elizabethan era beauty secrets

Stake, alabaster peel. Curly, red hair. Thin, biconvex brows. Elizabeth I, girl of Henry XVIII and his 2nd wife Anne Boleyn, perfectly personified the beauty ideal of the era.

All the women at court wanted to await like her. Here'due south the lengths they went through to brand that happen:

Face

Back and then, a pale complexion was a sign of good wellness and prestige. The reason is uncomplicated: only rich women could afford to have fair pare. Poor ones worked for hours exterior and developed a tan every bit a result.

To go the pale expect, women (and men) used several dissimilar things: Ceruse (a foundation fabricated with poisonous white pb and vinegar), sulphur, alum or tin ash.

Plus, they too used white eggs to faux a paler complexion and hide wrinkles (eggs have a tightening furnishings that made skin look smoother).

Optics & Eyebrows

During the Elizabethan era, women used blackness kohl to rim their eyes and make them await darker. They also used Belladonna to enlarges pupils and make their eyes look larger and sparkly.

Eyebrows had to be thin and biconvex to create a high brow (information technology was a sign of aristocracy). They achieved the expect past plucking.

Cheeks & Lips

During the Elizabethan period, rouge cheeks and lips were very pop. To achieve them, women used found (like madder, an Asian constitute with blood-red roots) and animal dyes (such as cochineal, a beetle) on the cheeks.

They also reddened their cheeks with a mixture of egg white and ochres. Other lip dyes were madder, cochineal or vermilion, a red pigment obtained from mercury sulphide.

Skincare

All that makeup women (and men) used to achieve a white complexion wreaked their skin. To get rid of blemishes, wrinkles, spots and freckles the Elizabethans would utilise rosewater, lemon juice or mixture of eggshells, alum, mercury and dear. The wealthy would also bathe in ass'south milk while washing the face with mercury.

Hair

Similar stake pare, fair hair was fashionable, too. Women used different substances to dye or bleach their hair… even urine! Some other way to get blonde hair was to use cumin seeds, saffron, oil and celadine.

It was also during this menstruation that people began dying their hair ruby-red, the pilus colour of Queen Elizabeth I. Young women would wear their long hair downward, and sweep information technology up one time married, unremarkably in a bun and so that head coverings could easily be pinned to information technology.

Wigs were all the rage. They were used by women whose hair was growing thinner or by those who wanted their pilus to be of a certain color. Some women were so desperate to have fashionable pilus that they decided to completely shave their hair off and only wear wigs!

Both real and faux hair was often adorned with jewels and hair pieces. These were very expensive, so only rich women could afford them.

Men Hair & Beards

At the commencement of the Elizabethan era, men used to wearable their hair brusque. Simply every bit the years went by, the fashionable pilus length grew longer and longer. Long hair had to be curly. They achieved the look with hot irons to achieve and then used wax or gam to continue it in place.

Beards could be cutting in lots of unlike shapes from round to foursquare, from oblong to pointed. But they were long and kept in identify with starch.

Near Gio

Hi, I'grand Gio. I'm a no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is skin double-decker and writer on a mission to help you reach your best skin solar day e'er - every twenty-four hours. I bust skincare myths and debunk marketing jargon to assist you figure out what's worth the splurge and what'south all-time left on the shelf - using science, not hype. I also offer skincare consultations to assist you create the all-time skincare routine for your unique needs.