Lethal Magnificence: The Poisons Used In Make-up By way of The Ages

Magnificence does not come low cost. It may be expensive, time-consuming and, in line with historians, lethal. For 1000’s of years, we have been sporting make-up, a few of it made with unsavory elements. Whereas we nonetheless use some questionable elements in cosmetics immediately, it is nothing in comparison with the outright poisons that had been as soon as current on the magnificence counter. 

Lead-Primarily based Make-up

Historic Egyptian royalty famously highlighted their eyes with a magical black eyeliner often known as kohl. It symbolized a royal’s place in society and a sign to the gods to guard wearers from sickness. However the malachite make-up was made with lead-based elements discovered preserved in historical Egyptian tombs. In a 2010 challenge of the journal Analytical Chemistry, researchers discovered that it was used symbolically as safety and actually because it contained elements like laurionite and phosgenite, used on the time for treating eye sicknesses and pores and skin illnesses.

However the historical Egyptians weren’t the one ones to put on lead-based make-up. Hundreds of years later, we nonetheless hadn’t realized our lesson. Queen Elizabeth I contracted smallpox in 1562 at 29, leaving her pores and skin lined in pockmarks. Because of this, she lathered her face in a thick layer of white, lead-based make-up referred to as Venetian ceruse, which in line with a 1688 recipe, included a combination of water, vinegar and lead. There are even some indications that when she died at 69, it might have been a minimum of partially attributable to lead poisoning.

Mercury Make-up

The Victorian Period was identified to be a time when the elites had been obsessive about the best way they checked out no matter price. A lot of their trials and tribulations had been documented in a Harper’s Bazaar column referred to as The Ugly-girl papers Or, Hints for the Toilet, certainly one of which is the usage of mercury. Transfer over Oxy and Neutrogena as a result of bichloride of mercury is thought to kill blemishes if it does not kill you first.

Moreover, an 1874 Ugly-girl papers article described that “ointment of nitric oxide of mercury combined with lard” was “rubbed on the edges of eyelids to revive misplaced eyelashes.” Red-tinted makeup typically used through the period was fabricated from mercury sulfide and chilly lotions additionally possible contained the harmful poison. 

Arsenic Wafers

Complexion could be a killer, and arsenic wafers are a terrific instance. Girls of the Victorian Period had been wanted for trying sickly with pale and clear pores and skin, an indication that they hardly ever ventured outside doing the work of a commoner. And due to the arsenic in Dr. James P. Campbell’s Safe Arsenic Complexion Wafers, they did not simply look sickly — they possible had been. Who knew {that a} girls’s doughy complexion wasn’t a results of their improved pores and skin however the crimson blood cells that the arsenic was destroying slightly below the pores and skin’s floor?

Potassium Nitrate for Hair Elimination

Whereas immediately potassium nitrate is utilized in rocket gas, fireworks and fertilizer, it was used for hair removing. A 1776 hair removal recipe referred to as for potassium nitrate as certainly one of its essential elements. However customers, beware. Whereas it would take away hair, it may additionally emit toxic gasses, and for those who occur to be too near an oil lamp, it would simply set you on hearth.

It is no secret that people may be useless. We have at all times gone to nice lengths to keep up our magnificence, although its definition has shifted by the ages. Most of the poisons of immediately had been the miracle cures of yesteryear. However let’s not be too judgmental as a result of, in 100 years, I am certain we’ll flip our noses up at injecting the skin with botulism to melt these pesky wrinkles.