The Experience of the Industrial Revolution
When imagining the men and women who lived through the Industrial Revolution, it is easy to photograph the people from a Charles Dickens novel. It is effortless to consider cities stuffed with soot-faced Oliver Twists and David Copperfields. In some respects, this image is exact. The initial 50 % of the nineteenth century observed many key technological advancements. The invention of the steam engine created production and transportation much simpler and dozens of large factories sprung up inside the span of a couple yrs. New mining tactics have been designed in order to make the coal essential to power the new factories. Rural citizens, looking for work, began to migrate to major metropolitan areas this kind of as London and New York. The air was without a doubt loaded with a Dickensian smog, but the Industrial Revolution also experienced a profound influence on pores and skin care solutions and beauty use. As the average shell out rose, an increasing amount of ordinary citizens had been obtaining them selves capable to pay for soaps and make-ups that experienced formerly been far out of reach.
A Ethical Problem
By the stop of the eighteenth century, make-up experienced been deemed inappropriate for all but prostitutes and actors. Even though this angle persisted through much of the nineteenth century, girls have been authorized a few cosmetic exceptions. Pale pores and skin was still viewed as a mark of large beginning and even though the significant direct powders of a century before had been no for a longer period used, they were replaced by a thin coating of zinc oxide. The zinc oxide offered the benefit of a lightened skin tone, but was much more delicate and a lot more purely natural searching than the caked on powder that had been so well-liked in advance of. Refined eyeshadow created from lampblack was also popular, despite the fact that lip and cheek rouge remained taboo. When lots of gals still combined their possess cosmetics, modern-day production procedures had created it considerably less difficult to mass produce these goods. Though the use of made cosmetics was extremely popular, even so, it was not viewed as correct to invest in or sell magnificence merchandise. Since of this, most outlets sold them beneath the counter. **
In spite of the stigma that still surrounded skincare and beauty merchandise, some gals did talk out to advertise their use. In 1833, Jacobine Weiler posted a book titled, “Cosmetics of the Woman Intercourse, or The Solution Artwork of Perfecting Beauty and Well being and Retaining It into Outdated Age” that promoted cosmetic use as a beauty help. Even though respectable women could not be found shopping for lip or cheek rouge, many recipes were being printed describing methods for earning lip pomade in the dwelling. Recipes provided typical components this sort of as butter, wax and pure dies created from currants and the plant alkanna tictoria.***
For all the women who defended cosmetic use, nonetheless, there ended up lots of other individuals who believed that carrying make-up was the very first phase towards a lifetime of sin. Several books committed to the defamation of cosmetics had been also released. “Godey’s Lady’s Guide,” for case in point, was published all around the center of the century. It prompt that rather of trying to go over blemishes with make-up, women should really depend entirely on “ethical cosmetics,” which bundled sleeping and averting sinful pastimes these types of as gambling and ingesting.
Cleansing the Pure Way
As mass generation methods were refined, the value of quite a few cleanliness solutions grew to become a lot less highly-priced and much more easily accessible. Whilst perfumed soaps experienced been regarded as a luxurious product fifty percent a century previously, cleaning soap was now commonplace in all but the poorest residences. Due to the fact women of all ages could no extended disguise behind a thick layer of powder, there was a a lot more robust emphasis on naturally beautiful pores and skin. Harsh cleansers have been extra easily made as effectively, but they ended up normally overlooked in trade for more normal skincare components. Egg yolks, honey and oatmeal had been all frequently applied to soften the skin and assist diminish blemishes. Lemon juice was occasionally made use of to the natural way bleach the pores and skin a several shades lighter. Whilst naturally glowing wellbeing might have been the search of decision at the beginning of the nineteenth century, nonetheless, it would quickly make way for the frail, sickly glimpse of the Victorian Era.
References:
** Read a lot more about nineteenth century make-up in this article: http://www.localhistories.org/cosmetics.html
*** Study far more about the Industrial defenders of cosmetics below: