Don't I look Swell In Sables, Clothes With Paris Labels?

Warning:  this post contains images of a Christmas tree!

And I promise it's the very last glimpse of the holiday until at least November!  But I had promised to show more of my 40s inspired look so please indulge me a day longer.

Any vintage-dressing girl will be able to attest to how much maintenance a glamorous 1940s look requires.  Once you get used to it, it can be quite quick but...

Coiffure 

This is what I struggle with as my hair and I are not great friends.  I'm hopeless with styling and would love to get better at it.   I can't use velcro rollers to save my life and pin curls work best but I am, again, hopeless at executing them.  So I purchased sponge (sleeper) rollers from Boots and found them some of the best I've used.  I know my hair doesnt look much in the pictures though!  I just pinned the two sides, trying to give a little bit of volume, and brushed the curls through to give a soft 40s wave.

Makeup

My favourite part!  Red lipstick, as I am so pale, can be over dramatic on me.  I have bad skin and so the hardest part is making it as flawless as I can so the red lip is 'clean'.   Basically, I have to cake myself in foundation despite the fact that a more genuine 40s look would have been more natural with powder and rouge.  Oh well, needs must!  I did natural taupes and browns for contouring my eyes and added a tiny bit of highlighting shimmer and lots of winged eyeliner for definition on stage.
I bought a new red lipstick - Mac Viva Glam I.  I shy away from Ruby Woo because it is very drying on me but this is also a 'matte' and not that hard to wear at all.  I had looked at Russian Red originally but was talked into this and like that it is that much darker than other reds I own without being too much of a 'brick' shade.  The depth and matteness did lend itself more to a vintage look, loving it a lot right now.

I even did a shaky 40's half moon manicure with the help of file reinforcer stickers. This was my first attempt, it looked better from a distance! My OPI red has really dulled though, any tips? I added China Glaze Ruby
Slippers to make it shine a bit more. Want to grow my nails a bit and try this with black too!

Outfit

Back-seam tights proved tricky to find when I only had one afternoon to find them.  Lots of fashion seamed tights but finding a plain tan and black seam was getting a bit stressful until I found these by Pretty Polly in River Island.  They are actually really lovely tights!
As the dress fell straight to below the knee, I needed a higher black heel than I owned to make it more flattering.  I thought the ankle strap and chunkier than average heel made them a bit more retro than proper stilettos - luckily they were only £7 in New Look too and didn't give me a single blister.

A 'Lindybop' dress was bought from an Ebay shop.  Not a lot of give in the material so felt like a true wiggle dress!  Also a bit of a nightmare with the wrinkling but it did look nice on.  I'd never have picked such a bold dress (tight, red, massive split to thigh) for a look for myself but it was fun to dress up out of my comfort zone - think I grew to love the red actually!

Didn't realise the Ruby Murray plaque was behind me till afterwards but nice vintage Belfast reference!  Hope you all enjoyed my 40s inspired 'step by step', I had good fun with it!  Thank you all for your lovely messages of hope on my last post.

What do you think, could I wear the dress out?

xox