Belle Epoque Satin Finish Cheek Colors

The Belle Epoque collections consists of soft, satin finish and simply lovely shades that I'd formulated one afternoon, and decided to let the creative inspiration for theming the collection to percolate in my mind and see what my muse served up...

Well, she served! The next day, I was at an antique shop with a friend and spotted this beautiful hand painted Limoges plate (which the colors are photographed on, above!), and the color palette of it immediately made me think of the blush shades I'd created the day before. I was so smitten that I bought the plate and then started researching it's history.

And it's an interesting history, that fits right into my company's niche. It turns out, that around the turn of the century, porcelain plate painting was first a hobby that many women enjoyed. Painting and the artistic community wasn't necessarily seen as something socially acceptable for young women to be involved in at that time. This porcelain painting evolved into a growing cottage industry for women- some approximately 25,000 nameless artists were painting porcelain for profit at the height of the movement. Painting books and schools began. This movement offered them some freedom, autonomy and financial independence. It also aligned with the birth of the women's suffrage movement.

Limoges shipped porcelain blanks, and women who paint on these and use them to practice on. It was common to replicate images of famous art nouveau/belle epoque beauties on portrait plates such as this one. In researching this plate, I've found numerous other plates painted of the same woman. I don't know who she is- and may never know. Like the names of the women who painted these plates, she's a mystery.

So in honor of those women, I've given the blush shades in this collection female names, that were popular around that time period. The finish of these shades is similar to Aromaleigh favorites such as Swan Song, Guise of a Swan, and Beat of Wings.