Victorian cosmetics and the make up styles of the Victorian era

During the time of Queen Victoria's reign 1837-1901  wearing cosmetics was not as popular as it had been in the past in fact women tried to wear as little as possible. During the past it had always been the rich and powerful who could afford to buy cosmetics and therefore it symbolized wealth and class. However post French revolution 1789-1799 saw the decline in the use of heavy make up by both male and females. Women were even warned against the use of make up by preachers of the era who told tall tales of "Painted Ladies" refering to them as "Jezebels" and "Godless Heathans" During Victoria's reign this dramatic turn around in thinking continued and heavy make up became almost exclusively worn by actors and prostitutes. Some of the rich and wealthy would continue to use products to enhance their looks but application was always kept to an absolute minimum and only used in natural, paler shades. In-fact women of this age were so secretive about the use of make up that they would use special chests or "toilet boxes" as they were known, to store their products and tools for application so they were not seen by others. Some of these vanity cases even included secret hidden sections to conceal their cosmetics. Another method to hide the use of make up was to empty the products from the original containers and store them in little glass bottles which were used for containing medicinal products.

the make up which would have been used secretly during Victorian times would have been as pale and natural as possible. Unlike in today's society where a sun kissed, tanned skin is viewed by many as beautiful or sexy, where people go out of there way to fake tan, sunbathe for hours on end or even use artificial UV rays to obtain this look, the Victorian epitome of beauty was to achieve a pale almost sickly tone of skin. Well to do women did not want to appear tanned as this was the skin colour of common, poor women who would spend time outside in the fresh air working. frequently used methods to obtain this washed out look included using Rice Powder and Zinc Oxide powder, similar to the way in which The Elizabethans would use powdered white lead, however Zinc Oxide was much safer as lead of course was highly toxic. One more option which was exclusively used by the most wealthy of women was Pear Powder, a combination of Chloride of bismuth and French Chalk (otherwise known as Talc) this provided a lightweight, subtle, pale coverage which gave the skin a fresh pearly glow.
Once again lip and eye make up were kept to an absolute minimum, with beeswax being used as a clear lip balm, this was popular as it could be used pure to add no colour to the skin, or very slightly tinted with plant extracts or small amounts of Cochineal, either way the wax provided protection during spells of cold weather by locking in moisture and softening the lips, leaving a subtle sheen on the surface.
A strange trend which occurred during this era was for women to trim their eyelashes, this along with Castor oil being applied directly onto the skin of the eyelids to conceal any freckles, blotches or redness and well plucked eyebrows was acceptable in terms of eye make up.



References

References

Beautifulwithbrains.com, (2010). Beauty in the Victorian age | beautifulwithbrains.com. [online] Available at: http://beautifulwithbrains.com/2010/08/06/beauty-in-the-victorian-age/ [Accessed 15 Jan. 2015].

Gogmsite.net, (2015). • Grand Ladies of the "Early" "Victorian" Era - 1837 to 1870 | Grand Ladies | gogm. [online] Available at: http://www.gogmsite.net/grand-ladies-of-the-early-v.html [Accessed 15 Jan. 2015].

Kate Tattersall Adventures, (2012). Kate Tattersall Adventures. [online] Available at: http://www.katetattersall.com/?p=3735 [Accessed 15 Jan. 2015].