Mouse-skin eyebrows and an Amazon voucher

The more I read about Regency and Georgian Britain, the more fascinated and appalled I become by some of the things that were commonplace back then. Cosmetics are one of those things, with women (and, on occasion, men) painting their face with white lead and vinegar, using lipstick made from Plaster of Paris, and applying Gowland’s lotion, containing mercury, to remove pimples and freckles (and a layer of skin along with them, I presume).

18th century woman with well-defined eyebrows – hopefully her own.

It’s said that those with sunken cheeks would resort to light balls of cork to plump out their face (Fop’s Dictionary of 1690 as well as an unflattering entry in Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1811 – “Contrivances said to be formerly worn by old maids, for filling out a pair of shrivelled cheeks”). How they ever managed to talk, let alone eat and drink, is beyond me.

Early in the Georgian period, thick eyebrows were fashionable. Women’s eyebrows were often darkened with a variety of substances including lead, burnt cork and soot. There’s a widespread belief that some ladies shaved off their own eyebrows and glued on false ones made from mouse skin. It makes a good tale, but when I read a little further, I began to question its veracity. Along with a cartoon, the main sources for this are from satirical and somewhat misogynistic poems. That are many books from the period that address facial cosmetics, the dying of beards, the dressing of hair and the construction of wigs, and it seems to me strange that instructions on how to affix and care for mouse-skin eyebrows are missing. I hope for the sake of historical mice that it is untrue!

One of the verses is from Matthew Prior in 1718:

            Helen was just slipt into bed

            Her eyebrows on the toilet lay

            Away the kitten with them fled

            As fees belonging to her prey.

So how does all this relate to an Amazon voucher? I’m undertaking a blog tour this week to celebrate the release of my Regency romance, The Earl’s Awakening, and as part of the tour, there’s a Rafflecopter for an Amazon voucher. Good luck!