Further Research in Victorian Beauty

 

Advertisment for Beetham’s Glycerine & Cucumber Lotion, c.1900.

after more from books about the Victorian beauty, this was the most feminine era women went through a lot of pain to become the ideal beauty, which was having a small waist with layers and layers of skirts and petticoats to achieve a big skirt, they would also do this by wearing uncomfortable linen skirts and even skirts made from horse hair. But this kind of beauty came with a lot of pain women would end up breaking their ribs, squashing their lungs pretty much all their internal organs which most of the time did end up causing them to their deathbed early in age. Then came the crinoline a cage that is made of steel hoops that gave women 6ft boost without having to wear all they layers and was lighter and cooler but was not great for traveling carriages, trains and even sitting in small rooms as it took a lot of room and was not easy to sit in.

'Newspapers reported horror stories about girls getting trapped in machinery and the fireplace was a constant hazard. ‘We never see a lady on the hearthrug, without fearing she will make an auto da fe of herself,’ mocked Punch magazine in 1859. ‘We have put down in India the practise of Suttee, but in England wives and daughters are consumed as well as widows… Lives enough are lost through their shoes and tight-lacing, without our adding Crinoline as a depopulating influence.’  From her toes scrunched up in pointy buttoned boots to the tips of her fingers squeezed in tight kid gloves the Victorian lady was expected to sacrifice comfort for constraint. The fashionable silhouette was immobilising and rampantly artificial, but the one area of the body where, in theory at least, no artifice was allowed was the face.' (Medeleine 2009 chapter 2)


As I stated in the post before Victorian women did not wear make-up as it was only worn by prostitutes and actresses. They saw make-up as indecent and was frowned upon if worn as it was seen as the devils work. Instead they used natural products to make their skin look softer and whiter. The Ideal Beauty of Victorian Lady was a peaches and cream complexion, blood cherry lips, beautiful sparkling eyes and fluttering eyelashes which is suppose to be a natural gift from God. But was it all really just a blessing or was there some added tips and tricks. Some believed that living a simple and virtious life will make the women appear more beautiful then adding any cosmetics to the face and by being beautiful inside will make there skin appear more beautiful these women's tricks was simple things such as early rising,cold water, fresh air and temperance.

Women in the Victorian era did use home remedies and and secret make-up but it was more important to achieve a fine complexion. It was important for these women to have fair white skin and hands as it represented youth, health and status. Wealthy women would hardly go outside but if they did they would have gloves, bonnet, veil and parasol to protect their skin from the sun.

Victorian home made remedies. (Madeline 2009)

• almonds, oxymurite of quicksilver and sal ammoniac to remove suntan
•  distilled juice from green pineapples ‘to take away wrinkles’
•  pimpernel water to blanch the complexion
•  Fresh beans, boiled in water, crushed and applied as a poultice on the freckle
•  turpentine and camphor was also used on freckles
• Greasy skins are benefited by washing in the juice of fresh cucumbers. Equally good is the water in which spinach flowers have been boiled
• strips of raw beef as a night-time moisturiser
• squeezed orange juice in their eyes to add a bit of sparkle
• darkening the eyelashes and brows with elderberry juice, burnt cork or burnt cloves
• rouging the cheeks by rubbing them with a red ribbon soaked in brandy, and included DIY recipes for vegetable rouge
• simple face-powders and even a scarlet lip salve, tinted with alkanet root.

Women use to look through their garden and kitchen to find ingredients for their face, it was vulgar for a woman to look too rouge or too powdered but they did wear a little bit but made of natural ingredients such as cochineal for making rouge for the lips and light dusting on the face with powder so it not noticeable.

Research Based On Book
Compacts and cosmetics : beauty from Victorian times to the present day, Medeleine Marsh, 2009.
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