Category Archives: Beauty Tips

Classic Actress Beauty Tip #14: Clear Katharine Hepburn complexion

Posted on by

This is the fourteenth installment of our monthly classic actress beauty tips that I have read about and tested.

Recently, Glamour magazine listed several classic actress beauty secrets. One that peaked my interest was how Katharine Hepburn had such clear skin.

It’s no secret that I am not the biggest fan of Katharine Hepburn, but I will admit that she had wonderfully clear skin.

Katharine Hepburn and her clear skin

Similar to Lana Turner using Four Mule Team Boraxo soap as an exfoliate, Hepburn had her own concoction.

Hepburn mixed lemon juice and sugar and scrubbed her face with it every night to keep her complexion clear, according to Glamour.

Recipes for the facial said to squeeze half a lemon and add water and a tablespoon of sugar to the mixture.

I’ll admit, I didn’t measure any of it and used way too much lemon juice. Regardless, it still made an invigorating scrub.

1. First I washed off my make-up with soap and cold cream. I’ve read several times, that to really get your skin clean, you must always wash your make-up off and then cleanse again.

2. I made the exfoliant mixture and got in the shower so it would possibly make less of a mess around my sink.

3. Scrubbed the lemon and sugar mixture on my face.

4. Rinsed it very well with cool water.

My face surprisingly didn’t feel sticky afterwards like I thought it would, but felt clean and smooth.

To review: It may be a good idea to measure the ingredients unlike I did. This seems to be a pretty good method, but be wary of sticky bathroom counters afterwards. Also, be careful of rubbing the sugar too hard. I rubbed too hard and my cheeks were a little red afterwards.

Stay tuned for August’s tip!

Check out the Comet Over Hollywood Facebook page for the latest updates.

Beauty Tip #13 **Anniversary Edition**: Lux Soap

Posted on by

Lovely Laraine Day in a Lux Soap ad

A year ago today, I posted my first classic movie tip. It was Lana Turner’s use of Boraxo soap to scrub her skin. I still use it now and find it really effective.

This is the 13th beauty tip and is a special tip for Comet’s beauty tips anniversary.

I sometimes listen to Lux Radio Broadcasts via podcast.  The Lux Radio Broadcasts were weekly broadcasts sponsored by Lux Soap where actors and actresses performed films on the radio. Sometimes the actors who starred in the movies perform them but other times they have to find replacements. For example, Shirley Temple and Herbert Marshall reprised their roles in “Kathleen” but Frances Gifford took over as the Laraine Day role.

Performing film scripts on air was a way the film industries were able to incorporate radio so that it wouldn’t be a threat to films, according to the Movies and Moguls documentary.

Lux Soap commercials would run in the broadcast. During the 1930s and war years, the commercials would talk about housewives using it to cut grease on dishes, keep the snap in their stockings or how it helped keep their complexion clear.

Paulette Goddard looking beautiful with the help of Lux

In the 1950s the commercials get increasingly corny. For example: “I was watching Jeanne Crain on the set of ‘Letter to Three Wives’ and she had to do the country club scene over and over again. At the end of the scene, she was exhausted but she said the one thing that did hold up were her stockings that had been washed in Lux Soap.”

Since the commercials made Lux sound like a miracle soap, I decided to do some investigation.

Most actresses were part of the Lux ad campaign and claimed that it made their skin soft and clear.

I went on Ebay to find my own Lux soap to see how it worked for me.  Lux is no longer found in stores, but is still sold abroad.

I bought a few bars of new Lux (Mild soap with honey) and several old bars of soap. The seller said the soap was from pre-1974 but wasn’t sure of the exact date.

I used both soaps after being particularly dirty after jogging and going to the swimming pool. The new soap smelled nice and was soft but really wasn’t anything spectacular.

The old soap still produced a nice thick, creamy lather and left my skin feeling soft. It did smell very strongly and I had a faint smell on my skin for the rest of the day.

The white packages are the pre-1974 soap and the peach colored is new.

 To review: I didn’t notice my skin looking as beautiful as a movie star, but I certainly felt clean and smooth afterwards. Maybe after using it a little longer I will have the skin of Dorothy Lamour or Cyd Charisse!

Also, Comet’s own anniverary post will be coming soon. It was actually in mid-May and I completely forgot!

Check out the Comet Over Hollywood Facebook page for the latest updates.

Classic Film Beauty Tip: Jane Fonda Workout #34

Posted on by

Jane Fonda pregnancy workout record, Workout book and the workout VHS

What do classic film and a good work out have in common?

Jane Fonda.

In 1982, my mom bought the “Jane Fonda Workout” VHS tape.  Twenty-nine years later, my mother and myself are still doing the exercises along with Jane.

Arm circles (palms up, thumbs in) with Jane.

The workout tape isn’t something new to my family’s exercise regiment. When my oldest sister Erin was four-years-old (she is now 31), she would put on her leg warmers, leotard and a belt to look just like Jane.  When my mom was pregnant with my 26-year-old sister Andrea, the workouts helped her get her figure back quickly.

When I was little, my sisters and I would put on bathing suits and exercise with mommy. I’ve continued to work out with Jane for prom in high school and have forced myself to do the advanced exercises this summer to lose weight for swimsuit season and job interviews.

The workout has several cardio exercises and helps strengthen abs, legs, arms and butt.  The tape includes a 30 minute beginners exercise segment and an hour-long advanced workout (that will kick your butt). It’s probably one of the best work out videos out there.

This particular VHS is in high demand too. It hasn’t been released on DVD yet and is being sold for up to $72 on Amazon and Ebay.

I’ll admit that Jane Fonda isn’t the first people I think of when I hear “classic film.” I consider her one of the “new age” actors. Even her father Henry Fonda scoffed at the method acting she was learning about in acting school, according to her “Private Screenings” interview with Robert Osborne.

But Jane was born into Hollywood royalty and was getting her start in the late 1950s and 1960s. Once you get into “Barbarella”, “Klute” and getting her photo taken while sitting on North Vietnam guns, I start to lose interest.

Due to Jane’s politics, my grandparents were both a little shocked when my mom bought the work out tape. My mother’s father fought in the infantry during the Battle of the Bulge in World War 2, and my father’s dad went to West Point, fought in Korea and retired from the army in 1965.

However, politics aside, Jane Fonda gives an excellent workout!

Below is a sample of her advanced work out:

Several other actors during this time got into the fitness craze. Jane Powell had one called “Fight Back with Fitness” and Esther Williams swam once again in “Swim, Baby, Swim.” I haven’t had a chance to try either of these, but I’ll let everyone know if they work as well as Jane Fonda when I do.

Check out the Comet Over Hollywood Facebook page for the latest updates.

Actress beauty tip #12: Jean Harlow weight loss program

Posted on by

This is the twelfth installment of my monthly classic actress beauty tips that I have tested.  I apologize that May’s beauty tip is several days late.  Exams, graduation and moving home have been pretty hectic!

Since it’s summer and swim suit season, several of us have weight loss on the brain.  Looking at thin actresses such as Hedy Lamarr and Claudette Colbert makes losing weight seem impossible. They are so tiny and perfect!  Who actually has a 20 inch waist?

But not all classic actresses were perpetually thin and had to work hard to keep their weight off.

Jean Harlow thin and fit due to strict dieting

In between films, Harlow would eat whatever she wanted and gain some weight.  When it came time for filming a new movie,  Harlow would have to put herself on a strict diet of salads and vegetables to get back to her thin movie weight, according to IMDB and Steal Their Style.  Towards the end of her nine-year career, she wasn’t as thin due to the illness that took her life.

Other actresses had weight issues such as Clara Bow, Joan Blondell and Shelley Winters.  Bow’s weight-along with fear of talking pictures-contributed to the end of her career.

I know eating healthy seems like a no brainer for losing weight but it is harder for some of us than others. I can sympathize with Jean Harlow about struggling to lose weight. When I want to shed some pounds, I have to be very strict with myself.  I’m not someone who can work out for an hour and then go eat a piece of pie and still look great.

Like Jean Harlow, to lose weight I have to eat very light meals. Last summer I lost a good bit of weight by eating carrots, rice cakes and blueberries for lunch. I would eat normal dinners of chicken and broccoli and breakfasts of cereal or toast.  I also have to cut out sweets completely or only eat them on rare occasions. For those of you that know me, you know this is a battle.  I have a major sweet tooth and have a hard time practicing self control. For example, if my mom makes cookies I smuggle out 4 or 5.

Once I got back to school, I was on a steady diet of Popeye’s chicken and Burger Studio from Winthrop’s food court and free Papa John’s pizza every Monday night during newspaper layout.  Needless to say I gained some weight and this was even while I was taking Yoga and Aerobic Walking.

To review: Some of us, like Jean Harlow and me, have to be very strict when we want to lose weight.  Eating lots of vegetables, fruit and meat and cutting out cake, cookies and pie helped me shed several pounds.  Happy summer and swim suit season!

***I know this review was pretty common sense, but stay tuned for June! June has an exciting, creative beauty tip that cost me some money for the one year anniversary of Comet’s beauty tips!**

Check out the Comet Over Hollywood Facebook page for the latest updates.

Actress Beauty Tip #11: Platinum blonde hair

Posted on by

Hollywood’s original platinum blonde

Before Ginger Rogers, young Bette Davis and later Marilyn Monroe dyed their hair platinum blonde, Jean Harlow was the first.  Robert Osborne said in March “Now Playing” article that it’s hard to say anyone is the first:

“Since the movie medium is now well into its second century, it’s virtually impossible for anybody to be “the first” to do something cinematically. Make a 3D movie? Some folks still have aching eyes from when third-dimension movies were a craze fifty-eight years ago. Watch a film on an iPhone? Basically, people were watching movies that size when “flickers” were initially introduced in small machines called Nickelodeons over 100 years ago. Even in the early 1930s, when our TCM Star of the Month Jean Harlow began her spectacular career, it was not easy to do something in the film world no one had done before. But Harlow did have first-time bragging rights on one thing: she was the first in what became a long line of platinum blonde bombshells who have added sizzle, sensuality and sassiness to the film medium ever since.“

Osborne said before Harlow, dark haired vamps were the sex symbols in the 1920s like Theda Bera and Louise Brooks.

My new platinum hair! I even got bangs!

In honor of Jean Harlow’s 100th birthday on March 3, I decided to dye my hair platinum blonde. I’ve never dyed my hair before, so I thought “What the heck? I’m about to graduate from college so I might as well do it now.”  I wanted my hair to look like a field of silver daisies that someone would want to run barefoot through, like Franchet Tone said in “Bombshell.” I’m also a big Lady Gaga fan, so I wanted to look like her as well.

I used the same recipe studio’s used to dye Harlow’s hair the iconic blond hair, according to the beauty website “Steal Their Style.”

A mixture of:
•Peroxide
•Ammonia
•Clorox flakes
*They also used Luxe Flakes, but unfortunately those aren’t made anymore so I just omitted it.

There is a reason people don’t use this to dye their hair any more. It smells really horrible and wasn’t very comfortable.  I also look horrible with blonde hair since I have fair skin, as you can see in the picture above.

APRIL FOOLS! 🙂

My real hair. No hair dye for me!

April Fools is really silly but in honor of Jean Harlow’s 100th birthday in March, I thought it would be interesting to look at the dangerous mix of items they used on her hair.  I am wearing a horrible blonde wig I bought at Party City to dress up as Lady Gaga for Halloween 2009.

Several actresses who peroxided their hair in the 1930s and 1940s experienced problems with hair loss, brittle hair and thinning hair. Jean Harlow wore a wig in the movie “China Seas” (1935), because she was trying to let it grow back to it’s natural color, according to IMDB. Ginger Rogers also described problems with her hair in her autobiography “Ginger: My Story.”

I probably will never, ever dye my hair, but certainly not platinum blonde. Please, please, please don’t try this. I’ve always been told never to mix clorox and ammonia so don’t you try it either. If you do and you get hurt, don’t send your lawyers to me. If you feel so inclined to dye your hair bleached blond, don’t do it this way. Actually don’t do it at all. I know very few people who look good with peroxide blonde hair and several of them were actresses-not people I know in real life.

Check back in May for the year anniversary beauty tip!

And just in case you were curious…me as Gaga haha

Check out the Comet Over Hollywood Facebook page and Radio Waves Over Hollywood Facebook page.

Actress beauty tip #10: Audrey Hepburn’s perfume

Posted on by

This is the tenth installment of my monthly classic actress beauty tips that I have read about and tested.

I love perfume. It’s nice to be recognized with a particular scent. It’s feminine and fun.

Several actresses were perfume addicts as well. The Turner Classic Movies documentary “Movies and Moguls” said Gloria Swanson spent $500 per month on perfume in the 1920s.

The ad reads “Once she was the only woman in the world allowed to wear this perfume. L’Interdit. Created by Givenchy for Audrey Hepburn.”

Recently I’ve been trying out different perfumes used by actresses. This month, I tried out Givenchy’s L’Interdit which was created and worn by Audrey Hepburn. The scent was created in 1957 and was made solely for Audrey. It was only offered in stores after she had worn it for a few years.

I’ve had a sample of this perfume for at least five years. It came in a gift set with my Very Irresistible Givenchy perfume and I simply forgot about it.  I only realized that I had it, and that it would make a good beauty tip, last weekend.

I wore it last week so I could smell it, get others to smell it and see if I could tolerate it for the whole day.

The perfume doesn’t smell bad. In fact, it’s pretty light and airy, but it is a very mature smell.  It has that musky, powdery smell that fills your nose when you sit behind an old woman in church.

My thoughts about the mature scent were confirmed when I had friends smell my wrist and say, “You smell like my mom” or “Aw that makes me think of my grandmother.”

To review:  The perfume smells nice and is light, but is probably a little mature for a 22-year-old. I may try again in a few years to see if my opinion changes.  On a side note, I read that the L’Interdit sold now isn’t the original scent. One blog said the original L’Interdit was much more spicy and exotic and not as flowery and musky. It’s a shame it was changed because that sounds much more appealing.

Check out the Comet Over Hollywood Facebook page and Radio Waves Over Hollywood Facebook page.

Actress beauty tip #9: Red, red lips

Posted on by

This is the ninth installment of my monthly classic actress beauty tips that I have tested.  This month I’m actually on time!

Rita Hayworth wore Max Factor Rose Red. Lana Turner wore Elizabeth Arden’s Victory Red.

Rita Hayworth in Max Factor lipstick ad

The 1940s and 1950s was a time of minimal eye make-up and concentration on the lips.  Popular lip colors during the 1940s were pink red, bright red, cherry red or deep red, according to a 20s-to-40s make-up guide.

Rita Hayworth in particular was known for her red lipstick, along with her long red finger nails. The lipstick was a style constant from the 1930s to the 1960s for Hayworth. She was also involved in a 1949 Max Factor lipstick advertising campaign. Hayworth’s lips were even voted the best in the world by the Artist’s League of America.

Bright red lipstick looks beautiful on many other actresses including Betty Grable, Linda Darnell and Gene Tierney.

However, I think the bright reds are a hard look to pull off today. I’m not sure why people of the 1940s and 1950s look naturally better with bright red lipstick than people today. Maybe it’s their complexion. Maybe its because we emphasize eyes more with liner, mascara and shadow now.

But red lipstick is so enticing. It makes you feel powerful, feminine and glamorous. I bought two Maybelline lipstick shades on a whim: Are You Red-dy and Peachy Scene.

Though I’ve worn red lipstick out, I look horrible. I don’t really know anyone who looks good with red lipstick. It either doesn’t go with their skin tone or they put on gobs of lipstick without bothering to blot it.

To review: Red lipstick may look great on Lana Turner and Rita Hayworth in the 1940s, but its hard to recreate this pin-up look while looking fabulous at the same time. I personally look better in peach and pink shades. Approach bright shades of red lipstick with caution.

Check out the Comet Over Hollywood Facebook page and Radio Waves Over Hollywood Facebook page.

Actress beauty tip #8: Milk bath

Posted on by

This is the eighth installment of my monthly classic actress beauty tips that I have tested. Sorry this is late, Christmas festivities slowed down the beauty testing!

In Cecil B. DeMille’s ancient Rome epic “The Sign of the Cross” (1932), Claudette Colbert plays the cruel, seductive Empress Poppaea.   The VERY pre-code film features Claudette Colbert bathing lavishly in donkey’s milk in a pool size tub.  A little trivia: In reality, Colbert wasn’t bathing in donkey’s milk, but powdered cow’s milk.  The scene wasn’t very pleasant for Colbert to film, because the milk spoiled under the hot studio lights and smelled bad, according to IMDB.

Claudette Colbert in Sign of the Cross (1932)

After “The Sign of the Cross” inspired this beauty tip, I did some research on the benefits of milk baths.  The protein and fat in milk helps make skin feel soft.  Milk is also a natural exfoliant, according to She Radiance.

I have to say, this is one of those beauty tips (like the champagne hair rinse)  that I feel pretty ridiculous for trying but is really fun.  Here is what I did:

1. I showered earlier this morning, the milk bath was NOT a substitute for a shower or bath.
2. I bought a gallon and a half of two percent Southern Home milk from Bi-Lo.  Some websites said you only needed to add four to six cups, but I wanted as much milk in my bath as I could afford. I certainly wasn’t going to fill the whole tub with milk, though, because that would have been too expensive.
3. I filled the tub with warm water and dumped the gallon and a half of milk into the tub.  You can heat your milk on the stove, but after the cold milk and hot water mixed, the water was at a good temperature.
4. Soak in the tub. I wasn’t really sure how long to bathe, so I soaked for about 20 to 30 minutes.
5. Dry off with an old towel and rinse out your tub with water.  I didn’t notice the bad milk smell that was warned. However, to be on the safe side I rinsed out the tub so my bathroom wouldn’t smell like sour milk.

To review:  After the bath my skin felt smooth and not as dry as it had before. Apparently the milk baths also makes you taste good, because my dachshund is licking my arm as I type.
In the future I may only put a half-gallon or a few cups in to save money. I do suggest this, it was fun and ridiculous a the same time.

Check out the Comet Over Hollywood Facebook page and Radio Waves Over Hollywood Facebook page.

Actress beauty tip #7: False Eye Lashes

Posted on by

1940s: Subtle lashes on Claudette Colbert

This is the seventh installment of my monthly classic actress beauty tips that I have tested. Sorry that this is a week late, finals have started at Winthrop and life has gotten busy!

Whether it be minimalistic eye make-up of the 1940s and 1950s or emphasized eyes of the 1960s, it is obvious actresses wore false eye lashes.  The lashes give their eyes an extra boost.  Prior to the 1950s it seemed like they weren’t wearing much make-up, but their lashes stood out looking full and beautiful. In the 1960s, the lashes only added more glamour too eyes already caked with eyeliner and eye shadow.

Actress Natalie Wood is one actress that wore false eye-lashes off screen.   Wood wore TWO layers of false eyelashes in the late 1960s and early 1970s, according to Suzanne Finstad’s book “Natasha: The Biography of Natalie Wood.”  Wood did this as her interest in fashion heightened and she was trying to have a darker look that she felt matched her Russian roots.

Natalie Wood in the 1960s wearing false eyelashes

Like Wood, I’ve worn false eye-lashes four or five times in the last seven years.  I love the way they make my lashes look, but I don’t find them very comfortable.  My eyes get dried out easily, especially because I wear contacts.  I’m always too afraid to blink, because I don’t want my lashes to fall off so for the rest of the day my eyes feel kind of dry and scratchy.

I also use the type that you apply the glue yourself, because I think it sticks better.  Self adhesive doesn’t stick very well and I usually end up applying more glue to it.  Though the glue sticks better, it also gets awfully messy and makes it hard to put mascara or eyeliner on your top lashes.

To review: False eyelashes make your lashes and eyes look great, but you pay a price of possible discomfort and sticky glue.

Stay tuned for some upcoming Christmas posts and January’s beauty tip!

Check out the Comet Over Hollywood Facebook page and Radio Waves Over Hollywood Facebook page.

Actress Beauty Tip #6: Soft Doris Day skin

Posted on by

This is the sixth installment of our monthly classic actress beauty tips that I have read about AND tested.

Doris Day was the quintessential girl next door with a sunny smile, blonde hair and flawless skin.

Doris Day showing off some skin

How did Doris Day keep her skin so smooth and clear looking?

In her autobiography “Doris Day: Her Own Story,” Day said that once a month she would cover her body with Vaseline before she went to bed to soften her skin. She would wear gloves, sock and pajamas that would make sure the Vaseline stayed on her skin and didn’t get all over her bed.

I haven’t specifically used Vaseline, but I have used coco butter on my skin over night which is a similar consistency.  I’ve had issues with dry knees, ankles and elbows and the coco butter worked relatively well.

However, over coco butter, I’ve found that baby oil and Nivea work best for softening skin over night.

To review: I haven’t used Vaseline overly much but I’m substituting coco butter for my experiment. It moisturizes well but Nivea and baby oil work much better.

Check by in December for installment number 7!

Check out the Comet Over Hollywood Facebook page and Radio Waves Over Hollywood Facebook page.