A Living History of Glamour: Vintage Makeup, Compacts & Beauty Heirlooms with Beauty Historian, Hillary Clark-Mina
✨ Come for the history. Leave with a story—perhaps one you’ll carry in your handbag.
Step into a world where glamour was portable, craftsmanship was exquisite, and beauty lived inside objects meant to be touched, carried, and treasured.
Join beauty historian, celebrity makeup artist, former beauty editor, and product developer Hillary Clark-Mina for an immersive, salon-style evening devoted to the art, history, and romance of vintage makeup—from the late 1910s through the 1950s. This is not a lecture you sit through. It’s a living history you experience.
Bring your heirloom compact for an opportunity to have Hillary evaluate it and make suggestions for revitalizing it.
PART ONE: The Mini Museum & Interactive Presentation
The evening opens with a richly visual, story-driven presentation tracing the evolution of makeup and compacts across four transformative decades. Featured houses and makers include Richard Hudnut (Deauville), Mondaine, Volupté, Elgin American, visionary women such as Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden, and the extraordinary intersection of cosmetics and haute joaillerie through Revlon collaborations with Van Cleef & Arpels.
Alongside the presentation, Hillary will unveil a curated mini museum of authentic vintage compacts and makeup artifacts, including rare examples of fine jewelry miniatures and contemporary miniature artistry by Shari Langlios. These pieces are arranged for close viewing, with select compacts passed hand-to-hand during the talk—allowing guests to feel the weight, craftsmanship, and intimacy of objects once designed to live in a woman’s palm.
PART TWO: Your Heirlooms—Identified, Restored & Reimagined
The second half of the evening becomes personal and conversational.
Guests are invited to bring their own vintage compacts or makeup treasures—whether a carefully built collection or a single heirloom passed down through generations. Hillary will offer one-on-one identification sessions, helping uncover each piece’s decade, maker, historical context, and original use.
For those who arrive without personal pieces, this is an opportunity to linger with the mini museum, explore the artifacts more deeply, and ask questions in an intimate setting.
A professional restoration and refill service will be available for booking. Most restorations will be completed off-site in collaboration with the owner, returning treasured objects to usable, beautifully preserved condition.
Collector Opportunity: Rare Pieces Available for Purchase
Select hard-to-find vintage compacts and makeup pieces from Hillary’s personal archive will be available for purchase during the event. These authentic pieces are ideal for those beginning a collection, thoughtfully expanding one, or acquiring a meaningful, wearable piece of beauty history. Availability is limited and offered on a first-come basis.
This is an evening for collectors, historians, designers, and lovers of old-world glamour—whether you come seeking answers about a single heirloom or leave with a new story tucked inside a compact of your own.
Space is limited to preserve the high-touch experience. Art Deco Society of Los Angeles members will be given the first opportunity to purchase tickets.
SCHEDULE:
2:15 pm Doors Open
2:30 pm Program Begins
4:45 pm Program ends
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