Elizabethan Book Research

Fashions in Makeup from ancient to modern times 

By Richard Corson
Pages 101 -120

As Cosmetics, Make up and Hair had such an impact on Elizabethans during this historical time, I decided to research further into this time period by looking at two books. The first one is called Fashions in Make up from ancient to modern times by Richard Corson.

This book had a whole section on the Elizabethan period with quotes and knowledge from this era. During the Elizabethan times, Queen Elizabeth wore Red Wigs, red and white face paints exposed on her skin strongly and the older she got the more she applied to cover scars, age spots and wrinkles.
White led was used for the paint though powdered borax was preferred by some women. Ochre and mercuric sulphide were used also for cheek rouge and made into different colour shades. Cochineal was blended with gum arabic, egg whites and fig milk to produce rouges for lips. Other items used in cosmetics was Venetian turpentine, eggs, honey, lilies, shells camphor and crushed mother of pearl, musk and ambergris. Women of this time that did not want to use paints on their skin were told to bathe in their own urine with rose water with wine and lemon rinds and some women just simply wash their faces in water which beans had been boiled in.

Picture taken from book. Queen Elizabeth I in 1592 

Picture taken from book. Claudia of Beaune 1568
The eyebrows are plucked and the hair line is shaved.

Hair in the Elizabethan times was usually light colour or 'flaming heads' which meant Red heads these were dyed with coloured dyes which were made with leads and sulphurs to match Elizabeth's coloured wigs. They would add pearls and head pieces into the hair to show wealth, class and extravagance.

This book was a good read and gave me an insight into not just make up and hair during the Elizabethan times but a look into their general beauty regime. I believe this will be a helpful when researching for my final look.

Fashions in Hair the first five thousand years

By Richard Corson
Pages 171 - 177  196- 197

The second book, I looked into is called Fashions in Hair the first five thousand years by the same author as the first book I looked at. This book is slightly different as it focuses solely on hair, hair styling, hair tools and other hair related topics. This book is in depth because it has diagrams which are very useful because I think they will be a good reference when drawing hair designs later through out the semester. This book talks a lot about padding being used by the Elizabethans so the hair would be styled more flamboyant. Also the Elizabethans liked a middle parting, curls, braids, twists, chignons and normally they would use ribbons interlaced through these styles. Wigs became fashionable in the later part of the century with Queen Elizabeth I favouring tight curled red wigs and Mary Of Scotland had a larger collection and she preferred  the  winged or horn style wigs. Black hair was not fashionable and hair would be dyed and bleached to achieve lighter results. This trend started in Europe in such places as Italy and France and then was bought over to England.

Diagrams taken from book. Elizabethan hairstyles.