we are supposed to be somewhere else, we are not ready.

I think if you feel that sense of accomplishment in the morning, you are starting off on the right foot, you have a better day, so I think those things are really important and then as far as your makeup routine…simply as much as you can I think we use way too many products these days, obviously they market them as women buy them and it is a good business for the makeup company but really they are not as necessary as you would think, you don’t need that many primers unless you’re doing a photo shoot or you are going to a wedding and you want your makeup to last 24 hrs.

There are a lot of products that are overkill to use on a daily basis, I would say simplify your routine so that you can do it in 5 minutes without thinking that you’ve cut something out.

People in the past, if you look in the 30’s, 40’s or 50’s they didn’t wear as much product but they still managed to look really nice because of the fact that they did very nice grooming, their hair was nicely done, their eyebrows were nicely brushed through and plucked…groomed, so their face looked clear, all of these things are already a step forward so you don’t need that much makeup when you have all this already done.

And a good lipstick carries you a long way, a little color.

 

Sharon Haver:

And your Baseme line has some really beautiful lipsticks and it is also very specific, it is not 1 million colors it is a very edited collection, which I think is fantastic.

 

44:43

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

Yes, we edited it because we wanted…. In the past we had so many different red as women wore red for such a long time as far as lipstick goes but they were all tailored to the type of woman, if you were a brunettes, or you had salt and pepper hair, or you had different types of hair color or eye color. The colors of red depended on all of these things, it kind of works because it goes with the complexion, it brightens up the face if it is a certain color for people that have salt and pepper hair, so those colors that have a little bit more magenta in them kind of brightens those completions and they work with the salt and pepper hair.

Same thing with brunettes you have a little bit of a warmer tone with brunettes depending if they are brunettes with warmer tones or colder tones in the hair, we have so many of them as made all of the ones as they were important in a certain type of woman, so you can find the one that actually fits correctly and also a lot of the times people do period film or period television and they come as they look for these shades as they know they are exact duplicates, different years, so they use them for a lot of … we have been on so many different period movies and period television because they come for the colors and also for props that they can use on the set since our products resemble what they done in that period.

 

Sharon Haver:

Yes the packaging is amazing.

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

Yes, so it is used as props a lot of the times on different movies and the colors are used for different types of … World War II types of movies or turn of the century movies…all types of things. If you find the right color, a color that lifts up the face a little bit, its very transformative as you don’t need that much more makeup if you have a nice lip color, some mascara… I am going probably towards your French woman, as that is what they do over there, the French have that figured out I think better than we do.

 

Sharon Haver:

And grooming…. Grooming.

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

Yeah, grooming and also more minimalist on the makeup, French women don’t really go with crazy shadows of colors that much, too much blush or that kind of thing.

Yeah they are more of a mascara and lipstick type of people over there you know maybe some eye pencil but that is about it, they are not going to see French people doing a primer for their eye lid, a primer for the lip, all of this setting spray for their makeup. They are not going to do all of this; I don’t see any French woman doing all of this stuff actually.

They don’t think it is necessary.

 

Sharon Haver:

They don’t, they take this great care in their skin as well, I know when I do videos, I do do the primer and sometimes I will wear false eye lashes and use the settings spray because I am on video and I know when I am on video when I do that I look completely natural. I was doing something last week, actually those shots “Wow you look good Sharon”, I had the extra contour on but I had to go out to a cocktail afterwards, I will tell you I felt like a drag queen all night, I felt horrible because in real life that makeup that looks so great even on simple video, not even in real film it is just too much, you feel your makeup on your face but it is necessary to look natural on camera.

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

Yes for camera and special occasion… this is what all of these makeup products were really designed for, they are designed for that, they do a really good job when you need that coverage or theatre, where you need that boldness because you are going to be seen from afar, so your afar away from people seeing you or your on film where the film takes away a lot of the color sometimes. So you need extra color so that it shows up on film or video

 

Sharon Haver:

What you said before on eye shadow to define the shadows in your face and the crease of your eye, your cheek, under your skin a little bit, I think that is so important on camera where in real life you don’t… only Kardashian wear that much contour, but that stuff films well.

So it is also important for real women when your doing social media photos or live streams or anything, your makeup needs to be on point for the camera

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

Well you have to remember when you light for video or doing anything on the internet where you have just one light… floodlight on your face, its going to erase… it erases all of your shadows that you have naturally on your face, you have to put them back on makeup in order to look natural in those circumstances, because the lighting will take away all of those shadows and make your face look really flat if you don’t add dimension by putting in these shadows on the side of your face or on your eyes…contouring with the shadow, your face looks very flat on video, so you need that.

When you see somebody in person like that they certainly look like some Cirrus Du Soleil performer.

I had girls that were 20 years old in my class at the fashion institute when I taught there and they came to class at noon, with this one.

 

Sharon Haver:

Can we talk about beauty bloggers? See what some of these beauty bloggers put on.

 

50:57

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

Its so odd… its so odd because it looks definitely a man… a man in drag because it is so defined, you look at the makeup and lose the face basically or the people with highlighting… when they do highlighting, it looks like an alien when you see them in person as they have these green highlights on their nose or their cheeks, you are like “What is going on with that?”

 

Sharon Haver:

And the same with the two-inch eyelashes during the day.

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

Yes… yes, it is just not appropriate for the occasion, if you are doing something in particular where you need this it is great whatever is working for you, that’s great. On a daily basis it is a lot for your face and it’s a lot for your skin.

Your skin takes the toll when you stick this stuff on it… every single day; it is not designed really for that.

 

Sharon Haver:

I think also… we are really running late here, but I find it so fascinating, I think also when you are looking at beauty bloggers, one of the reasons why they have so much money… money, why they have so many fans and have so much makeup is clothing for a lot of people is complicated, it represents so many different things, they think they have to spend more and the can find using drug store cosmetics… I wear expensive makeup… I wear drug store makeup, I wear a lot of French makeup, I wear mostly makeup artist’s brands, I don’t wear really big commercial makeup brands, I find them too heavy for me.

I go across the board, I can have a $100 something or I can have a $7 something, I have no favorites that way, but what I think what happens with a lot of the beauty bloggers is that the reason that they wear so much makeup is that they have these ‘How To” tutorials, beauty tutorials on YouTube, where they are wearing so much makeup… first of all the makeup companies give it to them when they have a huge following but it is accessible and it is accessible for other people and I think you can paint yourself up to create the person that we said earlier who you want to be, so you are living this fantasy through the amount of makeup that they are wearing and it becomes almost a whole psychological thing but what they don’t realize is … it’s so heavy and it’s so much, your makeup shouldn’t speak louder than you, someone should come up to you and say “I love your eye shadow… blush…lip stick”, it should be you look beautiful, you should look beautiful not this listing of 75 products.

 

            Gabriela Hernandez:

I think the girls over do and unfortunately they see these people over do because… I mean they are trying to sell that makeup so of course they are going to sue as much of it as possible, so that you use as much of it as possible

 

Sharon Haver:

Exactly… and they get paid to put it on.

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

They got paid… exactly, they got paid and then all the other girls go out and buy it and think this is the norm or if they wear this they will be in that group of successful people because they consider these girls successful, so that is why they do it. They are trying to be in that successful young demographic kind of thing and they think this is the way to achieve it, which is really not the case, it is not the makeup necessarily that is going to do that, yeah they think that.

Like you said fashion is more complicated because finding your own style in fashion is more complicated so a lot of them tend to go through trends, so they go through Forever21 or H&M or whatever and wear whatever they tell them is on trend, and that is what everybody wears.

It is so funny, you go to a high school and look at all the students, nobody wants to wear uniform but if you look at them it looks they are wearing a uniform as they are all wearing exactly the same clothes.

 

                        Sharon Haver:

Something really interesting… so my sons high school was a uniform school… he was the first graduating class but they said “Okay we are New York and we are going to do a uniform difference”, they had to wear either black, white or grey, they couldn’t wear jeans, they couldn’t only wear black, white or grey shirts, they can only wear t-shirts that were white or grey, they couldn’t wear black… it was just really the color palette, here is something that is so fascinating, because it was just this classic basic neutral color palette those kids stood out more and had more of a personal individual style, then the kids who all went to Forever 21 and got the latest haul at the front of the door because in this limited constraint of black, white and grey they can either wear skinny jeans, they could wear short skirts, they could wear long skirts, they could wear big flair like pants, they could wear white shirts that was button down, they could wear a t-shirt that was layered with a grey sweater they could wear the white shirt under a short sleeved grey t… so they had so many different ways of doing it and the boys too were able …. Some of them in particular were more stylish than others, they could wear a black suit jacket, grey t shirt and black jeans, or they could wear grey shorts and a black shirt, they managed to get their own style where some of them looked a more rocker, some of them looked a little more… I don’t know what you want to call them… up town tool, funky, whatever way it was, it was so fascinating.

When they had the constraints of just classic color, and of course the girls couldn’t wear mini-skirts where you could see their underwear or tiny little stringy bra tops but other than that they could wear anything they want, they had so much more individual personality in there, it is amazing, it was just amazing.

 

57:19

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

Because you took away the pattern, all of a sudden it became about shape.

 

            Sharon Haver:

Exactly.

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

And that is really a lot more interesting than the pattern because the shapes is what really stood out there, the shapes of the silhouettes, that’s fascinating when people do that, nowadays people get caught up in color and pattern and they forget about the shape and its really all about the shape, that is what actually stands out… that is what compliments your body style…is the shape, not necessarily all the other adornments or garments,

 

Sharon Haver:

That is what I teach the ladies … I have a program called ‘The Stay Chic Crash Course”, that is what I teach the ladies in there too, to really stick to a neutral palette, all those patterns, all those colors they become dated and they take away from you, you can use that as accents if you know how to do it, but other than that classic colors… they are always so forever chic and they just make you stand out more when they are in the right shape, it flatters you.

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

Yes, stick with things that are not going to go out of style, the necklines are basic, the necklines are going to stay the same, if not if you look at a shirt from the 70’s with a really pointed collar, you know that it is from the 70’s, so you have to stay with things that are more universal, that are not going to be dated in a few years, especially for a more of a corporate or an identity that you want to keep.

Keep it neutral and keep it classic, again your Europeans know how to do this very well, that is how they are so adept at finding the correct clothes and they keep those clothes for a very long time.

Here we go through clothes a lot, over there they don’t go through clothes, in South America where I am from in Buenos Aires, you don’t buy clothes that often, we didn’t buy clothes that often, that you could throw them away and buy something else.

So the clothes tended to be more classic because you kept them around for years, which is a different type of idea, I guess on dressing than the disposable fashion that we have here now.

 

Sharon Haver:

Also there is something very elegant and rich… successful looking about classic clothes. I think when you see someone in a well cut classic piece they just look more affluent than someone who is just trying to still wear her neon skirt and bold stripe top, statement necklace from J Crew that she got at Forever 21, we are saying Forever21 a lot today aren’t we.

 


Gabriela Hernandez:

They are a major player

 

Sharon Haver:

And they are also ladies… in their defense because there is one near me… actually you can get some cheap jeweler in there, I mix St L’Orange with Forever 21 some times and they often make some really nice t-shirts, cotton t-shirts.

Its that trendy

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

Yes there are pieces in there that you can use… it is how you put it together.

 

Sharon Haver:

Exactly.

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

That is really what it is, it is how you style it and what kind of pieces you pick, they do have some pieces in there that are very classic looking pieces that you could wear and put them together in a way that looks more classic, you just have to steer away from the very trendy pieces at the front of the store.

They do have some stuff that is good.

 

Sharon Haver:

That is another thing.

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

The jackets are particularly nice too.

 

Sharon Haver:

Are they? I should try one.

Also I think another thing… I think we should probably end on this as we are almost hitting an hour… this is so… I love this stuff… this is so great Gabriella, another thing conversely is… a lot of times women are like “What should I do for my age?” especially with makeup and they end up looking so matronly, I think and you can help us out on this, lead with this. When you reach a certain age, what should you do for makeup? I say you should just highlight your face and the same thing with your clothes, just keep it simple, keep it classic, keep it modern and not get stuck in things.

What do you say when someone asks that question “What do I do for my age?”

 

01:01:57

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

As you get older and if you have a lot of wrinkling around the face, you want to avoid powders, you want to avoid anything that is going to leave a residue and get caught between those wrinkles because it is going to accentuate them.

 

So you want to move into a foundation… light foundation that is creamy, that has a moisturizing ingredient in it, so that it will moisturize your skin but it will also provide a little bit of coverage, so you have a nice even tone because if you have dark spots… usually as we get older, we have darker spots around the face so you want to cover them a little bit with something, so a nice tinted moisturizer or a foundation that has medium coverage, that is moisturizing that would be a good choice as you get older.

 

Then stick with cream blush instead of powders, avoid powders a much as you can because powders tend to get caught into tiny wrinkles and they crease and when they crease they make the wrinkle even worse than they did before, so you want to avoid that because it creates shadows that you don’t want, so stick with creamy things… creamy shadow sticks, creamy blush that you can put on the cheeks and spread it, so that it is a little bit of color, you only want a little bit of color because your skin gets very sallow and very flat as you get older, you lose coloring on it, so you want a little bit of color on the cheeks, nothing major but a little bit of a pink or peachy color will definitely lift up the face.

 

If you are going to do shadows stick with like a … stick something in a brown color…light brown… taupe color, something that will highlight the eye a little bit, give you a little bit of depth around the eye lash, but nothing too dark and you are just going to out it there with your finger and blend it in, that’s all you need to do really.

If you want to do a little bit of pencil on your brows, if your brows are out of control and you want to put a little bit of pencil in there, you can do that and then a nice lipstick, a nice lipstick tat is not too moist.

 

You don’t want anything that is too glossy or too gloopy because it will just go right into the lines all around the mouth and that is just a terrible look… it looks terrible when that happens, so you want to stick with a lipstick that is a little harder than is not going to ‘bleed’, you want to avoid that, pick one that doesn’t bleed and then a color that highlights, if your wearing a red top, wear a little bit of red, if you’re wearing something more summery like a yellow, greens maybe you want a peachy color on your lips, don’t be afraid to put a little bit of color somewhere on your face as you need a little bit of a lift and the lipstick is the easiest way to do that especially if you are keeping everything else minimal, at a certain age mascara is too hard to wear, your lashes are really thin and it is hard to apply it and it is uncomfortable for a lot of people as they get older, so since you’re not really wearing anything else you’ve got to keep it to a little pencil, cream blush and a bit of lipstick and that should make you look very nice, if your hair is done nicely it should be enough, you really don’t need more than that.

 

Sharon Haver:

And nicely doesn’t mean over done.

 

            Gabriela Hernandez:

No… not a lot, very light touch on all the makeup as you get older, very light touch and stick with the creaminess. That will always enhance.

 

Sharon Haver:

You don’t need those double hot rollers every day and you don’t need to have the hair extensions down to the middle of your waist either.

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

No… no…no, actually if anything that makes you look older when you do that as it is not appropriate for the age so it looks out of place, it’s a Picasso painting where the nose is on the side. And you go “Something is off with this, I don’t…something is not quite right”, and people can pick it up right away if it is not appropriate.

 

Older women I think look nicer with mid length hair or shorter hair because number one it is easier to take care of it when it is shorter and also I think its more appropriate to the age so that it looks like an adult instead of a kid, so I associate… everybody associates shoulder length hair or shorter with somebody that is a bit older than younger.

 

Sharon Haver:

Yeah older being sophisticated, you’ve earned your right in this world; you’re not a babe in the woods.

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

A woman.

 

Sharon Haver:

A woman not a doll.

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

A woman yes, exactly, a woman… I think a woman is more alluring at least in my opinion where her hair is actually a nice length not down to the back.

 

Sharon Haver:

You garner more respect that way too… you don’t look like your trying to turn back time, we are going to leave turning back time to Cher… Cher is amazing by the way, she is probably the one person who can keep her hair long, show that midriff Cher, whatever you are doing you look amazing.

 

01:07:55

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

Yeah that one… when you come to performers and all of that, all of that goes out the window because obviously they are trying to hold onto their image for as long as they possibly can.

 

Sharon Haver:

And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

They all get such a hard time the actors, I really feel bad because you remember them in your mind as you saw them in the movies and for you they never change for you, they always look the same in your mind but they actually don’t because they get old and when you see them your like “What happened to that person?” they are not… Sharon Stone doesn’t look like she did in done Basic Instinct… what happened? She doesn’t look like that and you’re disappointed by this.

 

Sharon Haver:

She is still beautiful. This thing too is about those women, most of the time when you do see them, you are seeing them on stage performing and you’re seeing them at a great distance and you’re seeing them well lit. One of the best makeup tools is lighting, the right light can make you look gorgeous the wrong light can you make look hell.

 

That is also something else to keep in mind but in real life, god… I don’t know…I am on a tangent today with these women with their hair extensions to the middle of their waist.

It is just… I was just looking at y Facebook feed and it is all these people and there is nothing for some hair extensions to jazz it up a bit, really girl come on it looks ridiculous, when you no can do a tight shot of you as your hair goes down to almost your waist.

My pet peeve of the day.

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

Yeah I don’t think that works for most people unless you are Cher or you are Britney Spears, people that actually use that in their career, it is part of their persona to do that and it works for them because it is part of their persona but for regular people it doesn’t work as well.

It works for them for a specific reason and it doesn’t necessarily work for everybody else

 

Sharon Haver:

I think that we have had one of the most fascinating conversations here and I think everyone out there, as you can see this is just the tip of the iceberg, I highly recommend …instead of buying 15 more cheap lipsticks, go buy Classic Beauty The History of Makeup and take your time… not only will you look at makeup trends through history, as I said at the start of the show, you will look at the pictures and it will be like seeing an old friend and remembering where you were in your life when you wore that makeup or you remember that ad, there is even things in here that I remember my mom having and my grandmother who never threw out makeup.

 

I probably inherited that gene, you know when you have that makeup hoarding …I remember going to see makeup in an old sewing machine and I looked at it and even though it was all dried up she would keep things she liked in there.

 

I was looking at things and they reminded me of her, little powder compacts and old-fashioned metal eyelash curler, it brings back old memories…old friends and besides it is just fascinating on history and how women are perceived and how women want to be perceived through time, you will also learn some fantastic tips and tricks in here on how to wear your makeup and you will also maybe more important see …“Oh my god, I am still doing that”, maybe it is time, take it down a notch, make it more natural, make it more relevant and chic that way.

 

The book is called Classic Beauty The History of Makeup by Gabriella Hernandez it is on Schiffer Publishing and tell us also Gabriella how else people can connect with you.

 

01:12:10

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

Well they can email us or come to our store, we have our store in Burbank in California, it is open 7 days a week, we are in a really nice walk in area with all kids of little shops … restaurants. It is a nice day out if you are in California and would like to come and see us in Burbank come on by the store or online at

 

https://besamecosmetics.com

 

Or on Instagram also at Besame Cosmetics, drop us a line we are always happy to hear from everybody, new ideas of beauty and what products that you would like to see come back from the great beyond that is not made anymore, that you used to love, we love to hear those things, we are always looking for things that maybe we lost back in time that were really good products and people decided to discontinue them and not make them anymore, maybe we want to take a crack at re-making some of those things, so just drop us a line.

 

The book is available also on Amazon it is easy to get it there; they have a great price on Amazon… better than I can get it.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Classic-Beauty-History-Gabriela-Hernandez/dp/0764336908

 

Actually there is a great on Amazon.

 

Sharon Haver:

And it is Besame Cosmetics.

 

Gabriela Hernandez:

Yes https://besamecosmetics.com, is the website and @BesameCosmetics on Instagram and on Facebook as well if you want to drop us a line, we are always reading everybody’s comments and we respond right away.

We will be at the Disney Expo this year as well because of the Disney Collection that we are doing, so we will be there in July… middle of July, 15th I think on, that weekend is the D23 Expo in Anaheim, we will be there as well, so if you are coming to that come and see us and talk about Snow White and 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

 

Sharon Haver:

Thank you so much for being here today and I am going to put everything under the show notes for this, you can get the link here go to www.focusonstyle.com on the post if you are there already you will see it below and I just think this is fabulous, so thank you so much and talk to you soon, see you guys next time.

Bye bye.

 

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