I do so love a trawl through vintage beauty adverts. There is something so joyfully naive about the world of beauty throughout the mid twentieth century. 

The beauty industry was, unbelievably, still in its infancy in the 40s and 50s; technology was basic at best, aspirations were largely tailored to a presupposed male ideology of how a woman should look and batty home-made formulas often made it onto the production line. They were peculiar times. 

Which is why we can now look back and chuckle, with the smug chip of vast beauty knowledge on our shoulders. But one question remains, will the beauty consumers of the future look back on the beauty adverts of our times, the promises, the aesthetics and the ideology and chuckle too?

Click the gallery for some of the most bizarre tips from vintage beauty ads.