Victorian era beauty ideals

Victorian era women idolized pale skin, it was a sign of nobility, sign of wealth, because they did not have to work outside and burn their skin, they also liked to paint their face with zinc oxide and white powder to give them even whiter complexion. Not all women liked to apply zinc on their skin so they simply avoided the sun to prevent the skin from darkening itself. When they needed to go outdoors, women would carry parasols to protect their skin from the sun. Some even drank vinegar because they thought they will prevent tan that way. Not only women wanted to look deadly pale, they wanted to look almost translucent, they used to paint fine blue lines on their bodies so it looks that their skin is so pale and thin, not only that they wanted to emphasizing their dark circles by applying red rouge to their lips and cheeks, however this trend did not last for a long time it was only a short period of time in this era. To prevent their skin from looking oily they just dusted some powder on top, not too much they did not want to look powdery only natural

When it came to cosmetics women could not be seen buying them, however they used to do it secretly, also only picking their skin color shades to make them look as natural as possible but slightly better. Their eye shadows were made with lead and antimony sulfide, lipsticks with mercuric sulfide, blushes only using beet juice. They wanted the make up to look settle nothing too extreme the beauty ideal was to look as natural as possible almost like you not wearing any make up at all. When it came to skincare all face creams were made using natural products such as almond oil and waxes.

In the Victorian era, the hair was extremely important, it was the woman's beauty feature, the only time the women would cut their hair would only be when they are ill. Buns as well as curls were very popular especially curs at the sides and back and bun being higher up usually plaited as well. To make their hair more smooth and sleek women used any type of oil.