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The Victorian Bathroom

Victorians believed that vanity was a sin, but that beauty was a necessity. However, "beauty without loveliness was like a rose without a scent." This did not mean to imply that "loveliness" referred to perfect features or a perfect figure. What Victorians looked for in a lovely woman was the traditional feminine virtues such as purity, kindness, cheerfulness and love.

A young Victorian woman understood the advantages of being able to please both the heart and the eye. She would make it her business to be beautiful.

During the early to mid-nineteenth century, commercial beauty products were not really available, so a young woman had to reply on family recipes which had been handed down from generation to generation for her complexion and hair care. Family recipes were also depended upon for gentle smelling fragrances for perfume. Ladies could look to popular advice manuals or women's magazines, such as "Godey's Lady's Book" or "Harper's Bazaar" , for recipes for shampoo, skin creams and toilet waters. Victorian women spent a considerable amount of time at her dressing table. She would brush and comb her hair, use a mirror or "hand glass", cold creams, lip balms, hair pins, moisturizer, body lotion and fragrance.

The daily regime would begin with a sponge bath, hip bath, slipper bath, or shower bath using fragrant home made bath products and oils, even though some ladies who lived within the city would often visit upscale "bath houses" in order to enjoy the wonderful Turkish bath. The Turkish bath was a type of bath in which the bather sweats freely in a room which is heated by a continuous flow of hot dry air (or in two or three such rooms at progressively higher temperatures), followed by a full body wash (sometimes preceded by a cold plunge), then by a fragrant oil massage, and finally by a period of relaxation in a cooling-room. For daily use a fragrant body lotion would be used all over the body and special facial oils massaged into the face and décolletage.

What we shall call the Victorian Turkish bath was really a re-invention of the Roman bath, the first being constructed as recently as 1856 in Ireland, near Blarney in Co. Cork. For this reason, such baths are to this day frequently known on the (European) continent as Roman-Irish baths. Probably the most famous of these is, perhaps, the Friedrichsbad at Baden-Baden, Germany, which was built in 1869-77.

During the nineteenth century, the dangers of the sun effects to the skin were known and also guarded against. A fair and luminous complexion was a sign of beauty during this time. Because of this knowledge, parasols and sunbonnets were used to protect the skin from sunburn and from the effects on some women from the sun, freckles.

Victorian women would use cold creams and skin moisturizers made with beeswax and oils to be wrinkle-free and to have a smooth complexion. Some of these were made to be used as a "mask", and sleep through the night with this on their faces. One popular "mask" was made using an ounce of bitter almonds mixed with an ounce of barley flour, and enough honey so when the mixture was beaten, it formed a paste-like texture which could be spread on the face and left overnight. Another one was made with Lavender and Honey.

The finishing touch to a Victorian woman's toiletries was the application of a floral scent. Perfumes and fragrances were an important part of the lady's toiletries but were very delicate and gentle. Lavender water was a very popular fragrance during the Victorian era.

Written by Dawn Aiello

 

“ Our products are formulated in our own laboratory by an experienced Cosmetic Chemist and British Herbalist /Aromatherapist (ITEC qualified), registered with the *CTFA of South Africa (Cosmetic Toiletries and Fragrance Association, The Allied Health Professions Council of South Africa, and Member of the International Guild of Professional Practitioners (UK). Beauty without Cruelty International White List approved member.

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