18th century beauty tips based on A Scented Palace: The Secret History of Marie Antoinette's Perfumer.
You always want to make sure your look works in print, and above all, elegant. Be the star of the room, catch everyone's attention!
Wash the face for a nice clean pallet. What? Sun damage? at 24? Shame! Its ok though, we can take care of that later. Cleanse the skin with lotion, and eau cosmétique de pigeon, that is, if your wallet allows.
Next apply an astringent, such as eau des charmes. This will fix up those reading lines on the forehead!
Now we are going to cover our beautiful canvas! This will hide all signs of nasty sun damage. Again! Shame! Apply thin white paste, use a brush for smoothest application Some color theory: Keep the brightest whites on the forehead, this is where light hits you first. Apply alabaster white around your mouth/chin.
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| Eau de Trianon, from the Perfumed Court collection. Based on detailed notes for the fragrance, “Parfum du Trianon”, commissioned by Marie Antoinette. I have this (my review here) and love it! http://www.dshperfumes.com/shop/eau-de-trianon/ |
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| Gilles Edme Petit after François Boucher, Woman at her toilette. 18th century, etching. Musée du Louvre |
Okay, lets work on our details. Eyeliner, eyeliner, eyeliner! You got them so flaunt them! Always go with black, the contrast is key here. Use a thin beauty brush and apply a line around the outside of your eyes. Now you have Pop! and look at those eyes sparkle!
Pomade. It comes in a large variety of delicious scents.
For the lips use a rouge pomade and also apply a pomade, such as cucumber pomade, to the eyebrows and lashes. Comb to make them straight.
Finally apply beauty spots liberally! Remember that placement of beauty spots has special meaning...
The night is over and you were the biggest hit at the party! now what? Well you can fall asleep in all your
splendor but if you want to keep 24 year old skin forever it is
suggested to remove your make up at night. Need a make up remover?
Lotion of milk, lotion of sweet almonds, or lily water. Remember Take
Care of Your Skin!Read more on 18th century beauty secrets and cosmetics in:
Feydeau, Elisabeth de. 2006. A Scented Palace: The Secret History of Marie Antoinette's Perfumer. London: I.B. Tauris.
HA HA HA ...*tries to stop laughing* OMG, eau cosmétique de pigeon, oh gosh....I need to stop laughing. That's disgusting.
ReplyDeleteBut, in all serious, they did at least get the blush right. At least, in theory. They would have gone a bit overboard with it, but a *tiny* bit of red on the apples of the cheeks and on the lips does WONDERS for the complexion.
Now, back to laughing.
Thank you for sharing this. I love learning about the court life.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this. I enjoy learning about the court life of Marie Antoinette.
ReplyDeleteHey, they did not use any eyeliner at that time? What are talking about?
ReplyDeleteLotion of sweet almonds: did they use the oil or make almond milk and wash with that?
ReplyDeleteAs for the milk lotion, did they just wash with milk?
I just checked on this, but the book does not go into details of how to make the lotion. My interpretation is that they did make almond milk and used that. Here is the excerpt:
Delete"[Makeup] could be removed with pearl barley water, lentil or lily water, or lotion of milk or sweet or bitter almonds. Everything depended upon the skin type, and the same was true for the creams. Some required oil of sweet almonds, white balm or May butter, others cocoa, spermaceti or cold four-seed oil."
Interesting! And thank you!
DeleteAlso, the eu de charmes: is that a perfume?
ReplyDeleteHere is the excerpt:
Delete"[Marie Antoinette] took great care of her skin, cleansing it with eau cosmetique de pigeon and using eau des charmes, made with the moisture drops exuded by grapevines in May, as an astringent."
How did she have so many grapevine moisture drops? I wonder if they really were grapevine moisture drops too.
DeleteAlso, the eu de charmes: is that a perfume?
ReplyDeleteLotion of sweet almonds: did they use the oil or make almond milk and wash with that?
ReplyDeleteAs for the milk lotion, did they just wash with milk?