Gothic Horror: Victorian Beauty Ideals

Victorian Beauty

"The Woman Question" in the Victorian era was always the one question that everyone of the age had an answer to, although we're still asking the same to this day. In the Victorian times, the women saw beauty in a completely different way than we see it now and in fact it was more important to them to have a "beautiful mind" rather than a "beautiful face". But also, to find and keep a man was one of the main concerns of the women. Although it was better to have a beautiful mind, men overpowered women and it was unattractive to a man to have a woman who outsmarted him.

The nineteenth century women lived a certain similar way than we do to this day, relying on books and publications to teach them the secrets of being beautiful and also finding and keeping a man. We do the exact same thing, reading into fashion and beauty magazines and believing that the magazines are the real way how we should present ourselves. Although the way we see 'beauty' today is the total opposite of how the victorians saw how they should be. Doctors were the responsible ones to write these co-penned lady-mags but also the high-society ladies would give helpful tips of everything from hygiene and how to dress for certain occasions. Those would compare to how we look at fashion catwalks and how to use cosmetics to get the perfect skin and how to look after our bodies by working out and eating healthy. Health will always be in the agenda from centuries an centuries to come.

Bathing was one of the big things in the Victorian era as it would depend on the 'class' you were on how many times you bathed a month/year. As bath tubs were seen as expensive the higher classes would have one and bathe a few times a month, other than the poor would only get to bathe once a year. How the victorians saw how the skin should be really impacted on how they would bathe, it was seen that tepid water infused with bran was the best option to create the skin as bright and smooth to uphold a pale complexion. The upper class were very fond of turkish baths and body steams were also encouraged to purge the skin of poisons and impurities. Steam rooms and saunas are seen to this day as a cleanse to the skin to get rid of the toxins in the body to keep a healthy lifestyle, although the Victorians saw life in a different way to us, we are very similar to the way they saw health and beauty but just in a different kind of way.

The only good complexion was a pale complexion in the Victorian era and the 'upper class' white women were an accepted fact of society. The higher class that you were was seen to be how successful your marriage would be, I am glad that it's not like that anymore, just as long as two people love each other that's all that matters and how it should be, not to be a trophy and to show off your fake marriage.

The 'fanciest of women' would of usually ate their poisons instead of using lead based creams and poisonous paints to create the lightest skin possible and was more expensive so it was for the upper class of women to eat chalk, arsenic, slate or tea grounds. I found that the Victorians thought that blackheads 'were worms coming out of their face' quite interesting and how important it was to regularly take a night steam to cleanse their face.

The make-up of the Victorians were usually pale faces, primed with cold creams and a light amount of rouge on the cheeks with the transparent powder to avoid greasy complexion. Face paint and other cosmetics were frequently used by prostitutes and performers but no refined lady would be caught dead wearing the devils trickery on her face.

Resource: http://www.xovain.com/makeup/victorian-era-beauty

I found this website so helpful and easy to understand the Victorian Beauty, and found it so interesting to read and learn about how the victorians would be.

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