Makeup in the 1900s

Beauty History

• During this decade, an outbreak of TB caused a lot of women to obviously look rather pale and sickly. Women healthy enough to wear makeup, surprisingly copied this look and did some amazing things to keep it popular. Not only did they drink vinegar and arsenic, they even dropped belladonna into their eyes, a poisonous liquid that would dilate the pupils giving them a dreamy, misty look.

I wonder if they could thank Queen Victoria's distaste for cosmetics for their strange appearance. It was chic to look sick. Actually, it could have been some of the ingredients used in the cosmetic formulations that were causing some of the problems. It is a well known fact that some lipsticks contained some very questionable ingredients.

• In the United States, cosmetic sales increased by 100% during this decade.

• Guerlain offers the lip color in stick form. Yes, they are the same company that brought women all of those fragrances in the last decade. It would appear in the U.S. much later.

• This was the beginning of the Flapper era and with it, the Cupid bow, the bee-stung and smear lips became fashionable.

• During this decade, both Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden opened salons. These two women were rivals their entire career, but never met each other.

• 1909, Max Factor opens up his first makeup studio in Hollywood. That was the beginning of his cosmetic empire.