Face powder was a staple for women who wore makeup at the time. New innovations, like liquid foundation (which debuted in the '40s) and stick foundation (which debuted in the '50s), emerged, but many women continued to use powder as their primary base makeup. “It’s a different way of thinking about base makeup,” says Gabriela Hernandez, founder of vintage-inspired makeup brand Bésame Cosmetics and author of Classic Beauty: The History of Makeup . “It was important to have it match your complexion. You would use a thick moisturizer cream to give the powder something to stick to, then add powder as the foundation base.”According to Cosmetics and Skin, in 1956, Charles of the Ritz added custom-blended pressed-powder services, in addition to loose powder, to the menu. The print advertisement from the same year promised, “For the first time...pressed powder made to order for your coloring while you watch! Now get your perfect shade right from the unique press at the beauty bar.” Once finished, it was placed into an elegant compact and sold for $2 plus tax — what amounts to $17.69 plus tax today, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index.“Everyone was using [powder] at this point, and lots of brands were jockeying for positioning with the public. So it was about creating an experience,” says Hernandez. The experience remained an alluring one in the beauty world: Charles of the Ritz continued to offer its customized powder bars into the '70s, according to the site, and Prescriptives revived this type of service with its 1988 introduction of Custom Blended Powder.