Arsenic as a Cosmetic in the Victorian Era Podcast

Transcript

Hey everyone! Today we are going to be talking about arsenic and its cosmetic use in the Victorian era. Now, I know what you’re thinking- arsenic as a cosmetic?! However, in the Victorian era, arsenic was considered by the population and doctors alike as a useful tool in cosmetic purposes along with dozens of others, like medicine, candy, wallpaper, pesticides, etc. Although, we are only going to focus on its cosmetic use, as covering arsenic as a whole in the Victorian era would take hours. So, firstly, we need to start with why arsenic was even considered as a cosmetic product. 

Now, in the Victorian era, being pale was one of the highest indicators of social status. If you were pale, it meant you could afford to spend your days inside the home, and not laboring outside and working in the fields getting a tan. As well as being a status symbol, paleness had been a trend in England ever since the Elizabethan era, when women would make themselves paler to emulate Queen Elizabeth. The ideal was to have this “perfect, porcelain skin.” This also meant that skin had to be free of any blemishes, freckles, or so-called “imperfections.” It was also heavily important to Victorian society that this skin be obtained naturally, for makeup was considered to be promiscuous. It had a stereotype of only really being worn by prostitutes. A topic of gossip at Victorian gatherings was often if a woman present was wearing any makeup or if she had obtained her rosy cheeks and pale skin naturally. So, of course, women could not use makeup to rid themselves of blemishes and make themselves paler, so they turned to (what was in their minds) the next best thing- arsenic. 

When women applied arsenic creams to their faces, ate wafers and pills containing arsenic, or mixed arsenic with vinegar or chalk and applied that mixture to their face, they found that they obtained a ghostly, almost translucent skin tone, making them appear much paler. There were also many instances in which arsenic cleared up their faces and rid them of large blemishes as well. Arsenic as a cosmetic grew in popularity after articles and books were published in which women gave testimonies of possessing a greater beauty and aura of attraction after ingesting it. Specifically, a dairymaid from the English countryside testified to obtaining the man of all her desires after using arsenic. One French author even wrote (and I quote) “Arsenic is a love-awakener…the harbinger of happiness, the soother of ardent longings, the bestower of contentment and peace! Coquetry had a new weapon and all the known cosmetic preparations will pale beside it.” Arsenic products became a mania and you could now find Dr. Campbell’s Arsenic Complexion Wafers or Dr. Jameson’s Medicated Arsenic Soap at just about every drugstore in Victorian England. These products promised skin of “unavailed purity of texture, free from any spot or blemish whatsoever.” 

You might be wondering how arsenic became such a mania without anyone noticing the harmful effects of arsenic poisoning. The answer- it didn’t. Firstly, arsenic was mainly ingested in a way that lethal doses weren’t really administered all at once. Arsenic was often ingested as a solid lump and those who took it would not suffer extreme reactions because most of the arsenic passed through the body without ever being digested. Secondly, it often took repeated and habitual use of arsenic for symptoms to develop. At that point, the user was psychologically dependent on the product and continued use of it until symptoms worsened to an unbearable point. Thirdly, arsenic poisoning affected the lower classes at a much higher rate than the upper-class women who used the product as a cosmetic. Arsenic poisoning heavily affected those working in a factory to make it. Occupational arsenic poisoning was a problem for many factory workers until the end of the 19th century, when stricter measures regarding workplace safety came into effect. Those who faced occupational arsenic poisoning were much more exposed to the dangers of poisoning, but it didn’t affect the upper classes so severely, so they continued to consume the product, requiring the lower classes to remain in the factories. The effects that both these workers and consumers faced consisted of pus-filled eruptions on the skin, lung disease, dehydration, burning eyes, swollen gums, coated tongues, skin rashes, inflammation of the nerves in the arms and legs, impotence, weakened voice, loss of concentration and memory, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, insomnia, anxiety, depression, headaches, cancer, paralysis, and death. The old adage “beauty is pain” was felt deeply by all classes of Victorians. 

While our main focus is arsenic’s role in the cosmetic arena, I would also like to touch on how its prevalence in cosmetics and various industries led to a decrease in murder convictions. Let me intoduce the Styrian Defense. After arsenic consumption rose in popularity and became a product used by many in England, it became virtually impossible to distingush between consumption for cosmetic or medicinal purposes or consumption with murderous intent. People would poison others, often spouses, with lethal doses of arsenic. They would then be able to claim that the arsenic was only in their possession for non-criminal purposes. As toxicology was making its way into autopsies by this point, they could also claim that the arsenic was only present in the victim’s body because the victim was a habitual arsenic user. It would be like if we could kill with facewash or cough drops. It led to an uptic in murder via arsenic poisoning and a downturn in convictions because, at this time, there was virtually no way to disprove this defense. 

Overall, the negative effects of arsenic as a cosmetic were overwhelming. From the continual poisoning of Victorian society to the side effects that caused changes in the society itself. This mania was not one that I would want to take part in Luckily, the arsenic trend died out around the end of the 19th century, with the true dangers of arsenic intake becoming more clear.

When considering the lengths that one would go to preserve their beauty and social status in the Victorian era, you might be shocked and amazed. I mean, after all, these women were knowingly poisoning themselves and others to obtain the complexion of their dreams. However, we should also think about the modern women who spend hours in the sun, or worse- a tanning booth- and put themselves at high risk for skin cancers just to obtain a darker and more desirable complexion. Currently, about 30% of white female teenagers report tanning indoors despite the fact that overexposure to UV rays can be attributed to over 400,000 cases of skin cancer every year. We cannot blame this on ignorance either, as most tanning salons have warning signs or waivers that dictate the risk one takes on when entering a tanning booth. Those that enter and use tanning salons are knowingly putting themselves at risk for cancer, and even death, yet continue to do so for the sake of reaching the modern beauty standard. While it might not be as severe as ingesting a literal poison, it begs the questions- how different from the Victorians are we and to what extent can society’s ideals drive a person of any time to put themselves in harms way? 

Thank you so much for listening! The sources where I got my information for today’s podcast are linked to the project page and would be great to look at if you’re interested in any of the other various uses, functions, and effects of arsenic in the Victorian era.

Citations:

Hsieh S, Maranda EL, Salih T, Nguyen A, Jimenez J. The Quest for the Ultimate 

Skin-Lightening Agent. JAMA Dermatol. 2016;152(4):372. doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2015.4243

Romm, S. (1987, Jan 27). Beauty through history; the changing ideal: [FINAL edition]. The Washington Post (Pre-1997 Fulltext) Retrieved from https://proxying.lib.ncsu.edu/index.php/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/beauty-through-history-changing-ideal/docview/306889373/se-2

Seidenberg, A. B., Mahalingam-Dhingra, A., Weinstock, M. A., Sinclair, C., & Geller, A. 

C. (2015, February). Youth Indoor Tanning and Skin Cancer Prevention. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 48(2), 188–194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2014.08.034

Whorton, J. C. (2011, July 14). The Arsenic Century: How Victorian Britain was 

Poisoned at Home, Work, and Play (1st ed.). Oxford University Press, USA.