Elizabethan and Tudor Make-up and Cosmetics

Medieval Women

In portraits medieval women were shown to have quiet pale faces. These pale faces were achieved by using a white powder and rouge, and in order to achieve this pale face even further they would lighten/pluck their eyebrows. In contrast to Elizabethan beauty, Medieval women would place more emphasis on their use of cosmetics (e.g face washes and oils) rather than make-up. Furthermore they would spend a lot of time protecting their faces from the sun so that they could achieve this pale complexion. The pale complexion would only be able to be achieved by high class women, as the poor women would be working outside and so would develop a tan from the sun. 

Elizabeth

Elizabeth was the personification of beauty, in both her looks but also her ideals for her nation. Even before she was a monarch she stood out because she had very simple style in comparison to everyone else at court. As she progressed through her reign, her looks changed and her use of make-up became more and more. She was the desirable woman and everything that women wanted to be, so they started to copy the make-up that she wore. 

White lead based powder would be applied to the face, however the lead element would be very dangerous and cause the skin to look sallow and dull. When Elizabeth caught smallpox her skin suffered as a result, this caused her to apply a thicker layer of the poisonous lead-based make-up.  She would also paint on artificial veins so that she would would look even paler and her skin would look translucent as a result also. She would also use Kohl to darken the eyelashes and cochineal was used to colour her lips.

As Elizabeth would've only bathed about once a month or so, the cosmetics that she would've used would have been heavily scented. Furthermore as bad oral hygiene was common so Elizabeth stopped smiling very early due to her bad teeth. 

As Elizabeth's hair started to thin out, she started wearing wigs which were considered the most expensive part of her cosmetics.

Bibliography
Books:
 Mortimer, I. (2012) The Time Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England. Random House. Pages 176-177
Karim-Cooper, F. and Boundas, C. V. (2006) Cosmetics in Shakespearean and renaissance drama. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Pages 58-59
Internet:
Elizabethan make-up, face, eyes, women, skin, beauty (no date) Available at: http://www.elizabethanenglandlife.com/Elizabethan-Make-up.html (Accessed: 6 November 2015).
Beauty in the 17th century (no date) Available at: http://www.rmg.co.uk/queens-house/history/fact-files/beauty-in-the-17th-century (Accessed: 6 November 2015).
Elizabethan make-up (no date) Available at: http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-make-up.htm (Accessed: 6 November 2015)
The painted face: Makeup in SCA period (no date) Available at: http://elizabethancostume.net/paintedface/index.html (Accessed: 6 November 2015).