Tag Archives: powder compact

BACK TO LADIES’ ACCESSORIES – A MORE MODERN PURSE COMPACT

Come forward about 30 years from the chatelaine compact I showed earlier and we have another example from the 1960’s. Also from my family, with some of the original powder still remaining. For so many decades, a powder compact was an important item in every woman’s purse.

This one is also quite elegant, with a nicely finished puff and separator pad on top of the powder. The pretty design and large mirror made it a pleasure to carry and to use. Despite every effort to be discreet, however, one could hardly help sprinkling a trail of powder here and there when conducting an investigation. It would always have been better for any agent to use a common drugstore brand which could never be associated with with you after the forensics team arrives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

MORGANA MARTIN, THE MAGICVINTAGESPY

BLOG: MAGICVINTAGESPY.COM

EARLY 1900’S FACE POWDER COMPACT CHATELAINE

This is really special – it comes from my family. Can’t say which of the grannies or aunties it belonged to, but one of them carried it before the 1930’s. Can you imagine – it still contains some of the powder and rouge that she used!

It’s a pretty messy deal, but you can see that there is an attractive little lever to hold one of the powder puffs in place, no doubt to prevent the two powders from mixing. Well, good luck on that, but I guess it worked well enough.

On top of that, the compact then fastened on to a clip somewhere on her belt or pocket or in a purse. Powdering one’s nose was an important beauty ritual for women at least until the end of the mid-century. They must have sprinkled cosmetic across the entire world. Take care, damsels of intrigue. If a clever investigator could suss out the exact shade and formulation of the evidence left behind, s/he might be on your trail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

MORGANA MARTIN, THE MAGICVINTAGESPY

BLOG: MAGICVINTAGESPY.COM