Bizarre Beauty: The Victorians

Queen Victoria ascends to the throne of England at 18 years of age. 
You might think that this young beauty would have been interested in the concept of cosmetics, but you would be very wrong. Sure, she loved to party into the early hours of the morning, and yes it is said that she was quite the saucy minx in private, but when it came to face paint in public, well that was just vulgar..

Queen Victoria, The Royal Collection
Known as "The Secret Picture"commissioned by Victoria , then 24,
for her husband Albert, for his 24th birthday, and painted by artist Franz Xaver Winterhalter. 1843.

Regardless of the fact that this young monarch had decided that makeup was 'impolite', something to be associated with prostitutes and actresses, it was still a booming business in the Victorian Era, albeit a rather secretive one. 

It was no longer popular for you to wear heavy white face paint and bright red rouge on your lips and cheeks like the previous centuries. The "no-makeup-look" was popular in these days, the ideal demanding that women look like delicate, fragile flowers, and that meant pale complexions. Pale skin, of course, was a sign of nobility because it suggested that you were rich, that you didn't have to slog your hours away working outside and gaining unsightly tans.

So in order for women to attain the perfect look in this era, they sometimes had to turn to some very odd places.

C O M P L E X I O N

Consumption Cosmetics: Helping you to achieve that deathly pale glow!

Consumption, or Tuberculosis as we now know it, is an infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria which affects the lungs. Contracting The Red Death* was truly horrible, but the visual effects of the disease were considered to be rather beautiful; watery eyes, weight loss resulting in narrow waists, and translucent complexions. [I'm sure anyone with sense didn't actively seek out the disease though! I hope..]

Billie Piper as prostitute Brona Croft suffering from Consumption - Penny Dreadful.

The Arsenic Cure-all: Arsenic here, arsenic there, arsenic everywhere!

Arsenic was used in face washes, shampoos, foundations and supplements and pedalled as a cure-all super beauty cosmetic.

Arsenic Wafers: When used as a supplement it was said to clear complexions and soften any sharp features or disfigurements of the face. It was said to possess "the 'Wizard's Touch'" which would produce, preserve and enhance the beauty of form: "surely developing a transparency and pellucid clearness of complexion, shapely contour of form, brilliant eyes, soft and smooth skin..." It claimed to be crafted by expert chemists, and that it was completely safe. [1902, Sears Roebuck catalogue, Dr. Rose's French Arsenic Complexion Wafers.]

Not only is arsenic deadly poisonous, but prolonged exposure to small amounts increases an individuals risk of heart disease and cancer. Not to mention it's delightfully deadly side effects such as swelling thyroid glands, renal failure, epilepsy, numbness, fevers, abdominal pain, shortness of breath, swelling of the face, hands, feet and legs, sore throats, insomnia, itching, chills, anxiety and skin deformities [yes they claimed it softened out any deformities you had... by adding more horrific ones in its place!] to name but a few! Oh and if you stopped taking the small doses you would suffer from hideous withdrawal, and there was always just plain old death as well..

Lead Lotions vs Zinc Oxide Powders: 
Begone blemishes, feck-off freckles! Hello corrosive face lotion and whiter skin!

Lead Lotions: Dubbed harmless, this lead acetate product causes paralysis, muscle atrophy, headaches and nausea. Victorian's started to cotton-on that this wasn't the best way to achieve the perfect skin tone, with numerous papers being published on the harmful effects warning women not to rub this corrosive mess all over their faces!

Zinc Oxide Powders: Although there were plenty of deadly concoctions around in this era, and plenty that were still hanging on from pervious decades, Victorian women started to paint their faces with a white mineral powder known as zinc oxide. It was a much safer alternative to anything else out there on the market, and is actually still used in sunscreens today.

You could of course just avoid the sun, which plenty of Victorian's did!

Whale wax for your face: Women used cold cream with white wax and spermaceti [a wax found inside a whale's head] on their faces and it was used to remove makeup. 

Posion-filled eyes: Belladonna [Beautiful Woman] or Deadly Nightshade was dropped into the eyes, the poison causing the eye to dilate, helping to achieve the pretty doe-eyed look which suggests innocence. This is an age old deadly trick, used long before this era. Of course this caused blindness, but hey at least you eyes will look pretty for that special someone!..

It was also known for women to squirt citrus juice into the eye for the same effect. Ouch!

M A K E U P

Mercury Eye Shadows

So we've discovered that natural beauty was a high standing Victorian socialites go-to-look
however the more brazen ladies who weren't afraid to admit they were using makeup wore some seriously thick and dark eye paints. 

These brilliantly coloured products used nasty little substances, such as mercuric sulphide, lead tetroxide and antimony oxide/sulfide which are extremely harmful to the human body.

Mascara a la soot

First you would dab some beeswax onto those lashes and then you would stick on some soot to accentuate them. Simple enough ladies!

I can't hack it when I've accidentally just poked myself in the eye with my mascara never mind purposefully applying some dirt to my eye lashes and hoping it doesn't just get fed directly into my eyeballs at some point during the day.. it's still probably safer than belladonna though..

Road tar eyebrows: I don't think your brow game is as strong as this ladies.

To achieve the perfect brow rubbing road tar on them would be a good start. Just heat up a mixture of pitch, resin and frankincense and then apply directly to the brow, and if you're feeling into it to your lashes as well. 

Carmine Lipsticks

Carmine is a red pigment used to add colour to the lips, and is created by grinding the bodies of parasitic insects known as cochineal. This fine powder is then boiled in ammonia. It is however only dangerous to those individuals that are allergic to it. Pass me the bug bodies and lets see what happens?

Fun Fact: Carmine can be found in a number of products to this very day. It is obtained from the aluminium salt of carminic acid and is used in the manufacture of artificial flowers, paints, ink, dye, rouge and other cosmetics, and can even be found in food products like yogurt, sweets and juice. Look out for it the next time you're applying your lipstick! Crimson Lake, Carmine Lake, Natural Red, C.I 75470, Cochineal, E120.

Harvesting the cochineal insect, South America, 1777

I had a quick scout of my own makeup and found a few products right off the bat that do in fact contain carmine. I should think it is incredibly common but it sure as heck does make you wonder, what the hell am I putting on my face?

What do you think is the most bizarre beauty trend here? Let me know in the comments below!

* Bonus, in late celebration of Edgar Allan Poe's 207th birthday on the 19th of January. 

The Red Death is a fictitious disease and can be found described in the short story known as The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe. In it he describes the disease as causing "sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores" leading to death within half an hour. 
It may well have been inspired by tuberculosis as this is what his wife, Virginia, suffered from at the time the story was written. His mother, Eliza, brother, William, and foster mother Frances had also all died of the disease. [There are other theories.]

"And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all."

- VM

How Women Used Fashion To Fight

I came across a quote which sparked my imagination and ignited my interest, immediately putting me into research-mode.

"If women care to wear carrots and roosters on their heads, that is their own concern... but when it comes to wearing swords they must be stopped."

Cut to Chicago city, March 1910, it was already flourishing economically and by the 19th century had become the nation's railroad centre. It was the world's sixth largest city, with a booming business district full off office buildings, department stores and cultural institutions. At the same time the size of the established factories were increasing and it's population was expanding rapidly. 

Chicago, along with New York, had become the centre for the nation's advertising industry, and the city's manufacturing and retail sectors were vast, coming to dominate the Midwest and completely changing the nation's economy. The Chicago Union Stock Yards dominated the packing trade, the city's rail hub became the world's largest and the Great Lakes port was one of the busiest for shipping valuable commodities to and from the city.

Meanwhile Chicago's City Council are suggesting that a woman's hatpin is a very real treat that needs to be stopped. They are debating an ordinance that will ban hatpins, and any woman caught in violation of this will be arrested and fined.

Hatpins have been around since the Middle Ages. Hair has notoriously been seen as a sign of sexuality for hundreds of years now so in order to remain modest, or to give off the impression that you were modest, one would cover ones hair with a covering held in place by these pins. By the time hatpins had been declared a public menace however they had taken on a rather different role.

I managed to find an amazing article on the topic entitled LONG HAT PIN TO BE PARRIED in the Los Angeles Herald, Volume 37, Number 158, 8th of March 1910 - via a wonderfully useful website: www.cdmc.ucr.edu [California Digital Newspaper Collection.]

I cannot get over the quirkiness of this tale; it's delightful and bizarre and entirely true!

Women of this period were not only using these pins for fashion but also as a way to defend themselves against unwanted advances. Unfortunately it did result in accidental injuries, and in some cases the death of innocent people.

It was now common enough for women to be out and about, unaccompanied and therefore seemingly more vulnerable, riding public transport and going about their daily tasks alone. It was also common for "mashers" to get up in their female Victorian business. 
A masher was a "dandy", a Victorian or Edwardian man who made unwelcome sexual advances towards women, so in other words another public transport user that took advantage of the close quarters to sneak in a quick grope - I think the majority of us can attest to having encountered a masher or two in our time... or a thousand...

Understandably women became fed up of this, and thus the hatpin earned a new use.
These things were incredibly strong, sharp and long. So if a cocky little masher found himself rubbing up against a woman who had one of these available, well they might find a sudden lengthy sharp piece of metal being plunged into their arm..

In May 1903 Leoti Blaker, a young lady from Kansas was touring New York City, she climbed on a crowded stagecoach and ended up reaching for her hatpin and plunging it into an old man who decided to inch closer and closer to her, until they were shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, and his arm silently draped over her back. He reportedly let out a yelp and left at the next stop. "He was such a nice-looking old gentleman I was sorry to hurt him. I've heard about Broadway mashers and 'L' mashers, but I didn't know Fifth Avenue had a particular brand of its own... If New York women will tolerate mashing, Kansas girls will not." [Ms Blaker to New York World.]

Hundreds of similar encounters began being reported; some men taking it upon themselves to try and take women home, some spouting insolent words, and some being more forceful than those that just asked rude questions.. Women reacted in a violent fashion, some more so than others.

Thing's didn't always go to plan however...

For example in Scranton a 19 year old girl accidentally killed her boyfriend as she playfully thrust her hatpin at him but it fatally pierced his heart, and people who were in close proximity to one and another could easily suffer at the hands of a very large pin jutting from a woman's very large hat. 
There were even cases of women using hatpins on police officers that had just arrested female factory co-workers for allegedly making anarchistic speeches. 
To be fair though, even other women were not safe from the "hatpin peril" as one woman found out as the wife of her lover drew her hatpin on her, she drew her own and the two were locked in a dual-esque battle until the police were able to break them apart.

What was becoming clear though was the shift in society. Females were fighting for a valid and equal place alongside that of men, and men who thought it appropriate to treat women as if they were but objects soon saw that these women were no longer comically resisting, but heroically standing up for themselves. 

San Francisco Sunday Call, 1904

It became obvious that the authorities were not happy and women were soon able to be fined and/or arrested for hatpin violations. It wasn't just in the USA that this was happening either, cities like London, Paris, Hamburg and Sydney were also seeing hatpin bans and women revolting.

Working women and suffragists were beginning to take control of the conversation on women's rights. Things were beginning to change; young women were being allowed more freedom, the dating dynamic changed, sexual mores were shifting and the way women dressed altered.

The chaos surrounding the hatpin scare did subside with the onset of World War I, and soon enough fashion completely changed. The Flapper would be born, a new social menace. However politicians soon became less concerned with what women were going to wear next, and wondered how it was they were going to gain their votes...

The Art of Mindfulness

I received three beautiful colouring books, and some accompanying pencils and pens, this Christmas from my parents and I was pleasantly surprised and equally delighted with them. The idea behind these particular colouring books is that of mindfulness. 

Colouring for mindfulness could be described as a bit of a current craze, though it is by no means a recent revelation, with researchers and therapists having talked about the benefits of the activity for a significant amount of years now. The idea is that colouring can allow time for you to relax and de-stress. By using your imagination in a calming and creative way it enables the brain to switch off other potentially negative or stressful thoughts and to focus the mind.

Mindfulness is the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something. It is a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations. It is used as a therapeutic technique. 

"There's a crossover with mindfulness... activities in which the brain is engaged just enough to stop it whirring, but not so much that the concentration is draining." - Zoe Williams, Adult colouring-in books: the latest weapon against stress and anxiety, The Guardian. June 2015.

In terms of mental health art therapy has been used to explore feelings and is said to help reconcile emotional conflicts, foster self-awareness, manage behaviour and addictions, develop social skills, improve reality orientation, reduce anxiety and increase self-esteem. It also allows for a unique form of personal expression.

Colouring and art therapy are not exactly the same thing, colouring is of course not a formal session but it can be a beneficial addition to a personal programme which could help you work through any problems you might be experiencing. Like meditation it can help to focus your thoughts, and to alleviate the feeling of free-floating anxiety. 

Mark Robert Waldman, author, speaker and communication expert, spoke in 2009 at a mental health workshop and explained that active meditation focuses attention on simple tasks that require repetitive motion. This concentration replaces any negative thoughts and creates a state of peace.

Colouring is a gentle activity which can help to focus the brain on the present, and block out any intrusive thoughts.

"We are constantly bombarded with technology, you can download apps to your phone in a  few seconds and it's too much for us to take in. Colouring allows us to go back to a slower pace and I think people appreciate that." - Richard Merritt, co-illustrator of The Creative Therapy Colouring Book.

Colouring is a good, accessible way to introduce yourself to the concept of mindfulness as it requires the mind to focus on the present moment. 

"The interesting thing about mindfulness is that it's got no allegiance to any spiritual or religious beliefs, it's about the self. I think that's perhaps key to the popularity of these colouring books." - Tiddy Rowan, author of The Little Book of Mindfulness and Colour Yourself Calm.

I have read that some people say this is just "a piece of marketing genius." That the mere simplicity of the hobby and the fact that it is self-branded as an "analogue" activity that promises to reconnect you with your inner-self and provide you with that much needed relief from other more commercial pastimes highlights that it is but a passing fad, designed for the producers of these books to make money and for people to lap it up, and then share on social media, bringing you full circle back into the digital world that you were so desperate to escape in the first place.

The particular article that first alerted me to this way of thinking, written by arts editor and pop critic Kate Mossman, talked about how this new concept of mindfulness colouring 'distressed' her. I can understand what Mossman is pointing out in her article, the suggestion that it is but a marketing scheme could be quite compelling. However it is all too clear that these books are not an absolute fix - I have not seen any such book claim to be so either which would affirm her distress. They are promoting mindfulness, it does not state that "by colouring in this book you will automatically be able to deal with all of your anxieties" nor does it say "your depression will be a thing of the past but only once you acquire all of the colouring books in this series." If that were the case I have to believe individuals would not be that stupid as to accept that to be true, that in and of itself would be mindless..

I agree that art therapy and the concept of colouring books are different. However I will not discount that a colouring book could help you empty your mind, and focus your thoughts, based on the fact that some people have started marketing the idea more forcefully in recent years. Of course you would then need to tackle your problems, in no way should you completely switch off and hide away from it all which Mossman suggests would be the outcome should you mindlessly follow this passing fad. 

I am well aware that Mossman talks about the fact that colouring is mindless in comparison to creating art on a blank page from your imagination. And I do understand the difference between the two. She suggests that "colouring is a rather anal business" as you are "completing a task within very strict guidelines, and... it is essentially uncreative - the artist equivalent of writing a shopping list." I feel she is missing the point completely here. Uncreative? There's plenty of room to be creative with colours. What an inane comment to make, and from an arts editor. 

Firstly, when you are battling with anxiety and/or depression structure can be a very healthy and useful tool. 
Secondly it's not about giving colouring books to children and dampening their creative genius as is later suggested. It is about creating ways to help adults deal with stress and anxiety. If adults want to "unleash their inner Van Gogh" they bloody well can, and yes perhaps they then won't choose a colouring book in order to do so! Though if they want to pick up and use a colouring book, taking their time to neatly colour within the lines, then they can do that too. And whilst they do that they can take the time needed to evaluate what they need to evaluate. It really isn't about being an obnoxious art snob. I have never considered myself to perfectly fit within that artistic niche, the one that pretentiously blathers on about inane and irrelevant aspects of the art world in order for them to sound like one of the elite, regardless of my fine art and photography background and subsequent degree, but perhaps that is my faux pas. 

Sometimes simple life changes can be all that you need to get you moving out of the downward spiral, and something as inexpensive and unassuming as a colouring book could very well be the starting point for making that happen.

I'm not your doctor, so don't take my word as gospel, but feel free to open up a discussion about this in the comments below.

The Elusive Horse

Hello All!

I have been absent for some time with regards to anything to do with MM or my artistic endeavours. I am getting back on that elusive horse and I have a structure that I will attempt to adhere too in order to keep the creativity flowing and you're welcome to join me.

It is the first Monday of the New Year, and if you, like me, are causally thinking about your life and remembering that you need to make some serious changes for 2016 to be better than last year, well.. you are not alone.

Look out for:

• Regular blog posts here at The Curio Cabinet
• Vicky's Word of the Week over on my personal Instagram
• New content on MM's Instagram, Facebook and YouTube
• New artistic projects from photography, to jewellery clothing, to art and writing.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas, or Holiday Season, and that your New Year has started off positively. 

The majority of people start off their years with wild resolutions and eager hearts, and sometimes we can quickly fall out of rhythm and neglect the new challenges we set ourselves earlier on. 

This year I decided to set myself some goals that I felt that I really could achieve, rather than crazily strict rules that I probably won't follow in the coming weeks because they're too rigid and unrealistic. Personally I think that leeway is important when making resolutions and goals, and realism is too. That's not to say that you shouldn't set yourself some real challenges and push yourself to the limits, because those things can be really healthy and beneficial too. 

For me I find motivation to be a real struggle and aspects of my being, such as my anxiety for example, can make me feel like I am unable to achieve anything at all. So little simple things like getting out of bed at a reasonable time on your day off, and achieving small things around the house can be real victories for me. And perhaps that might be the same for you, or maybe you are the kind of person that battles dragons daily and your resolutions and goals are of a more grander scope. Either way we should persevere, and celebrate our successes be they large or small.

If you were wondering what kind of resolutions and goals I have set myself you can take a look here:

• Suffer no fools - you are no longer going to put up with idiots that affect you negatively.
• Say 'no' - ask the question "does this serve me?". Sometimes you need to say no to things that you really don't want to do, because you can't please everyone and sometimes you have to think of yourself first.
• Improve - get fit and healthy both physically and mentally.
• Learn - read regularly. Learn some new things: to drive, sew, and the play the guitar etc.
• Get creative - keep making art regularly: photography, film, painting, writing, sewing, making, selling.

What kind of goals and resolutions did you set yourself this year? Let me know in the comments below. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and please do keep a look out on my other platforms for new content.

VM ♥