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The price of beauty in 18th century Britain: Marie Antoinette-inspired hair and makeup was a 'status symbol' but led to lead poisoning and became an unpopular show of wealth, documentary reveals
UK Daily Mail ^ | April 20, 2021 | Stephanie Linning

Posted on 04/21/2021 4:01:08 AM PDT by C19fan

Women living in the Georgian era used ostentatious hair and makeup to flaunt their wealth and social standing, a documentary explains.

White painted faces, faux beauty marks and hairdos that stood several feet high were all styles favoured by late 18th century royalty and aristocracy.

'You couldn't just be rich, you had to look rich,' explains makeup artist Lisa Eldridge Eldridge in the first episode of BBC2 documentary series Makeup: A Glamorous History. 'And the wealthier you were, the more extreme you could take your look.'

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: cosmetics
Money quote: By the 1700s it was well known that lead, a popular ingredient used in creating the white face paste, was poisonous, but that did not stop women from using it.
1 posted on 04/21/2021 4:01:08 AM PDT by C19fan
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To: C19fan
Quite interesting.

Thank You for posting.

2 posted on 04/21/2021 4:05:21 AM PDT by KC_Lion
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To: C19fan

It’s so good that American women have progressed beyond such behaviors...


3 posted on 04/21/2021 4:12:28 AM PDT by polymuser (A socialist is a communist without the power to take everything from their citizens...yet.)
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To: C19fan

‘You couldn’t just be rich, you had to look rich,’

Today they wear designer T-shirts with pictures of communists on them. More dangerous than lead, IMHO.


4 posted on 04/21/2021 4:14:59 AM PDT by beef (The Chinese have a little secret—diversity is _not_ a strength.)
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To: C19fan

Now it’s birth control pills.


5 posted on 04/21/2021 4:26:04 AM PDT by Tax-chick (I found that yelling at my screen did not effect the change I sought.)
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To: C19fan

Wait, I thought this was an article about 1980’s Hair bands


6 posted on 04/21/2021 4:41:40 AM PDT by Steven Tyler
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To: polymuser

My late mother (b. 1912) told me that she knew young women in the 1930s who used belladona as a beauty enhancement because it dilated their pupils.


7 posted on 04/21/2021 4:53:35 AM PDT by Bigg Red (Trump will be sworn in under a shower of confetti made from the tattered remains of the Rat Party.)
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To: Bigg Red

My late mother (b. 1912) told me that she knew young women in the 1930s who used belladona as a beauty enhancement because it dilated their pupils.

Arsenic, just a bit!!, was also popular as it gave the skin a certain porcelain pallor which was quite the thing at the time.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-poisonous-beauty-advice-columns-of-victorian-england


8 posted on 04/21/2021 5:10:30 AM PDT by Flick Lives (“Today we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives.”)
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To: C19fan

lead, a popular ingredient used in creating the white face paste, was poisonous, but that did not stop women from using it.

like Botox today.


9 posted on 04/21/2021 5:15:28 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: Flick Lives

Between the arsenic and the too-tight corsets, it’s no wonder they needed those fainting couches.


10 posted on 04/21/2021 5:16:55 AM PDT by Bigg Red (Trump will be sworn in under a shower of confetti made from the tattered remains of the Rat Party.)
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