Make up: where it all began- Elizabethan times
Today we are looking at Make up: where it all began- Elizabethan times
Yesterday we told you about Ancient Egyptians and today we are moving on to Make up: where it all began- Elizabethan era.
During the Elizabethan era, Queen Elizabeth I set the standard for beauty for women. Her pale white skin, red cheeks, and red lips were the envy of her subjects. To obtain this pale look, they used ceruse, it was a lead-based powder that also contained hydroxide and carbonate . Whenever a new layer of ceruse was needed, women would paint their faces without removing the first layer. This resulted in layers of makeup being on a woman’s face.
Unfortunately, the lead did have side-effect, it often turned the woman’s skin gray, we think this would have been the least of their problems when it came to using lead on their faces, ie lead poisoning! Doctors at the time urged women to use other makeup that used tin ash or alum. Another common base for makeup at the time was talc, boiled white egg or other white products, not sure how this would have stuck and maybe would have looked a little odd! They also used uncooked egg whites as a glaze for their skin. We think this would have been a bit sticky and when it dried would have left the skin flakey (again not sure this is a good look) To get the red lips and red cheeks, they used vermilion. To get the appearance of doll like eyes, they used belladonna drops. This dilated the eyes and was very harmful because their eyes weren’t able to block out the amount of light that they’re naturally supposed to. Eye shadow was made from ground up mother of pearl.
After looking into this today we are feeling lucky that we were not born in this era as its not a surprise that they died young as they were using poison as make up.
This has definitely been an eye opener looking into Make up: where it all began- Elizabethan .
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