Professional Make-up Project
Kate Garrett
The Early Nineteenth Century Makeup.
(1800-1837).
At the beginging of the 19th century we saw a drastic change in the makeup it was no longer really obvious and artificial it became not socially accepted making it rarely seen. It became descrete and more natural to the point where even husbands thought that what the women looked like was their natural complexion.
1806 was when the noticable shift happened in this makeup trend, the bright pink cheeks that were fashional just the year before were now associtaed with older women trying ot regain their youth and glow , it was written that ' a person could not make a greater mistake than to use it upon the face.' (Corson, 2003, p 291)
In 1828 you could now purchase cosmetics from Guerlain who provided lip pomades for both men and women so itwas no longer trying ot be kept as a such big secret.
Empress Josephine.
She was known for wearing and spending alot of time applying her makeup suddenly became very descrete about what makeup she was using, below is an image post 1806 where suddenly it is much more subtle than what she previously wore.
Image 15.0 - Empress Josephine
Complexion.
The new pale look was called the Psyche Look, from Gerard's Psyche et l'Amour was copied everywhere and some women even used face whitening lotion to achieve this look. Rice powder along with white makeup was used to achieve this effect, they even applied it to the tops of their hands, then applied rouge on the pales to make them appear paler. This beautiful pale youthful look is shown through the painting below.
Image 15.1 – L’Amour painting
Eyebrows.
There were 3 ways in which ladies would darken their eyebrows during this time period, they were;
1- Rubbing them regularly with elderberries/burnt cork/black frankincense.
2- Run a brush throught that has been dipped in green vitriol solution.
3- Heat up pitch and mastic and allow the smoke to be trapped with a plate. The soot that has attatched to this plate then use this to rub on brows and lashes this created the most blackend effect.
Other countries cosmetic procedures during this time period.
Russian Ladies - They still enamelled their faces very heavily to the point where you could not see their skins own texture through the makeup. With black surrounding the lash line in black.
Persia - A henna like substance was rubbed into beards, moustaches and all other body hair to dye it red on the males. Women also dyed their hair and eyebrows though a similar method but not usually for a red effect. Howevver they had red fingertips and palms, They used to draw on their brows bigger with antimony, this was also used to line the top and bottom water line.
Chinease - These women wore a pack of tea, oil ad rice flour on their faces over night and then just ricepowder in the day, rouging their cheeks, lips, nostrills and even the tips of their tounge with carmine.
Image 15.2 - Indian women, note the stained finger tips.(page 312)