Beauty in the Victorian Age

HOME-MADE REMEDIES and SECRET MAKE-UP
Due to the fact that makeup was seen as a bad thing and that only women of the night and actress wore it, it was very important for the rest of the women to have a fine complexion as this was an indicator to youth, health and social standing. While many women of status avoided getting a tan, by covering up with clothing, there were of course other ways to achieve the perfect skin, simply by following these 'The Toilette of Health (1834)' household guides helping to get the perfect blemish,freckle,wrinkle free skin; a concoction of bitter almonds, oxymurite from quiksilver and sal ammoniac which was a way to remove suntan. Wrinkles was an obvious sign that youth was fading away, a way to take them away was to use distilled juice from green pineapples and then use pimpernel water to blanch the complexion. Freckles were seen as an imperfection, to get rid of these fresh bean boiled in water, crushed and applied as a poultice on the freckles, "would work wonders and have an excellent effect". Another guide had said that if that hadn't worked then, freckles could be dabbed with an uncomfortable mixture of turpentine and camphor. Obviously not every women had the same skin type, but Victorians had started to notice this and started to give tips for people who had greasy skin, there advise was to  wash in fresh cucumber juice, and another equally good remedy was the water from spinach flowers that had been boiled.

PURCHASING THE SKIN
Skincare was a blooming industry at this time, cold cream was the longest established cooling moisturiser, the earliest known recipe for it was made out of fats and water, which was produced by a man called Galen. Later on in the century cold cream was produced by nearly every provincial chemist, to the smartest bond street perfumers.

Complexion whiteners were another of victorian ladies favourites, there was a massive range of products that were designed to blanch the skin, remove spots, freckles and socially inferior signs of sunburn.

A collection of vintage Vaseline tins, dating back from the late 19th century.

New skin products were coming over from America, a man called Theron T. Pond noticed that native American Oneida people were using a substance of boiled witch hazel to help burns and wounds, which he collaborated with Oneida's medicine man and produced this product. By the latter of the 19th century Pond has expanded his company to include toilet cream, lip balm and soap. Theron went on to work with more chemist around the New York area, where he found Robert A. Cheeseborough, who had visited an oil factory, in which he witness workers using one of the by products of oil extraction called 'rod wax' which is a stocky petroleum residue that clogged up drilling rigs, on their hands to also help heal cuts and burns. Cheeseborough took a sample away, which he processed and refined that eventually ended up being called Vaseline petroleum jelly,which of course is still a well known brand that i'm sure is in everybody's make up bag or handbag.

' CLEANLINESS, INDEED, NEXT TO GODLINESS' 

- John Wesley, founder of the methodist movement in the Eighteenth Century.

Before this era hygiene was never seen as that important. The Victorian era, was the period known for the most productive which helped in the way we lived today, especially when they improved the way the sewerage systems and water supplies throughout Britain,which saw the opening of the first public bath and wash houses which made it more achievable to clean. Many etiquette guides stressed that bathing and personal hygiene were vital points in beauty, virtue and domestic harmony. Lola Montez advised that cleanliness should not be neglected by those who would shine in the courts of beauty. Another beauty advisor at the time recommended a minimum of one bath a day maybe even two, to avoid the sin of dowdiness, which could cost a woman her good looks and husband. She also preaches that one must be clean to be really good and that dirt and religion do not blend, which of course any women reading that at during the Victorian period, would follow as they were all very religious and anything that seemed like sin would guarantee them a place in hell instead of heaven.

'DIRT AND RELIGION DO NOT BLEND'

- Harriet Hubbard Ayer

Book Reference: 'Compacts and Cosmetics: Beauty from Victorian times to the present day'; Madeleine Marsh. 2009. Chapter Two ' Unpainted Ladies'.