This "steam-box," meant to open pores, improve circulation and soften the complexion, received a simultaneously clinical and horrified analysis from our writer.  "It is safe to say that some of the results obtained have been at the cost of physical discomfort," the story reads. Of course, not much has changed since the 1920s. When you consider the waxing, the plucking, the surgery and Lord knows what else women do to themselves today in the name of beauty, sticking your face in a warm box of steam doesn't sound so bad.

Putting on lipstick is a tricky business. You've got to blot, do the thing where you mush your lips together and sometimes even then it bleeds and makes you look like Bozo the Clown. PopSci was happy to step in and help its female readers keep from being recruited by Ringling Brothers by suggesting they just make a stencil. Then they wouldn't have to worry about such rudimentary things as coloring inside the lines. In fact, we thought this was such a great idea that we suggested it not just once, but twice. Once in 1925 and once in 1938.

In the introduction to a review of a book that covered the entire scope of man's invention, from prehistoric times up to the then-present, our writer described the first beauty parlour as being outfitted with clamshells, sharks teeth and a sharp-edged flat stone. "With such tools our ancestors gave themselves the first haircuts," the story reads, but we struggle to see exactly how. Maybe they combed their hair with the sharks' teeth, held it between the clamshells and sawed through it with a rock?

"In an effort to improve the faces and figures of the nation's women, inventors have answered the call for mechanical aids in the war on wrinkles, double chins, sagging muscles and rough complexions," this article reads. If so, then this is the torture chamber. Sure, a lotion-soaked skin mask doesn't sound so bad. And yeah, it's weird, but I'm willing to pick up a mini rolling pin with my foot in order to "limber up the toes," but I'm definitely going to pass on the "skin oxylation treatment," in which compressed air is sprayed in your face.

This surprisingly compact bracelet contains, well, a compact. Not to mention rouge (for both face and lips), mirrors and little puffs to help you quickly and discreetly freshen up without heading to the powder room to do your powdering. When not in use, the compartments are covered by an outer metal band, so you don't have to worry about accidentally rouging your dress.

You know how sometimes you're filming a super-romantic scene with Cary Grant and you guys are both on fire and the entire crew is weeping from the emotional intensity and then the director yells "Cut!" and makes you redo the scene because there was a run in your stocking? Well, that's the problem one Hollywood make-up artist set out to solve by painting nylons onto actresses with makeup that looked like real silk. For added verisimilitude, he would draw a seam down the backs of their legs. 

Clearly the precursor to the flavoured Lip Smackers that today grace the lips of preteen girls everywhere, flavourful lipsticks made these well-coiffed women smile. Is it just me, or is the one with "wine" flavour smiling the widest? And do I detect a hint of jealousy in the eyes of those who were stuck with plain old "orange" and "pineapple?" Other flavours include banana, champagne, peach, apricot and rye. Seriously, though, if anyone knows where I can get a wine-flavoured Lip Smacker (preferably pinot noir, but I'm not picky), hit me up.

The director of make-up for Twentieth Century Fox Studios wrote this guide for women who wanted to look as glamorous as Barbara Stanwyck in Baby Face. For example, you should lengthen your eyebrows with a brown pencil. "The average eyebrow stops too abruptly," apparently. With rouge, "at all costs avoid a round spot." "Forget the natural lips," just draw on your lips as you wish they were. Men should follow the same tips, the article says, except you boys can skip the rouge altogether.

This collapsible mirror within a lipstick tube is perfect for women like me, who are always running late and doing their makeup at the bus stop, or for 1940s femme fatales who like to leave their lip prints on the napkins of handsome gentlemen at restaurants, or for international spies who always need to be on the lookout for enemies behind them, even while primping.