The Muse Parlor Folio · The 1950s
Technicolor Abundance
Postwar color, everywhere, and the promise of transformation for a dime.
The saturation returns and does not stop. Revlon's Fire and Ice matches lips and nails in a single shade and dares the reader with a quiz, and the matched lip and nail becomes a category. Beauty turns aspirational and confident, printed in coral and turquoise.
Scent goes mass with it. Bourjois' Evening in Paris is on every counter, and Prince Matchabelli and Coty advertise beside the fan-magazine stars, so a woman can buy a little Paris at the drugstore. The studio look reaches every town.
“The aspirational face, in full saturation, for a dime.”
