Classic Tips

From makeup tips to ideas on keeping a tidy and cozy sanctuary in the home, Davis offers her ideas

A special thanks to Ms. Charlotte Chandler, author of The Girl Who Walked Home Alone, whose inspiring dialogue with the star allowed for the source of the quotations I have arranged herein.

Bette suggests that regardless of where you visit at any length in time that you consider bringing your philosophy of home with you. Here's what she has to say on this and how to easily accomplish the absence of homesickness:

"As a child, I didn't have a secure home and possessions. We were always moving...

"When I travel, I bring things from my home with me, so I can establish a familiar relationship with my environment."  

  "Do you want to know the secret of my success? Easy. Brown mascara. I always wear brown mascara.

  "Fair actresses should never use black mascara if they want their eyes to show up. It's the opposite of what they think, that black mascara will make their eyes show up more.

  "Of course, there's nothing like blue eye shadow to show up blue eyes, but that's obvious. The secret is, if you are fair, black mascara and dark eye shadow will make you look like a clown or a harlot."

Editor's Summary: Find what suits you best. I myself am fair complected with blue eyes, and dark hair, but my eyelashes are naturally black. Strange huh? When I have used mascara that is black, I usually accompany it with tope or brown eyeliner, and use a softer or brighter shade of eye shadow. I think the effect is similar to what Davis suggest. But she's right, much like my public school graduation, I let the stylist at my face and she used not only black mascara but dark eyeshadow and eyebrow liners and yes, I did feel I looked much like a cross between a clown and a hooker. Alot can be done with makeup these days, and there are more considerations and options than what perhaps existed from the eras of Bette Davis.

  Also, she was known to nude-faced often enough, in her earlier times before cancer and advanced aging, for her skin had been sensitive since an accident in her youth. According to some sources such as biographer Charles Highman, when she was relighting a candle on a christmas tree and was donning a custume and beard in the spirit of the season, she caught fire, and though it was soon put out by attending adults, her face was badly blistered. The treatments back then of boric acid and the result of the accident reportedly removed a top layer of skin which never grew back. It gave the actress a bald look that became celebrated, but also a sensitivity to sun, wind and toxic properties in some makeup. (The Life of Bette Davis, Highman, p. 13)  

Davis once referred to herself as a country mouse. Some of her childhood was spent at camps.