Victorian Beauty Ideals An Introduction

The Victorian era marked the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 - 1901. This was a time of refined beauty or sometimes referred to as the 'unpainted ladies' this was mostly due to the industrial revolution and heightened moral sensibility. The perfect ideal for a lady was to be seen as fragile fainting ladies;

"Sylph like fragility... a milk like pallor and a proneness to faint on every and any occasion."

Ella Adelia Fletcher

 this was inventible as eyelets were created in 1820's and corsets could be laced up to rib crushing standards.

Cosmetics were frowned upon and considered indecent, and was only worn by streetwalkers and actresses which was often perceived as the same thing. There was a constant theme that beauty was related to morality

"Physical beauty is... the sign of an internal beauty, which is spiritual and moral beauty, and this is the foundation, the principle, the unity of the beautiful."

Victor Cousin Lectures on the True, the Beautiful, and the Good, 1854

 

The Victorian beauty ideal was a peaches and cream complexion, cherry ripe lips, a pair of sparkling eyes fringed by lashes and all of these things were expected to be all natural. However even though cosmetics were banned women were known to consume Epson salts, chalk and vinegar to get whiter skin and a slimmer figure, a fine complexion became even more important as it was an indication of youth, health and social standing, this fair skin would distinguish the upper class lady from the weathered working class. The Toilette of Health (1834) recommends a concoction of bitter almonds, oxymurite of quicksilver and sal ammoniac  as a wash to blanch the complexion. Women looked to fruits vegetables and herbs as remedies for bad skin and Parisian ladies went as far as placing raw beef on their faces in the way of a nightime moisturiser and Spanish ladies squeezed the juice of an orange into their eyes to give them sparkle.

 

Women still tried to get around the no cosmetics rule it was said that a little vegetable rogue was acceptable but only when used 'with the most delicate taste and digression, a lady should be sufficiently careful that sufficient is not left upon the face to be noticeable to the eye of a gentleman.' This quote shows that women would wear makeup but it was often virtually invisible, worn on the evening and was usually home made. Some DIY recopies included rubbing a ribbon soaked in brandy on the cheeks for rogue or crushing up elderberries and darkening the eyelashes and eyebrows with them.

 

Another beauty ideal that was highly sought after in the Victorian times was their hair, lack of makeup was often compensated for by extravagant hair care, hair was often brushed 4x a day for 10 minutes each time, and the excess hair that was collected from the brush and used in padding or hair rats. The English Womans's Domestic Magazine said 'Dinner hair ought to be dressed in four rolls either side of finished off behind a Marie Antoinette chignon, frizzed very much.' Frizzing and curling was very popular for hair during these times, it was a standard thing for a woman to have curling tongs, so women would style their hair with these if it did not frizz naturally, the only other option was to wear wigs, hairdressers supplied everything from wigs to false eyebrows and also came from the deceased. For women it was a right of passage to wear their hair up, so long hair was only seen down in the bedroom or boudoir, so seeing the hair of a woman down was seen to be quite sexual.

 

Marsh M (2009). Compacts and Cosmetics - Beauty From the Victorian Times to the Present Day. South Yorkshire: Pen and Sword Books. 17 - 35.

Ribeiro A (2011). Facing Beauty - Painted Women and Cosmetic Art. London: Yale University Press. 222 - 247

Gio. (Unknown). Beauty in the Victorian Age. Available: http://beautifulwithbrains.com/2010/08/06/beauty-in-the-victorian-age/. Last accessed 31st Jan 2016

 

 





Carmilla Analysis

For this makeup unit I have chosen to design makeup for my character Carmilla. I have chosen her as I believe she is the main protagonist of the novel. I will be using my own interpretation and some of the rich descriptive details that the author provides in the book.

To start I have collected quotes about Carmilla's appearance; the first quote happens at the start of the novel she was described to have 'a solemn , but very pretty face' and 'it was pretty, even beautiful.' The first descriptions of Carmilla are vague and often use general terms like it, which gives the reader an early insight into the end of the book. We only get slight insights into her appearance until chapter 4 when we are given a full description; "She was above the middle height of women... She was slender, and wonderfully graceful. Except that her movements were languid-very languid-indeed, there was nothing in her appearance to indicate an invalid. Her complexion was rich and brilliant; her features were small and beautifully formed; her eyes large, dark, and lustrous; her hair was quite wonderful, I never saw hair so magnificently thick and long when it was down about her shoulders... It was exquisitely fine and soft, and in a colour of a very rich dark brown, with something of gold." I found this quote to be very descriptive, but there is something strange about it, she has a dark beauty, everything is perfect which can be unsettling and almost inhuman, it is also noted that she is lethargic for no apparent reason but has no physical signs of an injury or disability. Apart from this descriptive detail Carmilla's character is kept pretty much a mystery, and the writer does everything in his power to keep her this way, she seems to have no personality at all, however she still shocks and intrigues the reader, she is diabolical but does not show it. The only information that she divulges to Laura is ‘What she did tell me amounted, in my unconscionable estimation—to nothing. It was all summed up in three very vague disclosures: First—her name was Carmilla. Second—her family was very ancient and noble. Third—her home lay in the direction of the west.'

However this idea of beauty is contrasted by the beast like form that Laura see's Carmilla in on a night, often in her dreams she is interpreted as a black cat, or panther; "I saw something moving round the foot of my bed, at first I could not accurately distinguish. But soon I saw it was a sooty black animal that resembled a monstrous cat. It appeared to me about four or five feet long for it measured fully the length of the hearthrug as it passed over it; and it continued to-ing and fro-ing with the lithe, sinister relentlessness of a beast in a cage." From the text it is hard to tell if Carmilla actually takes a cat like form, or if this is just Laura's perception of the beast, as when she awakes she see's a female form instead of a cat. I believe that Carmilla is represented as a cat as she is praying on Laura, as she is feeding off her, she gives her a stone that she wears pinned to her nightdress and her health deteriorates, I believe this stone is soaked in something to knock her out, so she stops awaking in terror when Carmilla is feeding off her. One night when Carmilla is feeding "A sweet and tender. and at the same time terrible which said ' your mother warns you to be aware of the assassin'. " to which Laura awakes and see's Carmilla covered in blood. This creation of a beast shows the bad side of, Carmilla and is a severe contrast to the beautiful side of her during the day. She preys on the innocence of young Laura and her friendship often passes over into the realm of being possessive often telling her that she must die for them to be together, it is hard to tell if Laura is scared of Carmilla's sexual advances or if she is scared of dying. Camilla's words are like lullabies that she whispers in her preys ears, as if almost to numb them before preying on them.

These ideals are further contrasted by her split personality, she is often friendly making idol chit chat about various situation but sometimes she becomes angry, this is sparked often by religion, or in this instance a singing of a hymn; "Her face underwent a change that terrified me for a moment, it darkened, became horribly livid, teeth and hands were clenched, and she frowned and compressed her lips... a low convulsive cry of suffering broke from her and gradually the hysteria subsided." What is weird about these episodes is how quickly she comes out of them, for they pass almost instantly. Carmilla's personality is often obsessive and her affection towards Laura at once appalled and disgusted her but at the same time also evoke the same feelings of ecstasy that her companion feels ‘In these mysterious moods I did not like her. I experienced a strange tumultuous excitement that was pleasurable, ever and anon, mingled with a vague sense of fear and disgust.’

I really like having Carmilla as my chosen character as she is very ambiguous, so I can leave her open to my own opinions and ideas, my initial ideas for a character design would be to have her being typically beautiful, but almost too beautiful. The hair and makeup will be straight but periodically accurate. I will be looking to develop this idea through research.

Unknown. (Dec 2011). Before Dracula There Was Carmilla. Available: http://www.victoriangothic.org/before-dracula-there-was-carmilla/. Last accessed 9th February 2016.

Unknown. (2013). Shortanalysis ‘Carmilla’ by Sheridan Le Fanu. Available: http://insaneowl.com/2013/03/09/shortanalysis-carmilla-by-sheridan-le-fanu/. Last accessed 9th Feb 2016.

Carmilla Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1872)

For my gothic horror project I have chosen to read the novel Carmilla, this was written by Joseph Sheridan le Fanu in 1872, the book is about a young woman who preyed upon by a vampire called Carmilla.
The story starts with the main protagonist Laura who describes a dream she had many years ago where she is visited by a strange woman in her bedroom, she says that she didn't feel intimidated by this visit and ended up embracing the visitor and falling asleep, but then later awakes to a puncturing feeling in her breast. After this she becomes isolated and alone.
The story then continues 12 years later when Laura's father tells her of a letter he received from The General who was going to visit with his niece but she died In suspicious circumstances, the general then says that he will explain at a later date.
The book explains of carriage crash that happens outside of the castle and brings Carmilla into the familys care, Carmilla and Laura both recognise eachother from the dream that they both had when they were young, Carmilla's mother says that her journey is urgent and leaves Carmilla in Laura's fathers care.
Carmilla and Laura quickly become friends but carmilla starts to make strange romantic advances on Laura, Carmilla never tells Laura about her personal life and also never takes part in  the families prayers and often sleeps throughout the day and often sleep walks. When Laura takes part in a funeral hymn Carmilla scalds her saying it hurts her ears.
A shipment arrives of restored heirloom paintings and Laura finds a portrait of her ancestor Mircilla, Countess Karnstein, dated 1698, this portrait resembled Carmilla exactly even down to the mole on her neck.
Laura starts  having nightmares of a large cat like beast entering her room and biting her, then taking the form of a female and leaving the room, lauras health declines and a small blue dot appears on her chest.
General Spieldorf is the one that tells the story of how Carmilla is acutally Mircilla who preyed on his nice Bertha, the General tried to kill the beast who was preying on his daughter but she fled and his nice died shortly after. The general tries to kill Carmilla  but she flees again.
They then get Baron Vordenburg who rids areas of vampires to find Carmilla's tomb and drives a steak though her heart and strikes off the head.

Le Fanu, J (1872). Carmilla. Unknown: Chios Classics.

Mood Board/ Pesentation

As a task we had to create a mood board and present it to the class about the book that we have chosen to study for this unit. This started with a brief synopsis of the book, outlining who the main characters are, our chosen character and why and finally the mood board and why we have selected the images.

My initial idea for my character was just to do a straight Victorian makeup, Carmilla is described as being beautiful so this is what I wanted to show in my makeup. However after watching all the presentations I saw that a lot of people had much more complex ideas for their character rather than just my straight makeup, so I am going to go back and research more into my book to get some more ideas.

Doing this presentation helped me to look deeper into the book, I found that the book focused a lot around nigh time, and also about nature and architecture. I found Carmilla's personality to be extremely false and sometimes borderline bipolar. So for my mood board I gathered images of gothic architecture especially during the Victorian times, Victorian mourning veils and also Victorian beauties.

Introduction

For our second makeup and hair unit we have been given the theme Gothic horror, this unit has 2 sections but is based around designing makeup for Film or TV so it will have to be HD ready and also will need to be suitable and meet the requirements of filming the face and body in motion. We will develop our ideas by using research and by creating mood boards, storyboards and also by delivering presentations.
The first unit is about continuity and we will be creating a period makeup that will be based around research we have done on a Gothic Novel, after designing and applying the makeup once we will then have to apply it again and keep continuity.
The areas of study are;

• Research of a specific cinematic genre or topic
• Analysis and interpretation of a film/television based brief, and the development of themes, characters and concepts
• Generation of make-up concept appropriate to period and character
• Investigation of make-up techniques and basic use of prosthetics and products appropriate to the performed body
• Creation of mood boards, storyboards in response to a brief
• Creation and maintenance of continuity records
• Presentation skills and pitching techniques

I am exited to start this unit and I do believe it will be challenging for me to create accurate period looks as I am a massive fan of fashion/ editorial/ beauty makeup, so I prefer to take aspects of a period and manipulate. It will also be a challenge for me to keep the continuity of a makeup as this is something I have never done before so I think it will be an exciting new challenge.