For years, women have been known to undergo some of the most naturally ludicrous processes in order to satisfy their innate feminine ego and of course, gratify the male gender. Women today will change everything about themselves in order to look half as good as a movie star they’ve idolized on TV, not to mention the numerous likes they could get on social media for the breasts they have augmented, the eyelashes they have shadowed or the eyebrows they have scrubbed off and redrawn with a pencil with every little bit of the process seeming silly.
Truth be told, this obsession for beauty didn’t begin on our watch, it dates back centuries. Cleopatra; particularly known twice for her beauteousness than her ambition was famed for taking long baths in donkey’s milk. This was more of a hobby considering her preoccupation with facial appeal. She was not the only one jacked up by this appeal; Mary, Queen of Scots bathed in vintage wine and George Sands bathed in cow’s milk with a pint of honey.
During the 12th century, Isabeau of France took things up a nudge unequal by any claiming royalty. After her usual baths in asses’ milk, Isabeau would rub her skin with internal glands of special court hunted crocodiles. Sometimes when crocodiles were quite rare and she was feeling really fancy, she would use the brain of wild animals instead; boars were her favorite.
Taking a cue from their royalty, commoners took to makeups to match their leaders. Ceruse was widely circulated for thousands of years. Unknown to most, ceruse was a destructive lead bearing compound that poisoned the good folks of especially Britain and France. To make matters worse, they adopted a rouge( a blusher) that contained strong mercury. Things took a dramatic turn. Birth defects and miscarriages were the order of those days. Today, the equivalent is the millions of people who have their faces injected with botulism toxin to remove wrinkles and shame age. History is peculiar. But people are the architects of its oddness. Pictured is a portrait of Queen Elizabeth I of England whose face is made up with ceruse; the ingredient that most likely led to her complete loss of head hair.