In the victorian era, a healthy and natural complexion was valued (or pale and delicate look), especially for young people. However, makeup was used, but it was a bit of a taboo and certainly not to be revealed to others. Here is a fragment from An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa M. Alcott, the writer of Little Women. I would not recommend it for reading since it’s quite full of Victorian morals for young girls and therefore quite boring, but it does have some good bits.
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Maud went; and as soon as the door was shut Tom rose on his elbow, saying, in a cautiously lowered voice:
“Fan, does Trix paint?”
“Yes, and draws too,” answered Fanny, with a sly laugh.
“Come, you know what I mean; I’ve a right to ask and you ought to tell,” said Tom, soberly, for he was beginning to find that being engaged was not unmitigated bliss.
“What makes you think she does?”
“Well, between ourselves,” said Tom, looking a little sheepish, but anxious to set his mind at rest, “she never will let me kiss her on her cheek, nothing but an unsatisfactory peck at her lips. Then the other day, as I took a bit of heliotrope out of a vase to put in my button-hole, I whisked a drop of water into her face; I was going to wipe it off, but she pushed my hand away, and ran to the glass where she carefully dabbed it dry, and came back with one cheek redder than the other. I didn’t say anything, but I had my suspicions. Come now, does she?”
“Yes, she does; but don’t say a word to her, for she’ll never forgive my telling if she knew it.”
“I don’t care for that; I don’t like it, and I won’t have it,” said Tom, decidedly.
“You can’t help yourself. Half the girls do it, either paint or powder, darken their lashes with burnt hair- pins, and take cologne on lumps of sugar or belladona to make their eyes bright. Clara tried arsenic for her complexion, but her mother stopped it,” said Fanny, betraying the secrets of the prison-house in the basest manner.
“I knew you girls were a set of humbugs, and very pretty ones, too, some of you, but I can’t say I like to see you painted up like a lot of actresses,” said Tom, with an air of disgust.
“I don’t do anything of the sort, or need it, but Trix does; and having chosen her, you must abide your choice, for better or worse.”
Hi! My name is Geerte, I'm a researcher of Nineteenth century history from the Netherlands. This blog is where I write about my favourite subject. Feel free to browse around! 
An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa M. Alcott
What s great Author and book, loved the post.
I thought it was a good book too! Now if I could only get my daughters to read it, haha. If girls didn’t really use makeup in the Victorian Era, when did using makeup start to be fashionable? I guess I will look up the history of makeup.
hey, love the blog. thanks so much for the great information. I’ll be coming back and bookmarking it for sure. ty.
Hello darling, sweet site! I genuinely appreciate this blog post.. I was wondering about this for a while now. This cleared a lot up for me! Do you have a rss feed that I can add?
Very good post I love your website keep up the good articles
Thank you so much for this post- I was searching for info on 19th Cent. makeup up, and this small quote from the book told me more than any other site I found. If it was common enough for it to end up in a LMA book, it tells me that it was more widespread than one would think.
Now for something a little different, but equally beautiful. This interior is designed by Victor Horta in Belgium: Hotel Tassel by Victor Horta Picture from a very interesting posting about Victor Horta at Victorian Era
This is, kindof, completely, off the subject except maybe for the Victorian part, but I am looking for information about cosmetics made by Tiffany Perfumers ie when was Tiffany Perfumers in business. I found a compact of rouge/blush and also of lipstick with the Tiffany Perfumers name enscribed on them and haven’t been able to locate any info about the company. I even had books from Toronto Library delivered to Small Town, Saskatchewan, but nothing in there, nor on the computer. Can anyone help me? P.S. The cities listed after the name of Tiffany Perfumers are Toronto, Los Angeles, Boston.
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Like Chandra said, this quote told more than any other website. This was an extremely informative post. Thank you so much!
Really cool!
Instead of mascara, they used burnt hairpins.
Instead of eyeshadow, they used sugar cubes dissolved with cologne.
Instead of blush, they used red paint.
Instead of foundation, they used powder.
This post really opened my eyes to how similar we are to people in the past.
Thanks!
P.S. Merry Christmas Eve everyone, and thanks A. Nonemous (or should I say Beryl) for texting me to look at this post. I’ll pass the text on to a friend or two. It’s only about 10 in the evening for my friend Viola.
A few late corrections: they didn’t “use sugar cubes dissolved with cologne” as eyeshadow, the cologne (or belladonna) was eaten, presumably on sugar to make it easier to swallow. They thought it made their eyes look “brighter”. And arsenic was eaten to give women (and men) a clear complexion; which it did, until it made them sick and/or killed them.
They did not use red paint for blush. “Paint” or “Painting” were slightly derogatory terms used to describe the various things women used to artificially enhance their looks.
In Victorian times, to redden their cheeks, “good” girls pinched them (and bit their lips for the same affect) Not-so-good girls used rouge (French for red), which, at that time was usually a crème based product, applied with a tiny puff (my mom and her mom used that type of rouge well into the 1960’s)
BTW, some women use both foundation and powder; it’s not an either/or.
Well, since Cindy’s mentioned me already, I guess I have to post.
Great article. Speaking of books full of Victorian morals for young girls, have any of you read “What Katy Did”? There’s a exerpt here at this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Katy_Did
It’s about a tomboy who has a crippling accident and goes to “The School of Pain” for four years. She comes out of it a proper Victorian lady. She even starts the “Society for the Suppression of Unladylike Conduct” after her transformation. LOL
Anyway, gotta go make sure the kids are in bed and not practicing for Xmas Eve. That was their excuse last year on Dec. 23rd.
Merry Christmas, all!
This was the best, and I do mean BEST, source I could find on Victorian make-up. You’ve helped me very much with the novel I’m currently working on. Thank you, thank you!
Hey, I have a blog too now! It’s http://writersthinkersanddreamers.wordpress.com/.
Good for you! I’ll keep an eye on it :)
Thank you for commenting!
[…] A WordPress blog I really like is https://19thcentury.wordpress.com/. It’s very interesting and fun to read, especially this article here: https://19thcentury.wordpress.com/2009/06/02/girls-make-up/. […]
Reblogged this on writersthinkersanddreamers and commented:
I thought this was a really good post. Enjoy!
Ha ha! This post made me laugh. Not because it’s funny. It’s actually a great post! I laughed because I thought of sending it to my daughter. She’s 14 and really into makeup. She needs to see what girls used to have to go through for makeup.
Cool post and blog you’ve got going here (and funny too) (in a good way).
I like the part you wrote about “not recommend it for reading since it’s quite full of Victorian morals for young girls and therefore quite boring”. lol. But what’s wrong with Victorian Morals for young girls? That’s still going on in many churches and schools these days. Maybe the Victorian Era never ended? Oh, for want of Victorian Morals…