Olivia Hussey, star of the Franco Zeffirelli production of Romeo and Juliet, was also a Yardley of London model in 1969. Her flawless English Rose beauty was a perfect fit for Yardley to advertise all the fab mod makeup products that they were producing at the time. It was an excellent opportunity to parlay her beautiful Juliet performance into the advertising world. Now that I think about it, she went from actress to model. Now it’s the other way around; that models want to be actresses.
This ad is for Next to Nothing Makeup, which was touted as an ‘invisible’ makeup by Yardley. So fine and sheer, all he ever sees is your own pretty face, looking flawless. I don’t know about you, but my teenage skin was far from flawless. More like covered in acne, which is why I never used an ‘invisible’ makeup. In fact Olivia Hussey, with her perfect skin, was probably the only person who could wear this makeup and look good. I doubt she spent any time using Phisohex and Clearasil like I did. The Next to Nothing makeup set is cool though – fantastic Biba-esque graphics and a fluffy powder puff – but a bit too unrealistic for a normal teenager like me.
~Marilyn
I'm Marilyn, and I'm obsessed with vintage clothing, thrift stores, clotheslines, and Chanel. Welcome to my down-to-earth world!
I’ve been trying to buy Yardley makeup collectinbles off ebay but the asking price is so much!! I just love the packaging, but your description of the actual makeup made me giggle. It does look like it just doesn’t work that well? I noticed a lot of the Yardley foundations came in about 4 colors as well. Oops! Wonder what the consistency of that was like.
I used the Next to Nothing foundation when I was in my teens and it was wonderful. Loved it! I wish they were still making it and the Oh! de London cologne.
Remember Slicker? Loved it too!
Oh man… I am giving away my age here… but I had all this stuff. I just adored Yardley! I would beg for Yardley makeup for my birthday or holidays… I still have two pieces, one is a face shaper powder with a twist up brush on a little chain (this is a stupid product, it makes your face look dirty!)… the other is a metal palette (like for water color paints) with eye shadows. Ancient, I know, but they hold such nostalgic power for me… from a time & place when I was innocent enough to actually believe MAKEUP could transform me from a clunky awkward 8th grader with bad acne into… Olivia Hussey? I wished! (Romeo & Juliet was my fav movie EVER… I saw it about 10 times and I had a record album with the spoken dialogue on it! I think I wore that LP down to a nub!)
Hint to those who want to find old Yardley stuff (old Avon stuff too)… estate sales. I have seen things there, for a fraction of the Ebay prices. Ebay now is just a rip off.
BTW: the actual Yardley make up was not remarkably different than other makeup of the 60s… it was the awesome, hip, romantic packaging that make it so desirable! there was one exception to this: the greatest perfume of all time… Yardleys OH DE LONDON! what I wouldn’t give to have it again. I wore it for years, until it was discontinued… so fresh, modern and sweetly spicy!
Lola, don’t worry, we’re probably the same age!
Loved hearing your same experience with Yardley. I just loved the stuff; so magical!
Good tip about finding Yardley at estate sales. Ebay is just so expensive. (Wish I would have saved some of my stuff.)
Marilyn 🙂