Cosmetic recipes and their dangers

Elizabethan Cosmetics recipes

Perfume/cosmetics water recipe: 

• Borax 
• Powdered sugar
• Poppy seeds
• Fresh water 
• new laid eggs with their shells
• burnt alum 

This recipe is from 'Beauty and cosmetics 1550-1950, Sarah Jane Downing' This perfume recipe sounds disgusting, the smell would have been of egg and without anything to act as a preservative it would have gone off within a couple of days. There are many modern day perfumes that almost everyone uses, these are intended to smell nice and although act in the same way as this cosmetics water, only fresh water is found in modern perfumes today. I love waring Roberto Cavalli perfume, the smell is from pink peppercorn, orange blossom, toasted tonic bean, benzoin (resin obtained from an east asian tree) and Mirabelle plum, all these ingredients sound appealing compared to the Elizabethan cosmetic water. 

Creating a white complexion:

Many Elizabethan women would desire a white complexion, this was made by lead and white powder, added red for the cheeks and lips, this was then preserved by glazing egg whites over the face. If she were to go outside, a mask would have been worn to protect er face from the sun, it consisted of a cut oval shape with holes for the eyes and nose, and would be held by piece in the mouth. This reminds me of a hockey mask that would look a bit scary in modern times. 

Cosmetics were popular for ladies wanted a white complexion, Sir Hugh Platt wrote Delights for ladies in 1602, a household recipe book. A recipe for white skin consisted of:

• white tartar 
• camphire
• coperas
• whites of four eggs
• juice of two lemons
• oil of tartar
• plantan water
• white mercury
• biter almonds

All ingredients must be powdered and then mixed with oil and water and then boiled then strained, it must then be applied to the face and left over night, then taken off in the morning with bran and white wine. Book: The artificial face, a history of cosmetics, Fenja Gunn. 

This recipe and method sounds insane! The skin of any lady using this for a white complexion would be terribly scared and sore. I have found there are still some ways in which modern day people want to have pale skin, there are two recipes below that are used today and claim to make the skin paler without any harmful effects: 

• Gently run plain yogurt into the skin, leave for a few minutes and wash off, to this several times a day throughout the week. toptenhomeremidies.com
• make a paste of combining orange juice and powdered turmeric, apple to face and neck, leave on all night, wash off in the morning, do this daily. toptenhomeremidies.com

These recipes and methods of modern times sound like they should be ancient and from the Elizabethan era. There are similarities in the methods of both these recipes to the ones form the 16th century. 

Also from the book The artificial face, I have found a method of removing spots and freckles: 

'The sap that issueth out of a birch tree in great abundance, being opened in march and april, with a receiver of glass set under the boring thereof to receive the same doth perfume the same most excellently and machete the skin very clear.' "The artificial face'

I cannot take much from this statement as I don't know what each phrase means, all I can gather is the sap from birch trees during March and April collected and put on the face will remove spots and freckles. A modern day remedy for removing spots is 'Quinoderm cream' the ingredients of this consist of : 

• Benzoyl 
• peroxide potassium 
• hydroxyquinoline sulphate

None of these more technical ingredients appear in any Elizabethan times remedy's, but appear to b natural things easily found or bought. 

There are obvious dangers to the use of the cosmetics made by the people of Elizabethan times, cosmetics are for the use of improving the skins quality and appearance, but would have done the opposite for Elizabeth. The ingredients used were very harmful to the skin, for example, white led acted as a poison and made the skin wrinkled, crashed and hard. It would have been very harmful particularly for Elizabeth as she developed small pox, to cover her skin she would have applied a lot of this homemade makeup.