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The Victorian Era lasted throughout most of the 1800s. This period of time was known for its technological advancements and for its increased social mobility. And with that came new beauty trends that spread from Britain to the United States by word of mouth and publications aimed at women - some beauty trends that would never happen in today's world.
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Anyone who's ever watched a Met Gala red carpet knows that people are occasionally willing to suffer for fashion
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From corsets to Spanx, sometimes making a true artistic statement requires a little discomfort
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But in the 19th century, people took the notion of dying for fashion quite literally
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Putting their lives on the line in order to look their best. Today, we're looking back at some fatal beauty trends from the Victorian era
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Okay, time to do a little turn on the catwalk. Yeah, on the catwalk
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The Victorian era refers to the reign of England's Queen Victoria from June of 1837 through January of 1901
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People who were alive in the UK at this time actually referred to it as the Victorian era
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and had a sense that they were entering a new and distinct phase in history
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sort of like when we all heard color me bad for the first time. It was a period of significant social change and even upheaval
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As the primary significance and total power of the aristocracy was starting to fade
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and the number of middle-class workers and professionals increased, it led to major shifts in culture and perspective
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More and more couples started marrying for love, rather than as a strategic business venture to unite wealthy, prominent families
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Some people have no respect for tradition. The individual family home became the new center of everyday life
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There was also a major uptick in religious fervor and public morality
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Gambling, horse racing, and prostitution were all in decline. Even obscene theatrical productions fell out of favor
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It wouldn't be safe to release a movie like Porky's until 1981. But amidst all this, there were a number of alarming new beauty and fashion trends
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including a bizarre fascination with tuberculosis. For those of you who haven't seen literally any movie about the Wild West
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Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that starts in the lungs and from there can spread quickly throughout the human body
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While most people who get infected don't ever show any symptoms, about 10% of people with tuberculosis get sick
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And the full-blown illness is fatal in around 50% of cases without proper medical care
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By the middle of the 19th century, tuberculosis had reached epidemic levels in both Western Europe and the United States
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And this was prior to the widespread use of vaccines. So the prescription was usually along the lines of
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move someplace drier. Tuberculosis symptoms include a chronic cough, which helps spread the disease through the air
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along with fevers night sweats and dramatic weight loss During the Victorian period it was the weight loss that was most associated with the illness leading people at the time to refer to the disease as consumption
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People infected with TB slimmed down, their skin grew paler, and they developed fine, silky hair and rosy cheeks
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If you've ever tried out one of those tapeworm fad diets, you can see where this is going
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Though it certainly didn't feel good to have a potentially deadly disease at the time
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it was widely viewed that the confluence of these symptoms together made sufferers more physically attractive
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There were even some peculiar theories that being physically attractive to begin with
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made you more prone to developing tuberculosis if infected, like it was nature's way of punishing people for being too hot
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This, of course, over time, had an influence on beauty and fashion trends
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Women who weren't suffering from tuberculosis started to mimic the appearance of people with the disease
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leading to a look that's been referred to as consumptive chic. Sort of the precursor to heroin chic, only much less fun
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Nobody has ever recorded a classic album while flush with consumption. The trend reached its height in the mid-19th century
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and included fashionable pointed corsets and large skirts that showcased and emphasized a woman's low, thin waist
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Many women also wore makeup to lighten their skin, redden their lips, and make their cheeks appear pinker
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in the style of a tuberculosis sufferer. By the turn of the 20th century, the word about germ theory had spread
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Disease in general was better understood, and new discoveries about its spread had their own impact on fashion trends
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Some women stopped wearing long skirts that dragged across the ground, as scientists and doctors theorized that those were sweeping up germs off the streets
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and bringing them into the home. Some men also shaved their elaborate, full facial hair
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after it was suggested that it could provide a breeding ground for germs and illnesses
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Even though corsets had already started to fall out of favor by the mid to late 1800s
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it was still a popular garment during this period. Essentially a vest that crushes your midsection in the name of hotness
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the slimming garment presents a number of genuine health risks. For starters, corsets were found to exacerbate the symptoms of tuberculosis
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So presumably if you were sporting both, you'd be at the height of sex appeal
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And also maybe dead. In addition to making TB worse, the uncomfortable and confining undergarments were responsible for a host of health risks
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Wearing a tight corset for hours on end could permanently move around your organs or deform sections of your body Corsets also frequently caused wearers to become short of breath or even suffocating when their lungs couldn draw in enough oxygen Some excessively tight corsets were also blamed for potentially affecting a woman ability to
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bear children. For women and feminists who were becoming increasingly active in the public square
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during this time, corsets represent the arcane expression of a bygone era. Meanwhile, for moral
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reformers, corsets promote a promiscuous view of women and an unhealthy focus on their bodies
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This in some ways led to a perfect storm of oppression to corseting from progressive reformers
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moral crusaders, and public health experts. Nonetheless, even though seemingly everyone hated them, the wearing of corsets didn't entirely die out in England and the U.S. until World War I
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when demand for metal to build battleships promoted the last holdouts to stop buying them
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and switch to other slimming strategies, like tuberculosis. Though everyone got smarter about actual consumption
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the desire to resemble a consumptive victim in some ways never fully died out
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The popularity of extremely pale skin drove some women to actually bathe their bodies in arsenic
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a metalloid that's highly toxic to humans if they're exposed to significant quantities
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Arsenic poisoning can cause vomiting, abdominal pain, heart disease, skin discoloration, numbness, cancer, and death
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But this was poorly understood in the Victorian era. Scientists at the time thought that the substance was only dangerous for humans
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if it was actually digested, and didn't realize just being around it or touching it was also a problem
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Arsenic is the dude at the party nobody should even be in the same room with. Because it was widely considered safe
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arsenic had a number of everyday applications in the 19th century. A material called copper arsenite produced a particularly pleasing
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vivid shade of green and became popular among artists at the time. It was even used as a food
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coloring. Arsenic was also a common ingredient in many wallpapers. Some wealthy women would even go
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to special spas that featured arsenic spring baths, which were advertised as turning the skin
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a pleasingly bleached, pale shade. This is technically true, so you can't get them for
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false advertising. Some shampoos, foundations, and face cleansers were also laced with arsenic
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to give a woman's skin that same white sheen. And arsenic wafers were sometimes ingested
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to cure complexion issues, like blemishes or pimples. And in fairness, if you do drink enough arsenic
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your acne will cease to be a problem. Arsenic wasn the only potentially deadly material to be found in the makeup and cosmetics products of the time Rich ladies passion for alabaster white skin also drove them to various lotions powders and face paints that contained lead and even radioactive radium
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One skin lightener known as Bloom of Youth apparently contained so many lead flakes, it led some users to develop disorders like wrist drop and radial nerve palsy
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Nerve palsy is one of those side effects that they try to speed through at the end of the commercial
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But we heard it. We all heard it. Some women apparently used so many lead-laced cosmetics, they developed paralysis, particularly in their hands
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Red lips were also highly prized. But because this was before the invention of modern lipsticks, people used dyes and paints
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Unfortunately, Victorian lip paints also contained poorly understood chemical substances. Come on, you can't be too surprised about this
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We just got done telling you about arsenic baths. One lip paint included an ingredient known as carmine
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formed from the crushed bodies of beetles and other insects. And while that's certainly gross and probably not something you'd want to smear on your mouth
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it's not actually toxic. The deadly part comes in when the insect bodies are boiled in ammonia
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to make them more malleable and easier to crush. Unfortunately, it also makes them soaked in ammonia
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Side effects of ammonia exposure can include coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath
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burning of the eyes, nose, and throat, and over enough time, lung damage, blindness, and even death
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Plus, you're putting all those bugs on your face. Let's not lose sight of that. Victorian women also didn't have access to modern eyeliners and eyeshadow
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and their versions again included dangerous and potentially toxic materials. Many eye paints from the 19th century included mercury, lead, or antimony oxide
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which can cause cancer if you use them enough, along with other health issues like kidney damage and bold, smoky eyes
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You've probably heard of nightshade. It's one of those plants that's so poisonous to humans
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it's a common ingredient in fictional magic potions and witch's bruise. But one of the side effects is that it makes your pupils dilate and become much larger
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which people in the Victorian era thought was super hot. Evidently, appearing as though you were tripping harder than Sgt. Pepper was the pinnacle of beauty
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So sometimes, before a date or a big party, they put nightshade drops in their eyes to make them extra wide
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Teens who finished all their homework on time were presumably sent off to the homecoming dance with a little eye poison as a treat
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Unless the dancing was too risque. In which case you'd have to stay home and soak in the arsenic bath instead
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For your own protection