Beauty and Cosmetics 1550-1950 by Sarah Jane Downing

Being a beautyholic and all round history buff it seemed natural to mix the two interests and do some reading on the history of cosmetics. During my laborious library search and google hunting I eventually came across Beauty and Cosmetics 1550-1950 by Sarah Jane Downing. 

An image of Jeanne Antoinette Poisson from the title page cover. The mistress of Louis XV was famous for her use of rouge.

The book is fantastically illustrated from start to finish, and provides a valuable insight to the changing concepts of beauty starting with the early modern period and finishing with the Second World War. 
 
In a 64 page read you can, in a day, learn about the beauty techniques used in different ages. 

For instance did you know that a desire by fourteenth century ladies for high foreheads and an oval face shape resulted in the practice of tweezing the hairline to the top of the head? 

That in the Elizabethan period a fervent desire for a porcelain complexion meant the use of a deadly poisonous face paint which corroded away at the skin? 

Reading about practice of using mice fur for artificial eyebrows may put the “scouse brow” in a certain amount of perspective. 

And you may be interested to know that Elizbeth Arden’s lipstick tube design was inspired by the shape of a bullet shell casing from the First World War.

If you want to know the origins of our well loved beauty products I would highly recommend you make Beauty and Cosmetics part of your book collection. The book is well written and enlightening read concerning the history of beauty. 

Plus being small and compact in size it can easily fit into your handbag. 


On my Beauty Reading Wishlist...

Fenja Gunn, Artificial Face: History of Cosmetics

Teresa Riordan, Inventing Beauty: A History of the Innovations That Have Made Us Beautiful