This week’s historical dumpster fire
Beauty Is Pain. Sometimes Arsenic.
A keepsake from hell: poisonous beauty products.
A weekly dose of macabre history, gently pressed into your hands like a haunted educational pamphlet.
The Victorians wanted clear skin, bright eyes, and a fashionable complexion.
Unfortunately, they were occasionally willing to achieve this through actual poison.
By the late nineteenth century, advertisements promoted arsenic complexion wafers, tablets taken by mouth and sold with promises of clearer, smoother, more beautiful skin.
Yes. You ate them.
Apparently skincare routines become considerably easier when you simply remove the “skin” portion.
There were also arsenical soaps, while belladonna (better known as deadly nightshade) was used in some beauty regimens to dilate the pupils and make the eyes appear larger and more alluring.
Nothing says come hither quite like blurred vision and toxic plant exposure.
Even better, manufacturers were perfectly aware that arsenic had a bit of a reputation.
Dr. Campbell’s product was literally marketed as “Safe Arsenic Complexion Wafers.”
Which in reality was about as harmless as a box of cobras.
Beauty standards change.
Human willingness to do something medically questionable because someone promised it would fix a blemish apparently does not.
Seance scent pairing
This one belongs to Vanitas — named for the centuries-old artistic reminder that beauty, youth, and earthly pleasures eventually disappear. It smells considerably better than arsenic, with the added benefit of not requiring a poison-control consultation.
Thank you for being here. You are beautiful the way you are.
Please note: none of this was written by robots aka AI. All of our copy, and creatives are made and will always be made by free-range, grass-fed human nonsense.
www.seanceperfumes.com · @seanceperfumes
