Shakespeare's idea of beauty:
"My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun
Coral is far more fair then her lips fair
If snow be white, why then, her breast is dun,
If hair be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks..."
Picture source: http://www.mylearning.org/learning/the-painted-lady-tudor-portraits-at-the-ferens-/face%20L.jpg
This is a very interesting subject to me and I have researched it even further to find out even more and learn things that I have not yet learnt. I have read a book "Cosmetics in Shakespearean and Renaissance Drama" by Farah Karim- Cooper and thought to share some of the quotes of it on here, as they are very informative...
"For centuries cosmetics have offered the promise of perfection. Paints and powders, brushes and pencils are the artistic tools with which woman can re-create the self. Yet historically, cosmetics have been perceived as mere ornament, secondary, trivial, even deceptive. The subject of beautification, however, was an important discourse within the dramatic, social and literary worlds of early modern England. Domestically, kitchens were actively engineering the cosmetics that would be on display in the public sphere as well as on the stage.
Women ‘goe up and downe whited and sised over with paintings laied one upon another, in such sort: that a man might easily cut off a curd of cheese-cake from either of their cheeks’.
Though satirical and intentionally humorous, this colourful excerpt from Thomas Tuke's anti-cosmetic tract betrays an anxiety about woman's fundamental lack of readability. Tuke reveals an implicit distrust of artifice. To understand the relationship between cosmetic drama and early modern society, it is necessary to get to grips with the cultural reception of beautification found within the non-dramatic writing of the period. I want to suggest that from a wide range of early modern texts, what we see emerging is the formation of a culture of cosmetics that found its visual footing on the stage.
In the oppositional texts there are three primary objections to cosmetics: the belief that alteration of the body is a crime against God; the ethnocentric fear of foreign ingredients and commodities of a cosmetic nature; and the necromantic effect of face paint, which suggested not only the physical unreliability, but also the poisonous and contaminative nature of women and even art. Anti-cosmetic diatribes unearth a deeply rooted fear not just of cosmetic paint and its potential toxicity, but rather of what it signifies: gender, theatricality, race and the performative nature of political power." I have also researched an internet source (http://www.elizabethancostume.net/makeup.html) which helped me to find out more about the techniques that were used in those times.
"Pale skin was a sign of nobility, wealth, and (for women) delicacy, and was sought after by many. In a time when skin problems and the pox were commonplace, sunscreen unheard of, and skin creams and ointments out of reach for all but the well-off, smooth, unblemished and pale skin was a rarity.
This pale skin could be achieved by a number of means, the most popular being ceruse, a mixture of white lead and vinegar that was favored by the nobility and by those who could afford it. This white foundation was applied to the neck and bosom as well.
Once an ideal whiteness was achieved-sometimes complete with false veins traced onto the skin-coloring was applied. Facepaint, generally referred to in period as fucus, came in a variety of reds and was used mainly upon the cheeks and lips.
Of course, such heavy and often poisonous make-up caused serious skin damage. Remedies for spots, blemishes, acne and freckles ranged from the application of lemon-juice or rosewater to dubious concoctions of mercury, alum, honey and eggshells. Indeed, washing one's face with mercury was a common period "facial peel" used to make a woman's skin soft and fresh. Ass's milk was another substance favored by the nobility, and mentioned as an ingredient in baths and washes.
Women would use drops of belladona in their eyes to achieve that bright sparkle, and outline them with kohl (powdered antimony) to enhance their size or make them appear more wide set. Plucked eyebrows were de rigeur for a court lady, as was a high brow. A high hairline had been for centuries a sign of the aristocracy.Women would pluck their brow hair back an inch, or even more, to create a fashionably high forehead."
