"Compacts and Cosmetics, Beauty from the Victorian times to the present day"
By style expert Madeleine Marsh
From the dawn of time women have removed their body hair, covered up their natural odous and plastered their skins with everything from white lead to soot in order to make themselves feel more beautiful. This book looks at the victorian period, when 'painted lady' was a euphemism for prostitue and a respectable girl was supposed to restrict herself to virtuous thought - and a dap of cold cream.
The period ideal of fragile, fainting femininity with the inventions of metal eyelets in the 1820's stays could be laced tighter than ever before, squeezing the waist with steel and whalebone. A tiny waist was set off by an enormous skirt, initially supported by heavy layers of petticoats, then from the 1850's by the crinoline - a literak cage of steel hoops
Victorian fashion print, 1850's
Unpainted Ladies:
Obvious use of make-up was consdered indecent an face paintin was dimissed as the preserve of actresses and streetwalkers. The classic image of Victorian beauty - a peaches and cream complexion, cherry ripe lips, a pair of sparkling eyes fringed by soft, fluttering lashes which was expected to be natural.
1887 advertisement for Poudre d'Amour by Picard Freres
Home-made remedies and secret make-up:
Without the concealing aid of make-up, a fine complexion became even more important and was an indicator of youth, health an social standing. Fair skin and lily-white hands distinguished a lady compared to the weather beaten working class. During this era home made remedies were very popular to use on your skin as it was frowned apon to buy shop-bought cosmetics. Things such as nuts, vegtables, fruits, herbs and water were made into juices to use on the skin for many things such as, wrinkles, freckles, greasy skin and many other skin causes that women didnt want. If you wasnt looking your best with a clear complexion and caked on too many products was a disgusting sight and only minimal make-up used with most delicate taste and not noticable to the eye of a gentleman. As long as make-up was virtually imperceptiblel, worn only in evenings, and preferably home-made you could get away with a little bit of it.
Buying a perfect skin:
A collection of cold cream pot lids.
Skincare was a blooming industry. Cold cream was a long established cooling moisturiser. By the late 19th century cold cream was produced by everybody and the upper class got suppliments with 'delicately fragranced ' preparations. In 1872 patented Vaseline petroleum jelly was made which was originally going to be named rod wax. Vaseline was initally going to be sold as a medical product but it became a big hit when ladies started using it as a moisturiser, hair oil and lipgloss and was soon to be seen on every womans dressing table. New lines of vaseline starting being created and before you knew it vaseline could be used for anything in the 19th century from housing and shoe polish, hair products, soap, headaches and sorethroats, it was a big hit.
This book perfectly explains remedies and products they particularly used in the 1800's. Its provides what sort of ingridents they would use on there face and what it would help to do to there skin. Not many actual make up products was used in the 1800s as the desirable look was to be natural with lily-white skin and the use of skin and beauty products to help them achieve the desirable look without any noticing the use of product.
A collections of vintage vaseline containers dating from the late 1800's to the 1950's.
1881 Pomade Vaseline. “Will cure dandruff and make your hair grow when nothing else will”. There appears to be a trademark date of 1876 on the lid of each bottle.
In this youtube beauty video from the page of Lisa Eldridge she talks about the book 'Compacts and Cosmetics' and meets up with the author of the book Madeleine Marsh. Madeleine speaks about the history of beauty and provide viewers with antique collectable items from the 19th century. Madeleine goes in depth about what the fashion and beauty of the era was like and speaks about how beauty and fashion changes dramatically when it hits the 20th century. I find this video very useful when it comes to speaking about the book and Madeleine talking about fashion history and the knowledge she has through time.
Ideal beauty of the Victorian Era
A serene lady from the Belle Epoque, A French and Belgium era that began in 1871 and ended in 1914. This photo appears to be late 1800's - early 1900's https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/515591857312059298/
Alice Regnault, Paris ca. 1880 A French actress, "her theatrical career began in 1871, but she was overall praised for her beauty. She became very rich, as a courtesan in Paris, and retired in 1881." https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/37928821832011155/
Vintage Photograph Evelyn Millard circa 1800's Victorian Period https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/181058847491188329/
From the dawn of time women have removed their body hair, covered up their natural odous and plastered their skins with everything from white lead to soot in order to make themselves feel more beautiful. This book looks at the victorian period, when 'painted lady' was a euphemism for prostitue and a respectable girl was supposed to restrict herself to virtuous thought - and a dap of cold cream.
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