Beauty Tips for Kate Middleton...From 1953?

Allure Daily Beauty Reporter

By Alison Caporimo, Allure magazine

With the Royal Wedding around the corner, beauty predictions and makeup artist tips for Kate Middleton's big day are coming fast and furious. And when you consider all the zillions of cosmetics options open to the princess-to-be (not to mention the perils of HDTV), it's easy to get a touch nostalgic for a simpler time. Namely, 1953-the year Middleton's future grandma-in-law had a pretty significant shindig of her own at Westminster Abbey.

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An archival article from the St. Petersburg Times declared that a 27-year-old Queen Elizabeth II would be wearing special makeup for her coronation, but "none of this movie star stuff" (according to Thelma Holland, director of the London salon of Cyclax cosmetics manufacturers and "the beautician who will help the Queen put on her face"). Holland planned to use "a peach-tinted liquid foundation before applying powder" and "just a touch of rouge and eyeshadow." After all, "The Abbey lights are very bright and high overhead, and cast enough shadow around the eyes anyway," as Holland put it.

The author of this long-ago article noted that the young queen's makeup "must endure for approximately four hours without retouching and most of the day without a really thorough refurbishing," and worried over the fact that "unlike other women in the Abbey or along the procession route, the Queen can't reach hastily for the powder puff." But Holland just cheerfully insisted that "the Queen has a naturally wonderful skin... she never wears much makeup anyway, and her skin just isn't the type that gets shiny."

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Considering reports that Middleton applied her own makeup for the much-anticipated engagement photos, perhaps the bride has already taken a page from the Queen's playbook. As Holland said back in 1953: "She wants to be herself."


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