Period Make-Up for the Stage : Step-By-Step

 

Stage Makeup : The Actor's Complete Step-By-Step Guide to Today's

Mask of Reality : An Approach to Design for Theatre

The Face Is a Canvas : The Design and Technique of Theatrical Makeup by Irene Corey

In the Eye of the Beholder : The Science of Face Perception

Special Make-Up Effects

Cream Makeup

Makeup Stacks

To see more old makeup kits: 

Page 2: A complete professional actor's kit in it's original tin box, most probably used by a white male in the early 20th Century.

Page 3: A barely used kit contents suggestive of a white female (amateur?) ingénue 1900-1925?

Page 4: Complete and unused white female Max Factor theatrical "student" kit in original box (1940's?)

Page 6: Special effects makeup kit probably before the 1950s

Page 7: A Small Basic Set of Stein's Greasepaint Sticks for a white actor or actress in it's original c.1900 tin

Page 8: c. 1900 white female kit of Blanca Lester, plus roll of c.1900 stage money.

Page 9: c. 1900 Stage makeup kit from the U.S., probably for a white male specializing in drunks and bums.

Back to Page 1. Old Makeup Kits main page 

Related information:

Make Up Book for Professionals by F.W. Nack, Chicago, c.1900 a complete facsimile of a copyright expired lithographic pamphlet  on stage makeup from around 1900.  It shows clear diagrams of the common types of theatre makeup used for portraying popular characters and types on the American stage at that time.  These diagrams are not only interesting for the study of the history of stage makeup, but also for the study of various stereotypes of race, gender and age prevalent in stage works of the time, including blackface, yellowface, and redface.