When I first heard the name Pan-Stik Makeup I immediately thought of the old-fashioned pancake style make up from the 40s and the heyday of Hollywood. After all it was Max Factor who invented pan cake makeup. When the shift in Hollywood went to color films, changes in the style of make up and its application became necessary. Soon the entire makeup-buying population was following the trend set by Max Factor.

But I needn’t have feared thick and heavy coverage that looked old-fashioned or worse; Max Factor is still the company that sets trends. Max Factor’s Pan-Stik is light and creamy with a silky matte finish. It is easily blendable with a fingertip but a damp sponge will create a professional foundation. It did a good job of evening out skin tones and didn’t seem to clog in pores or look thick.

I liked the portability of the Pan-Stik. It can’t break or spill out into your purse, it’s light and fits conveniently into even a small bag.

Buy Max Factor’s Pan-Stik from our Beauty Store

This bust of Nefertiti is one of the most famous examples of classic beauty. Wife to the pharoah, Akhenaten, her name means “the beautiful (or perfect) woman has come”.

We can see why she was so named. Note the symmetry of the face, the distance between the eyes and their shape are both perfect. High cheekbones and a well-shaped mouth add to the classic ideal of beauty. But notice also what she has done to emphasize her natural attributes.

The eyebrows are soft arches in a natural line. They are neither too thick and bushy nor are they pencil thin and sharply angled. The high cheekbones are emphasized with a deeper shade of makeup under the ridge. Slight shadows in the crease of the eyelid make the eyes appear deeper. Eyeliner was popular in Egypt and Nefertiti made good use of it, lining both the upper and lower lids; defining the eyes and emphasing their shape. The lips are stained with a berry red.

The Egyptians were some of the most ardent and artful masters of makeup the world has known. Although the images we often see appear to be overstated in the use of makeup, this bust of Nefertiti was used by the scupltor as a guide for creating official portraits and was not itself for display. Therefore, this is most likely to be a true representation of one of the most famous faces of all history.

In 2004, a British archeological dig in London yielded an unusual find. A metal container, with the lid intact was unearthed. The container still held its original contents of cosmetic face cream of the type used by fashionable Roman women. This cream was made of refined animal fat, starch and tin. The starch would produce a powdery texture and the tin was to produce the pale white complexion that was highly prized by Roman women. Researchers know that the Romans used lead for that purpose in face cream, the tin was probably an indication that they were using a non-toxic substitute for the poisonous lead.

Today we would call this kind of face cream, foundation. Rather than being used to produce a pallor, foundation today is used to create a base for your makeup, cover imperfections in skin and skin tone and sometimes to hide blemishes. It makes the face look smoother and more even-toned.

Choosing a foundation can be a matter of trial and error but there are a few things to keep in mind that will help you get it right the first time.

The two most important factors you must consider in choosing a foundation are: coverage and color.

If you have young, unlined skin and are not trying to hide blemishes, you will probably like “sheer” foundations best. They even out skin tone without being thick or obvious. If your skin has a few fine lines or is dry, a moisturizing liquid foundation will help create a dewy glow. A good choice for oily skin is one of the many brands of powder foundation. They create a matte finish and usually contain ingredients like talc that absorb excess oil.

If you have many lines or large pores, avoid heavy coverage liquids that collect in creases and clog pores. Many times women think that a heavier foundation base will help hide these imperfections but in actual fact, it can make them much more noticeable.

When choosing a shade, you want one that most nearly matches your own skin tone in natural light. Don’t make the mistake of going too light or choosing one that is too pink or peachy in the belief that you will have a healthy glow. Your colors are going to come from your blush, eyeshadow and lipstick, not from your foundation. Foundation is just that. It merely prepares the canvas so you can artfully create your look.

The history of lipstick is one of varying degrees of popularity over the last 5000 years. The first recorded use of lipstick was by Queen Shub-ad of ancient UR, about 3500 BC. Lipstick gained favor in ancient Egypt, but was made of some suspicious substances, a few of which could be poisonous. Always ahead of the times, the ancient Egyptians viewed all makeup as being more indicative of status than gender and so both men and women might use lipstick. Lipstick in ancient times was made of ochre, crushed red rocks, and even lead.

Elizabeth I of England made lipstick popular with her devotion to it but also believed it contained magical powers to heal. After her death, the church saw danger in this magical connection. The wearing of lipstick eventually came to be viewed as attempts by women to bewitch men with false beauty. In the American colonies they were more wont to follow the example of the French who indulged in all forms of lip rouge and makeup. But in the 1800s, when Queen Victoria declared makeup to be “impolite”, it caused lipstick to again fall to the domain of actresses and prostitutes.

In turn of the century America, suffragettes began to wear lipstick as a symbol of the new female emancipation. In the 20s, young women increasingly wore lipstick as they threw off what they considered to be stuffy ideas of the past. By the heyday of Hollywood in the 1940s, the use of lipstick and other makeup by starlets solidified lipstick’s image as desirable in the American woman’s mind. Today, wearing lipstick is as routine for most women as wearing deodorant. Some may wear lipstick only when they are going out in the evening but the majority of women wear it every day. Today’s woman considers lipstick an essential part of “putting on her face”; in fact, many women refuse to be seen without it.