Crazy Beauty Secrets From The Past

We see magazines and advertisements used from the past all the time, explaining how to stay younger or more fit, but do we actually know the beauty hacks from the past? Even by past I mean way back to when girls would use shoe polish as their eye shadow.  From everyday people rising celebrities, fashion and beauty played and still plays a big part in how people view us and make the social norms stand out. Though it a different kind of article, these facts are super interesting so here are a few beauty secrets people used in the past.

1.Women used starch as a powder

Really! They would mix ethereal/essential oils with starch powder and then put it on their face as a powder to make their face lighter. Though we still use powder we definitely use different ingredients.

2. Girls used to drink arsenic

Arsenic, an element poisonous to the human body, was drunk by young women to have a glowing complexion. Since the element would radiate under the skin it would give the illusion that the girls’ skin was “glowing.”

3. Deadly nightshade made the pupils bigger

I’m sure some of us have seen “Nightmare Before Christmas” where Sally puts the deadly nightshade root extract into the professors soup. Well big pupils were considered attractive in the older days so people would use the extract as eye drops do dilate their pupils!

4. People used x-rays to remove hair

Nowadays we have razors, wax, and cream to remove hair but in the past, people used to get extremely strong x-rays that removed unwanted hair from the body, probably caused other damage but hey, it was to be more attractive and was a popular beauty hack.

5. Lard was used to put hair up

Though it caused lice and poor scalp health, people in the ages of wigs would use lard to keep their hair up in place. Meaning they would wear it for the day and have to spend hours washing it out, yuck, glad I stick to bobby pins.

Thank you for reading and hopefully these facts were as interesting to you as they were for me. If you were in the olden days which fashion tip would you try? Mine personally would be using an x-ray to remove hair.