1. Lovely ladies of the
Middle East used to grind up
lead – which causes metal
poisoning – and apply it to
their lashes, eyebrows and
eyelids.
2. In ancient Babylonia,
unwanted facial hair was
sanded off with a rough
pumice stone.
Venetian ladies who poured
lion urine on their tresses
before sitting out in the sun.
6. Early Japanese geishas and
Kabuki
actors
used
nightingale droppings to
remove the thick make-up
from their faces.
3. Women in Edwardian
England
would
gladly
swallow a slimy tapeworm to
keep themselves slim and
trim. The parasite would
digest most of the food the
women ate, and it also
destroyed their health.
7. Roman
ladies rubbed
brown seaweed on their faces
as rouge, which did them no
harm. But the white powder
made from lead they rubbed
on their faces gave them a
slow death by lead poisoning
as surely as it delighted their
admirers.
4. Eating arsenic was another
way to achieve beauty
discovered
by
Englishwomen. The deadly
poison – used in the 19th
century – gave the skin an
interesting glow while it
shortened the lif H