The meaning of beauty depends very much on when and where you are. Each culture and era has its own idea of what epitomises beauty. In Renaissance Europe the full bodied woman was deemed to be the essence of beauty, whereas the 1990's saw the catwalks of the world paying homage to the tall and slim, and in contrast, the Kayan people of Thailand elongate their necks from when they are young with metal rings to achieve the perfect long slender neck to achieve their idea of ideal beauty. Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder but throughout all time women have strived to improve the way they looked and in their quest for perfection women have experimented with some unusual and downright dangerous methods.



Pale has been a recurring vision of beauty, from English rose to heroine chic. In the past women have used arsenic, mercury or lead based products, usually in the form of some face powder, in the hope that this would make their skin paler. As these chemicals are highly toxic to the human body they were quite likely to do the job, but in a more enduring and life ending fashion. In fact the grave medical implications of these chemicals in the wrong proportions was recognised a long time ago but ignored in favour of the pursuit of beauty. Today of course strict guidelines have been introduced to ensure that any use of such chemicals in cosmetics is carefully regulated and monitored.

Leaches were a medieval favourite for curing all sorts of complaints, so it is not surprising that they were also used to bleed patients to lighten their skin tone through blood loss.

In the 1800's it was believed that dilated pupils made a woman more beautiful. It became common practice to use extracts of the Belladonna plant in eye drops to achieve this look. By blocking the ability for the iris to constrict it does the job, but the side effects were blurred vision and potentially blindness.

During the Regency era red lips were seen to be ideal on a woman. Mercuric Sulfide or red mercury was applied to lips to make them redder but of course mercury is a poisonous compound and will do more harm than good to someone's complexion over time.

It may sound peculiar in these enlightened times that women would put themselves through such dangerous practices in the search for perfect beauty, but then again I'm sure they would have looked at chemical peels, Botox, collagen injections, and surgical enhancements in much the same way.

Now you cannot go anywhere in the world without being swamped with product advertising from the cosmetic and beauty conglomerates of the world. Your eye lashes must be plumper, your skin more radiant, your lips shinier, your hair should have more body, and drink drink drink more water to rejuvenate your skin. But although the first cosmetics were created almost 5,000 years ago the cosmetics industry had to wait until the early twentieth century before it took on a major commercial role in our society. New safer products were developed, exercise and health were seen as important factors in the pursuit of perfection and although the last century saw many different trends and styles go by we now are being told for the first time that beauty is something that comes from within. Less is more, and make-up is now supposed to blend with your natural look, to highlight your features not mask them. Subtle is in, and thank goodness for that.