February 29, 2012 by Vic
Beauty and Cosmetics 1550-1950 by Sarah Jane Downing was published this month by Shire Library. Small and compact, as Shire publications tend to be, this wonderfully illustrated book describes the standards of beauty popular in each era, from 1550 when alabaster brows were highly prized, to the black eyebrows that were favored by 18th century women. As with her best-selling Fashion in the Time of Jane Austen, Ms. Downing provides the reader with a comprehensive overview of the topic. She begins with the Tudor Court and ends with the delightful cosmetic advertisements of the first half of the 20th century.
Marriage à-la-mode: The Countess's Morning Levee, William Hogarth, c. 1745
Because my blog’s theme centers on the Georgian and Regency eras, I will confine much of my recap to those years.
A woman applying beauty patches, Boucher
Mirrors, once only possessed by the rich, became so popular in London in the mid-16th century that British manufacturers petitioned Parliament to ban foreign imports. The ritual of the dressing table became quite elaborate and ladies began to entertain guests as they prepared themselves for the day.
French mop gold boite a mouche patch box with brush, 1730. Images @ Etsy
Decorative patches covered skin blemishes and blotches, sometimes to such an extent that a face could be covered with a variety of dots, half-moon crescents, stars and even a coach and horses! The popularity of using patches began in the mid-17th century and did not wane until the end of the 18th century.
Woman with patches, pale skin and rouged cheeks. Thomas Gainsborough
Porcelain skin was highly prized and created with white lead-based skin cream. Blush was then applied to create a doll-like look. Cosmetics were created in a variety of ways. Here are the ingredients for one recipe for lead face powder that did not come from this book: several thin plates of lead, a big pot of vinegar, a bed of horse manure, water, perfume & tinting agent. Once can only guess how this concoction was put together and at its smell.
Marquise the Pompadour applying face powder with a brush. Boucher, 1758.
Ms. Downing describes in her book:
lead sheets were unrolled and beaten with battledores until all the flakes of white lead came off. These were gathered and ground into a very fine powder… p. 24
Gainsboroughs portrait of Grace Dalrymple Elliot in 1782 shows the craze for dark eyebrows.
For a while during the third quarter of the 18th century, dark eyebrows became all the rage. Lead-based cosmetics, used over time, caused hair-loss at the forehead and over the brows, resulting in a receding hair-line and a bare brow. For those who lost their eyebrows, it became the custom as early as 1703 to trap mice and use their fur for artificial eyebrows. Sadly, the glue did not always adhere well, and a lady could be caught with her brows out of kilter. This hilarious poem was written by Matthew Prior in 1718:
On little things, as sages write,Depends our human joy or sorrow;If we don’t catch a mouse to-night,Alas! no eyebrows for to-morrow. – p.28
Aging beauties staved off the ravages of time with sponge fillers and rouge (sound familiar?), while many women risked poisonous side effects from using their deadly cosmetics. Maria, one of the Gunning sisters who went on to become Lady Coventry, was so addicted to her lead-based paints that she died in 1760 at the age of 27 knowing full well that she was at risk.
Maria, Countess of Coventry
The French Revolution swept away the widespread use of makeup, which was associated with the aristocracy. Defiantly, some aristocratic ladies went to their doom wearing a full complement of make-up: pale skin, patches, rouged cheeks and rosy lips.
The more natural look of the regency woman. Note that the cheeks are still rouged.
Rousseau influenced the concept of nature and a more natural Romantic look took hold, aided by the blockade of cosmetics during the Napoleonic Wars. The death of many soldiers resulted in widespread melancholia and the affectation of a consumptive look. Ladies, nevertheless, were never far from their rouge pot.
Another Regency portrait with subtle makeup. The flower basket adds to the natural look.
As with all Shire books, Sarah Jane Downing’s trip through time provides us with brilliant insights, in this instance it is via cosmetics and how society viewed beauty in each era. By the 1950s, the success of a marriage was defined by how well a woman took care of herself. This included makeup. Beauty, as Ms. Downing wrote, “was switched from a pleasure to an obligation.” Oh, my. I give the delightful Beauty and Cosmetics 1550-1950 four out of five Regency tea cups.
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