6 Apr 2009

Ingredients:

Among the ingredients in theatrical and everyday make-up were:

white lead - known as 'ceruse' (toxic)
red cinnabar (toxic)
vermilion (toxic)
white chalk
carpenters' blue chalk
India ink
red brickdust
sandalwood red
mouse-skin patches (for creating alluring moles and decorative shapes, but more often for disguising syphilitic boils)

Interestingly, while excessive red in your custom-made complexion was considered tarty to British tastes, in France it was white that was whorish.

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