Dead Gorgeous - A history of hair and makeup: Episode 1 - The 1700's

Like many others during lockdown, I was given the opportunity to re-discover my passions aside from make-up. This will not be a shock to any of my family and close friends but to some of my newer friends it may come as a surprise that I have always had a massive passion for history. From being obsess with Time Team as a kid with my best friend, to it becoming a massive part of my degree and finally now a large source of inspiration to my current work. From beehives to finger waves, Smokey eyes to winged liner it all has a historical background, and I want to use this series to share my historical knowledge with anyone that finds it interesting.

I want to pre-requisite this series by saying that it will not be in historical order, just which time in history I fancy talking about in the moment.

With that out the way, I wanted to kick this series off with an iconic time in history for hair, makeup, and fashion. The 1700’s more specifically the mid to late part of the century. I will not lie, a big inspiration behind this being the first part of this series is my current obsession with the BBC show Harlots which is set around 1763, my favourite character in the show is Charlotte Wells. For those who have not seen the show, Charlotte is a harlot that has already come up in the ranks of society with her wealthy keeper and this is reflected in her appearance, her beauty routine would be very similar to what I am going to explore throughout this first episode.

To give a little historical context to this era in fashion and beauty. The time I am focusing on is situated for the most part during King louis XIV reign in France with his wife Marie Antoinette. Fashion was very important to the couple and they set the trends for fashion throughout Europe. They had strict dress codes in their court and how you presented yourself outwardly showed a lot about the individual. King Louis XIV believed in power dressing to show his status and wealth. Their lives were very lavish and that was reflected in the beauty routines of the time, especially for the Queen. She was not just waking up and slapping on a bit of makeup and calling it a day, her routine was a full public performance that would have taken hours. There would be the queen, her entourage and other member of the aristocracy invited to watch the queen getting ready but the proceedings had to be stopped every time someone entered the room so they could be introduced to the queen in the proper manor. She is said to have complained to her mother stating, “I put my rouge on and wash my hands in front of the whole world.” (Covington, 2006).

The main sources that I have found useful whist writing this blog are the art of beauty (1760), The New London Toilet of (1778) and the Toilet of Flora (1779). These sources are amazing if anyone wants to check them out on google books, they’re all guides to improving a woman’s beauty in the 1700’s giving advice and recipes, although do not attempt to recreate any of the recipes as most of them contain highly toxic ingredients.

These sources have a no-nonsense approach to the way they word their advice and usually have a heavy emphasis on beauty being found in youth, they quite often use phrases like bright, lively, and wholesome to describe the ideal skin which are all things we would now use to describe younger people or even children (Anon., 1760). On the first page of The New London Toilet, it reads “with every species of cosmetic that may be useful in improving beauty or concealing the ravages of time and sickness” (Anon., 1778). A year later Toilet of flora is not any kinder, it states that it contains a guide to “Cosmetics of every kind, that can smooth and brighten the skin, give force to beauty and take off the appearance of old age and decay” (Bucshon, 1779).

The makeup trends that were present during the 1700’s was very similar to 2 centuries that had come before it. One of the most iconic features of the 1700’s makeup was the very pale white face makeup. This style of makeup had been popularised by Queen Elisabeth I in the 1500’s, although the trend’s that accompanied the white face had changed slightly in 200 years but the aristocrats of the 1700’s were still using the same products. The art of beauty 1760 states that “if a fair skin is perfection, one that is brown, yellowing, and covered in freckles – is to be accounted ugly” (Anon., 1760).

During the 1700’s only the poor end of the wealth divide would have worked outside therefore the Georgians felt that being pale was a sign of wealth and status. As of 2021 not only know this to be false but also quite the opposite. Being tanned could now be a sign of wealth. This change of opinion is said to be heavily influence by Coco Chanel but that is a story for another blog post. Even though holidays abroad are more affordable now than ever in history, most countries around the world including Britain still have huge wealth divides and many families cannot afford to go abroad. Even sunbeds and fake tan are luxuries meaning that the year-round tan is still exclusive to those who can afford it.

Another one of the key reasons why the Georgians were still wearing the heavy white makeup was to cover their smallpox scars, Smallpox was a disease that had been around for many hundreds of years, the sources I have read state that the first known cases that we have evidence for were roughly 3000 years ago. They have this date from bumps found on the body and face of Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses V. The disease leaves the skin very heavily scared and discoloured skin.

To create their beloved white base makeup the Georgians would use power mixed with other things to create a white paste. The white paste was known as Venetian ceruse which we now know to be white lead. There were many other methods of achieving the white face although this method was thought to be most popular due to the opacity and smoothing effect that the ceruse had, both qualities that are still very desirable in modern foundation.

Unfortunately for the Georgians the ceruse came with deadly side effects. Lead is a highly toxic chemical, it may have given the appearance of beautiful smooth skin when the wearer first started using the product, but it would eat away at the surface of the skin poisoning its victim in the process. The more they wore the ceruse, the more they had to wear it to cover the effects. It was a vicious circle they were trapped in to achieve their beauty ideal. If the lead poisoning did not get them first, the side effects would. They included irreparable skin damage, rotting teeth and hair loss (That might explain their love for giant wigs). By the time the white face trend had filtered down to the 1700s the thickness in which would have been applied in Queen Elizabeth’s day had been toned down slightly although the effects were no different.

In the art of beauty 1760 there is a recipe for “a fine white paint”

“Take of the white part of hartshorn a pound, of the flower of two rice pounds of lead half a pound, of scuttle fish bone two ounces, frankincense, mastic, gum Arabic, of each an ounce: dilute the whole in a sufficient quantity of rose water and wash the face therewith” (Anon., 1760).

You might think using white lead is enough for the toxic ingredients but not for the 18th century aristocrats. After their perfect white base was applied, they would then add the blush or rouge as they would have called it. Rouge was a really important part of the beauty routines of the 1700’s. Even in the 21st century we associate rosy cheeks with youth, and it was no different in the 18th century. In the toilet of flora there is a recipe for “a distilled water that tinges the cheeks a beautiful carnation hue”. The instruction tells the women to rub the mixture into their cheeks and it will give them “a fine lively vermillion, that cannot be distinguished from the natural bloom of youth” (Buc'hoz, 1779). To describe the blush as a carnation hue must really have spoken to the vividness of the product and the strength it was applied, carnations are well known for their rich red, pink, and purple tones.

For blush they had many perfectly great options even by today’s standards of cosmetics. Towards the end of the 2010’s we saw a big push for natural ingredients in beauty and a favourite of men and women in the 1700’s which completely ticks that box is beetroot. It has a strong punchy colour that could be used to add a flush to the cheeks.

Even with perfectly good natural options the Georgians still chose Vermillion, another highly toxic substance for their blush. Vermillion is a derived from Cinnabar. Cinnabar is the ore form of Mercury Sulphide. So once ground into the fine Vermillion powder the aristocrats were basically spreading mercury on their face. The Vermillion would have given them very vivid orange and red tone, but it was just as deadly as the lead foundation due to the slow mercury poisoning.

Even in 1760 they were aware of the effects of their makeup and they continued to use these ingredients. The art of beauty 1760 warns of the effects of cinnabar stating that “by using it frequently, they may lose their teeth, acquire a stinking breath and excite a copious salvation”. All side effects of mercury poisoning (Anon., 1760).

In the new London toilet of 1778, there is a recipe in the chapter carmines for the complexion there is a recipe “to give the face a most lively colour”

“Rub the face in the morning over with a little brandy mixed with rose water, of which you may take any quantity you please” (Anon., 1778).

To break these ingredients down, we have rose water which is a very trendy ingredient in skin care in 2021, it is said to be great for reducing redness and soothing irritation amongst a list of other things, whether it works or not, it is an ingredient that has stood the test of time in skincare. I am unsure what benefit they would have found in the brandy as alcohol can be very drying for the skin, but it might have just been a binding agent. What worries me the most about this recipe is the lack of quantities, Mercury in any quantity is highly toxic but beauty novices and experimental teenagers might have exposed themselves to wild amounts of toxicity without knowing any better.

An alternative ingredient that is suggested for blush in all the 1700’s sources is carmine. It might surprise some of you, that carmine is still used in cosmetics today. Carmine comes from cochineal insect. For a long time, it was one of the only ways of creating red pigment in cosmetics that was safe for use on the skin and around the eyes and lips. This ingredient has become less popular in recent years with the heavy push for vegan and cruelty free makeup, the carmine is now being replaced with synthetic dyes.

Now that their deadly base is applied it is time for eyebrows. I think it is fair to say the Georgians loved a good brow. One of my favourite stories from the 1700’s is that ladies would glue on mouse fur as eyebrows. As much as I love to imagine ladies walking around with big bushy brows that would put Cara Delavigne to shame, in my opinion its quite unlikely that it happened. Unlike all the other beauty trends that appear over and over in the beauty manuals, the only proof that we really have of this trend is from satirical sources, such as a satirical poem written Matthew prior in 1718.

“HELEN was just dipt into bed Her eye-brows on the toilet lay Away the kitten with them fled As fees belonging to her prey

For this misfortune careless Jane, Assure yourself, was loudly rated And madam, getting up again, With her own hand the mousetrap baited.

On little things, as sages write, Depends our human joy or sorrows If we don’t catch a mouse to-night, Alas! no eyebrows for to-morrow.” (Walker, 2014)

This does not mean it categorically did not happen and their satire may have been completely based on the truth like much of our comedy today, but I think for it to have at least been a widespread trend it would have been mentioned in some of the beauty advice manuals like all the other trends. Katy Werlin has a great blog post on her website discussing mouse eyebrows in further detail if you wish to learn more which will be linked in my reference list (Werlin, 2015).

We know from 1700’s portraits that thinner eyebrows would have been trendy and usually they would also have been tinted and filled in black with a burnt cork, soot, lead (because why not add more lead to the deadly concoction) or kohl. Kohl is an ancient ingredient still used in makeup today, the Kohl we use today is manufactured very differently with different ingredients to what the Georgians would have used so that it Is safe and meets today’s standards of the UK and EU cosmetic’s regulations.

In the portraits the eyebrows often appear softer than what I imagine they looked in person, the white face with two black eyebrows must have created quite a contrast. In the art of beauty 1760, eyebrows are said to be “a very great ornament to the beauty of the face” (Anon., 1760). From this you can tell that eyebrows must have been an important part of their routine. As a makeup artist I would totally agree with this statement. For me, a brow can totally make or break a look. A brow can be a great statement in a makeup look whether its bleached or filled in boldly, but it can also take a backseat and be softly in unison within a makeup look when required. This is something that the Georgians would probably have agreed with. All sources I referenced about beauty in the 1700’s talk about proportion, and there is a very heavy emphasis on this word, it is used repeatedly when talking about people’s weight, their physical features, the way cosmetics are applied and many more things. You start to build the picture in your mind that even though by today’s standards that makeup would be considered bold and dramatic to them it must have had a feeling of balance and unison to achieve this ideal of proportion they were looking for.

We are down to the penultimate step of a ladies’ makeup routine. The Lips

Lip recipes that are available for me to read do not mention any lips stick as we know them today, but we do have a few recipes for pomatum’s or lip salves, which are probably like things we have today such as Vaseline. They are often described emollient and quite multi-use, for example the Toilet of flora 1779 gives a recipe for “a yellow lip-salve” the salve is said to be “emollient and lenient; of course, good for chaps in the lips, hands or nipples; and preserves the skin soft and smooth.” (Buc'hoz, 1779).

Ladies would also add pigment into their lip products to tie the whole look together, these would have added a subtle hint of colour to the lips, much like a modern-day sheer lip gloss. I think red must have been the colour of the century as this is the only colour listed in the sources although a sheer red tint to the lips would have worked in perfect unison with the carnation blush to bring the look into proportion. One recipe that stood out in the Toilet of flora 1779 was as follows.

“Take half a pound of fresh butter, a quarter of a pound of bee’s wax, four or five ounces of cleaned black grapes and about an ounce of bruised alkanet root; simmer them together over a flow fire till the wax is wholly dissolved and the mixture has become a bright red colour; then strain, and set it by for use” (Buc'hoz, 1779).

This mixture is particularly interesting because of all the natural ingredients and bees wax is an amazingly nourishing ingredient and would have made this mixture smell quite pleasant, the butter would have made the mixture emollient, grapes are great sources of vitamin C and antioxidants and the root of the alkanet plant would have provided the bright red colour. The manual also has another recipe for an unnamed salve using sweet almond oil although suggests that the almond oil can be exchanged for the oil of jasmine or any other flower to give the lip salve a fragrant sent (Buc'hoz, 1779).

In recent years, the cosmetic industry has really been trying to move away from heavily scented products although in the 1700’s, when people were not bathing as frequently, dental hygiene was very poor and cities like London still did not have proper pluming and would have been extremely dirty, a heavily scented lip salve would have come as a nice distraction under your nose from all the other smells.

The final step of a lady’s beauty routine would have been to add her mouches, these were black beauty marks, usually made from silk, velvet or satin. This trend started in France in the 1600’s but continued through to the late 1700’s. The patches had several uses, the main one often said to be to hide smallpox scars, smallpox can leave quite deep scaring so I would think that they would distract the eye away from the scaring rather than cover the scars. The black beauty marks would have contrasted the white face paint making the skin appear even more ghostly. The black beauty patches were often mocked in satire although unlike the mousy eyebrows we have proof that these were worn.

The patches were so precious that they were often carried around in ornate boxes which there are still examples of in museum collections today such as an example in the collection of the Gardiner Museum in Toronto, Canada which was produced by the Mennecy porcelain manufactory around 1750-1777 (Gardiner Museum, 2016).

Other than these surviving examples of patch boxes we also have written evidence that they were used from magazines of the time, there is an article In The new lady’s magazine 1787 called fashionable patches on page 44. It starts by saying their correspondent was at an assembly with several women of fine faces, but they are all improperly patched. He goes onto say how he was not a fan of the black patches and although he is not eloquent enough to persuade them not to wear them, he sees it as his duty to ensure that they follow the rules of correct patch placement if they must on wear them by writing a list of rules for them to follow, as he feels it heightens their charms if they are worn correctly (The New Lady's Magazine, 1787). He goes onto say that the patches may be reduced to 9 rules, which he states must be in the following manner.

“One. The passionate, or smart patch at the corner of the eye

Two. The majestic, almost in the middle of the forehead

Three. The gay, on the brink of the dimple formed by a smile

Four. The gallant, in the middle of the cheek

Five. The kissing, at the corner of the mouth

Six, The brisk, near the nose

Seven, The coquettish, upon the lips

Eight, The discreet, or prudish, under the lower lip, towards the chin

Nine, The concealing, upon a pimple” (The New Lady's Magazine, 1787)

The writer finishes his article with a warning. “Those who advert to these rules, may be convinced, that a promiscuous manner of patching may be productive of ill consequences, and ruin many a fair character, as well as lead the enamorate to many a mistake (The New Lady's Magazine, 1787). The writer is basically saying that if a patch is worn wrong people may think certain things about a lady and ruin their reputation and lead them into trouble. A young unmarried aristocratic lady of the day should have been virtuous and innocent and would never have wanted to be associated with being coquettish as it would bring her shame and totally ruin her reputation for finding a suitable husband.

So, have now come to the end of the 1700’s makeup routine, I guess there is only one question left for me to answer, why did this makeup fall out of fashion?

These trends all originated and were mainly upheld by the French aristocracy and towards the end of the 1700’s (1789 to be precise) the French revolution happens, and the Napoleonic wars follow straight after. Without getting into the whole history of the French revolution, a very short summary is that there was a massive wealth divide in France at the time between the everyday people and the aristocracy. Inside the court of Louis XVI and his wife queen consort of France Marie Antoinette, the aristocrats were living extremely lavish lifestyles whist their people were on the streets starving. There was a lot of unemployment, bad harvests and food shortages causing the prices of food to sharply increase. These struggles led to a lot of political and social unrest and the French decided they’d had enough of the aristocracy and especially the King and his Queen. Eventually they were forced out of the palace of Versailles and exiled from Paris during the revolution. Their story concludes with eventually being brought back to Paris, imprisoned, tried, and executed. Much of the aristocracy suffered the same fate during the French revolution although those who survived the chop did not have it much better as they were stripped of their titles, land, and money. (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2020).

With that in mind, the look will have gone out of fashion as nobody wanted to be associated with the aristocracy, if you were one of the few aristocrats who managed to hide away and escape Paris, lavish gowns, sky scraping hair and a vermillion blush was sure to give the cover away to the revolutionaries.

By the start of the 1800’s the over-the-top trends were gone, the newly rich of the regency era in England and the Napoleonic era in France opted for a cleaner fresher look with a slimline silhouette in complete contrast to the previous century.

Thank you for reading

Ashley

Marie Antoinette with a Rose

BBC Harlots Charlotte Wells

Madame de Pompadour

Bibliography

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Waters: With Receipts for Cosmetics of Every Kind, that Can Smooth and Brighten the skin.

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