Friday 11 October 2013

Elizabethan Makeup Ingredience

There was a lot of odd ingredients that was contained in the makeup the Elizabethans would use! They used coal ceruse and vermillian to givce colour to their cosmetics.
Uncooked egg whites mixed with face paint was applied to the Elizabeth's face to make that thick white paste. Fucus, a red substance was applied onto the cheeks and lips for that innocent look.
Other ingredients that was used was madder, a plant based substance and cochineal which was crushed beetles! Surprisingly we use cochineal in some of our makeup ingredients today such as lipstick! Lemon juice and rosewater was also some of the ingredients they used which doesn't sound as shocking.
Saffron, human seeds, celidine and oil was the ingredients used to make a dye paste on the hair.
In the Elizabethan era what they thought was healthy to clean their skin with was dangerous. They would wash their face with mercury which would peal off the skin. For teeth care they cover their teeth in honey as an over night treatment. Queen Elizabeth's teeth were fully blackened by the time of her death but people wanted to be like her and wanted to blacken their teeth to the core! Gross.

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