Sara Gerwat MUA: Elizabethan Era and Tudor Makeup

Elizabethan Era and Tudor Makeup

The Elizabethan era, also called the golden age, was the time Queen Elizabeth I. reigned. Queen Elizabeth ruled a total of 45 years (1558-1603) over England and Ireland. Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn (his second wife) . Only a few years after Elizabeth was born Henry VIII executed his second wife Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth had also a half-sister named Mary, who was Queen before Elizabeth was crowned after Mary's death, and a half-brother named Edward VI who was the King before Mary's reign. Elizabeth was also called the Virgin Queen. Before Elizabeth became the Queen there was a war between the Catholics and Protestants. Her reign was thanks to the Elizabethan Religions Settlement more peaceful. Elizabeth's coronation was on the 15th January 1559. Although Elizabeth's reign was rather peaceful there was one important battle. With defeating the Spanish Armada in 1588, England gained important power over the trading routes. During that era William Shakespeare was one of the famous poets and playwrights and is it still today. He was one of the people who changed the theater with his famous tragic plays, like Hamlet, Macbeth and Othello. When it comes to art it was represented by Nicholas Hilliard, Elizabeth's favourite painter, Isaac Oliver and Holbein the Younger. Elizabeth didn't only rule over England, she was also the lead person when it came to fashion, makeup and hair. The beauty standards for the Tudor women were very pale skin( almost snow white) , high eyebrows and forehead, red lips and cheeks and light hair. Elizabeth was luckily natural pale and had the red hair that was desired. If you didn't have those attributes you had to whiten your face and dye your hair in a yellowish to strawberry blond tone. To whiten your face they used a mixture of vinegar and white lead. It was also called Venetian Ceruse. Unfortunately white lead is poisonous and caused lead poisoning which caused skin problems and hair loss and could also cause death if it was used for too long. Even though Elizabeth was naturally pale she used to whiten her face to cover up her pox scars and blemishes shed had. Also under the white face paint you can't the wrinkles. That's the reason why she still looks quite young in her portraits when she was actually already quite old for that time. To exaggerate the paleness she would also draw veins on her decollete and wrist.The pale look was a symbol of status and could only be achieved by the higher class( court ladies), then everyone else had to work outside and was therefore tanned. The brows were plucked to achieve the high brow. They would also use Kohl foe the eyebrows and eyes. The eyes would be outlined with Kohl to make them look bigger and wide set. To make their eyes sparkle they used powder which they made from the Atropa Belladonna leaves.To create the red for the lips and cheeks they either used cochineal(insect that has been crushed to produce red color) or Madder, which is a plant. Other beauty products that were also used, were uncooked egg white to cover wrinkles with. If you apply uncooked egg white to your skin it gives off a glazing look. Tin ash( stannic oxide) is a powder which was also used to whiten your skin. As a remedy for their damaged skin they used lemon juice, honey and rose water. A bath in donkeys milk was for the higher class also common. As already mentioned if you didn't have the desired hair color you would dye your hair or wear wigs. For dyeing hair they made a mixture out of cumin seeds,oil, celadine and saffron. Again this was poisonous as well, because if you take too much saffron to you it can even lead to death. So if they had quite a lot of saffron in their hair dye it would attack the scalp. Combining the poisonous white face paint and the hair dye people suffered from hair loss. So did Elizabeth, no wonder she had over 80 wigs. But wigs weren't only used because people suffered from hair loss ,wigs and hair pieces were also very handy to create the elaborate hairstyles that the upper class wore. Another trademark was the high forehead. women would shave back/ pluck the hairline an inch back to create the desired high forehead. Typical Elizabethan hairstyles consisted of round or heart shaped hair decorated with tight curls and frizzing. For decoration they also used pearls, jewels, different kind of head dressing, threads and strings. But you can read more about the Elizabethan hair on my Hair blog ^^.

Some Elizabethan Portraits