An Introduction to the Elizabethans
The Elizabethan era spanned in England from 1558 - 1603 and was marked by the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, this period in time was marked the Golden Age.
During the Elizabethan times there was a rise in use of cosmetics, as Elizabeth herself was very prone to wearing them and people were imitating that 'ideal' of beauty. No person before had inspired the fashion and beauty of a period so heavily. Queen Elizabeth inherited the throne at 25 where she was naturally beautiful and over the years she tried to preserve her beauty, this was due to vanity and also also a sense of insecurity. The ideal Elizabethan female had bright eyes, pale white skin, red cheeks and lips and fair hair. Some close representations to this were Queen Elizabeth herself and also Lettice Knollys Countess of Leicester.
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| Lettice Knollys
"Two lips wrought out of rubie rocke,
like leaves shut and to unlock.As a portall door in a prince's chamber,a golden tounge in a mouth of amber.Her bosom sleek as Paris plaster,held up two balls of alabaster."
- Richard Puttenham
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This quote was made as a description of Queen Elizabeth's appearance, it is a witty description of her appearance and also outlines use of cosmetics 'two lips wrought out of rubie rocke' suggests use of lip colouring and 'a mouth of amber' also suggests the same as these are not usual colours for the lips and cheeks. It also familiarises the look of their skin to what they were applying to get this desired effect for example ground up alabaster was used to give them the pale complexion that they desired.
Pale skin was so highly sought after as it was so hard to achieve, back in these times sunscreen was never heard of and there was a huge epidemic of small pox, unblemished skin was pretty much near impossible to have. So pale skin was a sign of nobility and wealth, only the rich would be able to stay inside away from the sunlight whilst the poor would have to work. However this pale porcelain skin look could be achieved by many means, a mixture called ceruse (white lead and vinegar) was applied to the face neck and chest, this was favoured by the nobility, this method caused many problems for the wearers skin and health, authors at the time described this mixture to make the skin 'grey and shrivled' and suggested to instead make a glaze of egg white and talc. Poorer women had to turn to more extreme measures to try and keep up with this beauty trend Michel de Montaingne reported women swallow 'gravel, ashes, coals, dust, tallow candles and also to labour and toil themselves to spoil their stomachs, only to get a pale bleak colour.' Other women were advised to wash in their own urine or with rose-water mixed with wine.
As you can see from the image above of Lettice Knollys he is very pale, but also has a healthy flush to her cheeks and red lips, many women would not have these desired attributes so the most used products for this was red ochre which is composed mainly of iron oxide, this would be applied liberally to the cheeks. Rogue could also be made from ground alabaster or plaster of paris and mixed into a paste with the colouring ingredient, this was then rolled into a crayon and allowed to dry in the sunlight, this could then be applied to the lips.
Women during this time were also known to draw artificial veins on their brows and bosoms, this was because queen Elizabeth did this to draw attention to her forhead which was plucked back and also to simulate the transparency of her pale white skin.
Pale skin was so highly sought after as it was so hard to achieve, back in these times sunscreen was never heard of and there was a huge epidemic of small pox, unblemished skin was pretty much near impossible to have. So pale skin was a sign of nobility and wealth, only the rich would be able to stay inside away from the sunlight whilst the poor would have to work. However this pale porcelain skin look could be achieved by many means, a mixture called ceruse (white lead and vinegar) was applied to the face neck and chest, this was favoured by the nobility, this method caused many problems for the wearers skin and health, authors at the time described this mixture to make the skin 'grey and shrivled' and suggested to instead make a glaze of egg white and talc. Poorer women had to turn to more extreme measures to try and keep up with this beauty trend Michel de Montaingne reported women swallow 'gravel, ashes, coals, dust, tallow candles and also to labour and toil themselves to spoil their stomachs, only to get a pale bleak colour.' Other women were advised to wash in their own urine or with rose-water mixed with wine.
As you can see from the image above of Lettice Knollys he is very pale, but also has a healthy flush to her cheeks and red lips, many women would not have these desired attributes so the most used products for this was red ochre which is composed mainly of iron oxide, this would be applied liberally to the cheeks. Rogue could also be made from ground alabaster or plaster of paris and mixed into a paste with the colouring ingredient, this was then rolled into a crayon and allowed to dry in the sunlight, this could then be applied to the lips.
Women during this time were also known to draw artificial veins on their brows and bosoms, this was because queen Elizabeth did this to draw attention to her forhead which was plucked back and also to simulate the transparency of her pale white skin.
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| Masked Lady in Full regilia. Image from Ages of Elegance |
Fenja Gunn. ( 1973.). Late Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. In: Hippocrene Books The Artificial Face: a History of Cosmetics. New York: Hippocrene Books. p70 - 88.
Richard Corson. (2003). Elizabethan Days. In: Fashions in Makeup - From Ancient to Modern Times.. 3rd ed. London: Peter Owen Publishers. p101 - 110.
Drea Leed. (). Elizabethan Makeup 101. Available: Drea Leed. Last accessed 6th October 2015.
D'Assailly G (1968). Ages of Elegance - Five Thousand Years of Fashion and Frivolity. Paris: Greenwich. p70 - 71.
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