Mixing Face Powder: Retro Cosmetics (1958) | British Pathé

Look back at 1950’s innovations in cosmetics with this colourful archive footage of an old fashioned beautician demonstrating the process of mixing face powder. Note: The beauty specialist featured in film is Mary Sanders. Fashion model seen in film is Isabelle Babianska. For Archive Licensing Enquiries Visit: Explore Our Online Channel For FULL Documentaries, Fascinating Interviews & Classic Movies: #BritishPathé #History #1950s #Cosmetics #Makeup #Fashion License This Film: (FILM ID:) Subscribe to the British Pathé YT Channel: London. High angle C/U shot of a hand spooning out pink powder from one of many glass jars surrounding a white working area on a counter. Powder is poured onto scales and measured. Then it is spread across the white working area. High angle shot of different colour powders being mixed. C/U shot of the face of a young woman wearing a hat. C/U shot of different colour powders being mixed. This is part of a difficult process of making face powder to match the skin colour of an individual. Young woman wearing hat, wants to have a face powder to blend into her skin perfectly, so the beautician specialist mixes it for her. M/S of a girl watching the beautician mixing different colour powders. C/U of the face of the beautician lady. C/U shot of the face of the girl waiting for powder to be made. C/U shot of the mixed powder being poured into a special silver ’scoop’ with a handle. M/S of a beautician putting the ’scoop’ under something looking like an espresso machine. It is some kind of a press. High angle C/U shot of the beautician’s hands operating the machine. Machine is called compact-sized disc and the usage procedure is the same as with the espresso machine. C/U shot of the pressed powder being taken out of the machine and placed into powder box. C/U shot of the girl smiling while receiving ready made powder from the beautician lady. BRITISH PATHÉ’S STORY Before television, people came to movie theatres to watch the news. British Pathé was at the forefront of cinematic journalism, blending information with entertainment to popular effect. Over the course of a century, it documented everything from major armed conflicts and seismic political crises to the curious hobbies and eccentric lives of ordinary people. If it happened, British Pathé filmed it. Now considered to be the finest newsreel archive in the world, British Pathé is a treasure trove of 85,000 films unrivalled in their historical and cultural significance. British Pathé also represents the Reuters historical collection, which includes more than 136,000 items from the news agencies Gaumont Graphic (1910-1932), Empire News Bulletin (1926-1930), British Paramount (1931-1957), and Gaumont British (1934-1959), as well as Visnews content from 1957 to the end of 1984. All footage can be viewed on the British Pathé website.