As for eye make-up, no Victorian wore eyeshadow – that would have to wait for the early silent films – but eyebrows could be darkened with charcoal, elderberries or burnt cloves. A solution of green vitriol was also recommended, and was applied by means of a brush after the eyebrows had been washed by a decoction of oak galls (the small, round growths that appear on oak trees in the areas where oak-gall wasps feed). They could also be plucked to shape without anyone shouting ‘paint’, and eyelashes were sometimes trimmed regularly with tiny scissors in the mistaken belief that it would make
...more
