WEBVTT

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(film projector clicking)

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- [Announcer] It should be remembered

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that the eyebrow is a very
important feature of the face.

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It expresses every human emotion.

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Happiness, sadness, joy.

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And a properly arched eyebrow

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is a valuable asset to
every woman's beauty.

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- According to the Westmore Brothers,

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I need to bring my eyebrow further in.

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Oh dear.

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(jazzy music)

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(swing music)

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Back in the 19th Century, and before that,

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makeup was really considered to be

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sort of racy, associated with actresses

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who were outside of the
realm of respectability.

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By the Golden Age of Hollywood,

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it had become much more mainstream,

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thanks in large part to
Hollywood's prominence

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in America and society.

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The flip side of that was
that women were surrounded

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by these images of glamorous actresses

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that they suddenly wanted to keep up with.

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One idea that you really
saw a lot of in the '30s,

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the Golden Age of the
studio system, was this idea

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that you could measure
your way to perfection.

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That there was one perfect face,

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and that if you just got
the measurements right,

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you could be basically
perfect, aesthetically.

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Two of the biggest names
in the beauty standards

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of the era are Max
Factor, who got his rise

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doing theatrical makeup,
and the Westmore brothers.

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Both created these almost
cage-like helmets for your face.

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Now, these both set the
standard in Hollywood,

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in terms of studio makeup, but then

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they used that prominence
to take their products

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mass market, and to reach
women all over America.

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- First, and most essential,

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a woman must be honest with herself.

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She must know her face shape

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before she can create the
illusion of proper proportion.

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We now think and talk in terms
of five basic shape faces.

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Namely the oval, the round, the square,

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the oblong, and the triangle.

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- So the ideal face shape,

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according to old Hollywood
beauty standards, is the oval.

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In 1934, a newspaper out of Connecticut

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actually reported that Sylvia Sidney

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had the most perfect feminine face.

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The perfect oval shape.

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(bell dings)

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You needed to have the width

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of exactly one eye between your two eyes.

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The width of your face should be

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twice the length of your nose,

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The upper lip should equal
the lower one in size,

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and the length of the face

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should be able to be divided
in exactly three parts.

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Basically, these systems reinforced

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western white beauty standards.

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Women of color weren't even factored

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into their calculations here.

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They weren't even included in the guides

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or when they were coming up,

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with what the perfect
face should look like.

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For women who couldn't
go to the face cages,

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the Westmore brothers also released

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a perfect makeup guide, that had hundreds

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of makeup tips to help women
fix their face, basically.

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So, I'm going to measure my face.

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And measure it against
the Westmore system.

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(jazzy music)

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According to the Westmore booklet,

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I have a triangle face.

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Sub-optimal, but we can work with it.

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Okay, up to the temple, in
under the center of the eye,

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and down very faintly over the jawline.

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I feel like I'm doing, like
an actual bracket on my face.

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We wanna start the eyebrow

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on a line directly above the
inside corner of the eye.

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I'm gonna end up looking real quizzical.

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So now, we've come to the lipstick.

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And they would like me to create

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a natural wide mouth to reduce

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the apparent width of my jaw,

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which is very funny,
because I'm supposed to

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widen my mouth, but make
my mouth look natural.

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Uh-oh.

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Huh?

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- [Woman] You look like a movie star.

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- (snickers) Do I?
(woman laughs)

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Amazingly enough, after
all of the snarking,

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I think my face actually
might look more oval.

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I don't really think that I'm gonna be

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adopting the measurements
of perfect beauty.

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It seems overly complicated,

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and frankly rather ridiculous.

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But then I consider the fact that

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everybody suddenly has the
same face from Instagram,

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and maybe I'm judging
the 1930s too harshly.