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Finding beauty in old makeup: the comeback of vintage cosmetics


A growing passion has seen people part with thousands for antique compacts, lipsticks and perfumes. Serena Smith meets the collectors seeking yesteryear’s glamour

In May this year, one eBay seller parted with a pot of Max Factor’s historic Pan-Cake foundation for $180 (£141), while at the time of writing, 81 people are interested in an extensive Mary Quant makeup collection dating back to the 1960s and 1970s, priced at a cool £1,500. “It wasn’t until the 80s that people started having a lot more stuff.” On a similar note, Bhagwandas says she yearns for the days when beauty was more about enjoying the process of using cosmetics, in the years before social media, the plastic surgery boom, and the age of the “Instagram Face”. “The variety of skin tone shades available in the past compared to now is like night and day, for example.” He stresses that we’re also lucky to live in an age where “consumer awareness” is prioritised and ingredients such as radium are no longer found in face creams and toothpaste.

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