When Did People Stop Using Lead Makeup

Eighteenth-century socialites have been depicted every bit vain, silly women who were poisoned by their white lead makeup. The Countess of Coventry, Maria Gunning — a society hostess reknowned for her beauty — is said to have refused to stop wearing foundation containing white lead, even as she lay dying. Why would women of that era knowingly choose to wear makeup that was killing them? Was dazzler worth dying for? Or was the makeup non to blame?

I am a scientist who has been studying atomic number 82 poisoning for xxx years, with a item interest in women's exposure to lead. My research shows that women metabolize lead differently from men, women exposed to lead every bit children accept elevated claret atomic number 82 levels 20 years later on, and women exposed to lead are at take chances of hypertension and early menopause.

The stories about white lead makeup poisoning did not make sense to me, so two years ago, I decided to kickoff studying these cosmetics.

Dying to be Beautiful: Exploring the look and toxicity of 18th century makeup.

Historical techniques

My research group makes white lead makeup from recipes dating from the 16th to 19th centuries. If you lot wait around the makeup counters of a section store, you will see words such every bit "illuminate," "radiance," "glow" and "luminous." You'll as well see products that hope to reduce shine or mistiness imperfections. These modern products change the way light is reflected from the pare, which is perceived as enhancing beauty.

We wanted to know if white lead makeup had some of these properties, so we studied the colour and level of calorie-free reflected by the makeup using an optical spectrometer.

Our most surprising finding has been that white lead makeup can look quite pretty and natural. It does non expect like the vivid white mask that we take seen depicted on screens and stages — it is generally much more subtle and sophisticated.

Nosotros test the makeup on ethically sourced pigskin. The pigs we use accept a pale complexion that is very close to the lightest colour of human being skin, which burns easily and does not tan well. The white lead makeup usually does not modify the colour of this pare much at all.

Three petri dishes with bare pigskin, pigskin with titanium-based makeup and pigskin with lead makeup. — A comparison of bare skin with makeup made with white lead and with titanium dioxide replacing the pb carbonate. Modern recipes that use a titanium replacement look whiter and more opaque than the 'softer' yellow-white of lead makeup. (F.E. McNeill), Author provided

Titanium oxide is the modern substitute for white lead. When nosotros used titanium oxide in the makeup recipes, the colour change was dramatic. In that location was a shift towards blue, and the makeup appeared startlingly white. Actors wearing makeup formulations made from one-time white atomic number 82 recipes with a titanium substitute are wearing the wrong color.

Colour changes

We tested unlike historical makeup recipes to see how the colour would be affected. One recipe made no measurable change to the colour, while another changed yellowish tones slightly. Calculation a yellowish tone to pale skin is perceived as more attractive, due to its connexion to fruit and vegetable consumption. A third makeup mixture reduced redness in the skin, something that today'south colour-correcting foundation makeup attempts to right.

All the white lead makeups we tested increased the amount of light the skin reflected — referred to as its reflectance. Pare becomes less reflective as women age, and more reflective skin is associated with a youthful complexion.

Specifically, the makeups increased the lengthened reflectance of the skin. Calorie-free reflection occurs in two ways. First, light can reflect, as from a mirror. Information technology comes in at an angle and is reflected at that same angle. We call this specular reflection. Objects with a high specular reflection look glossy or shiny.

2d, light can reverberate or scatter off rough surfaces in several directions. This is lengthened reflection. Objects with high diffuse reflection look blurred or slightly out-of-focus. The increased diffuse reflectance from the white lead makeup gives the pare a "softer" appearance, blurring blemishes — another effect produced past modern cosmetics.

The recipes we re-create in our lab create a soft-focus look that blurs wrinkles and blemishes, or the look of a youthful, dewy complexion.

an array of liquid and powder foundations and blushes — Modern makeup promotes even skin tone and a glow, achieved by altering the peel's reflectance. (Shutterstock)

The ugly cost of beauty

All the same, prettiness does come with an ugly side: the commemoration of white skin. While the overall measured colour shifts on pale skin are modest, spectral changes practice brand the peel look lighter. These were products that would accept enhanced the whiteness of skin.

Historians, anthropologists and sociologists have long studied skin whitening and the reasons people may cull to do this. Our science shows how white pb makeup could achieve this in a subtle way, like an before version of "no-makeup" makeup.

We have also been testing whether some makeup formulations allow atomic number 82 to be absorbed through the skin. White lead cannot exist captivated easily through skin, it is merely toxic if eaten or inhaled. However, if the makeup formulations inverse the form of the atomic number 82, or softened the outer layer of the skin, some lead could lengthened through. This would make those makeup formulations more poisonous.

Our research is showing some evidence of differences in skin absorbance, meaning some recipes were more toxic than others. It is possible that some recipes could have been used with little problem. Other recipes, which fabricated young women deathly ill, were probably then poisonous because the atomic number 82 was captivated through the skin.

Then far, our research suggests that most white pb makeup recipes probably didn't kill 18th century socialites past beingness absorbed through the peel. But some recipes were more than toxic than others.

The virtually toxic mixture we have observed and then far is the very elementary formulation said to have been used by England's Queen Elizabeth I: a mixture of white lead and vinegar. This mixture passed lead through the peel in much higher quantities than other recipes. This raises the question of whether it is worth revisiting whether some of Elizabeth I's health issues were due to, or exacerbated by, pb poisoning.