When it comes to 10 strange beauty rituals, the annals of history are brimming with bizarre practices that would make modern spa‑goers wince. From aristocratic maidens who bathed in sour milk to queens who swore by vinegar, the lengths these women went to for flawless looks are both shocking and oddly fascinating.
Beauty has never been a simple affair; it has always demanded dedication, odd ingredients, and, at times, downright grotesque methods. Below, we count down the most outlandish regimens ever recorded, each one as extravagant and unsettling as the next.
10 Empress Elisabeth: A Face Mask Lined With Raw Veal
Empress Elisabeth of Austria, the 19th‑century darling of European high society, was famed for her luminous complexion and a cascade of chestnut hair that reached her feet. Yet achieving that ethereal glow required more than vanity.
She kept her skin immaculate by crushing fresh strawberries onto her hands, face, and neck, soaking in warm olive oil, and—most notably—sleeping beneath a mask stitched from raw veal. This peculiar veil was as close as she got to ingesting food; her favorite sustenance was a pressed extract of chicken, partridge, venison, and beef, a concoction that resembled a spice blend more than a meal. Even then, she would bind herself in a corset so tight her waist measured a mere 49.5 cm (19.5 in).
Every day, she devoted three hours to letting her hair down, a necessity because its extraordinary length caused constant tangles and, when tied, heavy ribbons that gave her pounding headaches. Consequently, Elisabeth often remained indoors, fearing the wind would ruin her elaborate coiffure. In the quest for perfection, she sacrificed simple pleasures, even the freedom to step outside.
9 Cleopatra: Bathing In Donkey Milk
Queen Cleopatra, renowned for ensnaring the most powerful men of her era, combined charisma with a suite of exotic cosmetics. While many of her contemporaries relied on beetle‑gut lipstick and powdered crocodile dung beneath their eyes, Cleopatra’s regimen ventured far beyond the ordinary.
The Egyptian monarch could afford a truly opulent treatment: a daily immersion in sour donkey milk. Her attendants milked seven hundred donkeys each day, filling a tub that, once left to ferment, became a rich lactic‑acid bath. The sour milk was believed to smooth wrinkles, as the lactic acid gently exfoliated the outer skin layer, revealing a fresher, more even complexion.
In short, the queen’s dedication to this seemingly cruel method—essentially “burning” her skin to achieve youthful radiance—was the ultimate secret behind her legendary allure.
8 Nefertiti: Wearing Enough Makeup To Kill You
Egyptian queen Nefertiti, whose name translates to “the beautiful one has come,” captivated the world even millennia after her death. Her striking visage sparked a sensation when a 1920s bust was uncovered, and her timeless beauty continues to dominate headlines.
Her flawless appearance was no accident. While her tomb remains undiscovered, the burial goods of her contemporaries reveal a meticulous beauty routine. Nefertiti kept her entire body—head, torso, and limbs—shaven clean, opting for a wig atop a completely hairless scalp. She accentuated her eyes with kohl made from galena, a lead‑rich ore, meaning each application introduced a dose of lead into her system.
Moreover, her lipstick contained bromine mannite, another toxic compound, suggesting she may have been slowly poisoning herself with every cosmetic touch‑up. Nonetheless, the lethal ingredients did not prevent her from achieving an iconic, immortal beauty.
7 Queen Elizabeth I: Coating Your Skin In Lead
Poisonous beauty trends were not a Renaissance novelty; even Tudor England embraced them. Queen Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen, relied heavily on “Venetian ceruse,” a white paste composed of lead dissolved in vinegar, to achieve a porcelain complexion.
After contracting smallpox at age twenty‑nine, Elizabeth was left with unsightly scars. Mortified, she cloaked every inch of her skin in the toxic white makeup, effectively masking her imperfections. The ceruse was applied so liberally that without it she would have been unrecognizable.
One contemporary, the Earl of Essex, famously quipped that beneath the flawless veil lay a “crooked carcass,” underscoring how deeply the queen’s identity had become intertwined with her lead‑laden cosmetics.
6 Marie Antoinette: Stewed Pigeon Water
French queen Marie Antoinette, forever linked with the phrase “let them eat cake,” was equally obsessive about her appearance. Her nightly routine began with a decadent face mask blending cognac, eggs, powdered milk, and lemon—more akin to a celebratory banquet than a skincare product.
She washed her face each morning with a concoction dubbed “Eau Cosmétique de Pigeon,” a cleanser purportedly brewed from eight stewed pigeons. This bizarre potion was marketed as a premium beauty elixir, promising radiant skin for the aristocracy.
Beyond her skincare, Marie adhered to an extravagant wardrobe schedule, dressing three times daily and spending the equivalent of roughly $4 million (120,000 livres) each year on clothing. Some fashionable women of the era even traced their veins with blue pencil, striving for a translucent look that suggested extreme thinness.
5 Mary, Queen Of Scots: Bathing In Wine
Mary, Queen of Scots, was not born with conventional beauty; a pronounced nose and a sharp chin set her apart. Determined to refine her image, she turned to a luxurious, albeit unconventional, treatment.
Mary’s servants filled a bathtub with white wine, and she would soak for extended periods, convinced the fermented grapes would brighten her complexion. While the notion sounds indulgent, it mirrors a modern practice known as vinotherapy, wherein post‑winemaking grape pomace—essentially the skins and pulp left over—infuses baths with antioxidant‑rich minerals without intoxicating the user.
Thus, the queen’s historic wine‑bath ritual lives on today, offering a sophisticated, non‑alcoholic spa experience for those seeking a touch of regal pampering.
4 Empress Zoe Porphyrogenita: Starting Your Own Cosmetics Lab
Byzantine empress Zoe Porphyrogenita was celebrated not only for her political acumen but also for her seemingly ageless beauty, even into her sixties. Legends claim she resembled a twenty‑year‑old woman well past her prime.
To preserve her radiant appearance, Zoe commissioned an entire cosmetics laboratory within the imperial palace. This private factory churned out bespoke beauty products exclusively for the empress, rivaling the scale of modern national supply chains.
Though the operation was costly, Zoe was said to “exhaust a sea teaming with gold‑dust in a single day.” Contemporary observers noted that she was as firm and well‑conditioned as a perfectly roasted chicken, a vivid metaphor underscoring the efficacy of her lavish regimen.
3 Lucrezia Borgia: Spending Multiple Days Washing Your Hair
Lord Byron famously declared Lucrezia Borgia’s hair “the prettiest and fairest imaginable,” a sentiment he proved by stealing a lock and keeping it beside his bed. While romantic, the admiration masks a labor‑intensive grooming routine.
Lucrezia’s signature blonde tresses were not natural; the Borgia family bore dark hair. To achieve her luminous locks, she soaked her hair for hours in a mixture of lye and lemon juice, then left it to dry under the sun for an entire day. This exhaustive process often forced her to cancel travel plans.
Correspondence from her attendants reveals polite apologies for delayed arrivals, citing the need to “put her clothes in order and wash her head.” The dedication to her hair regimen underscores the lengths she went to maintain her famed beauty.
2 Helen Of Troy: Bathing In Vinegar
Helen of Troy, whose face allegedly launched a thousand ships, is perhaps the most legendary beauty in Western mythology. While some argue she is a fictional construct, the ancient texts attribute to her a surprisingly practical beauty routine.
According to the Iliad, Helen’s attendants prepared a bathtub filled entirely with white vinegar, a potent acid. She would immerse herself daily, allowing the vinegar’s pH‑balancing properties to cleanse and tighten her skin, effectively peeling away dull surface layers.
Modern interpretations often assume a diluted apple‑cider mixture, but the original legend suggests she bathed in undiluted vinegar—an uncomfortable, pungent experience that nonetheless exemplifies the extreme measures taken for timeless allure.
1 Simonetta Vespucci: Arsenic, Leeches, And Human Urine
Simonetta Vespucci, the Renaissance muse immortalized in Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, epitomized the era’s obsession with pallid perfection. Women across Italy emulated her ethereal complexion through a series of unsettling practices.
To achieve a ghostly pallor, they attached leeches to their ears, allowing the insects to draw blood and render the facial skin deathly white. Those unwilling to endure leeches could apply a mask of bread crumbs, egg whites, and vinegar—a mixture that doubled as a recipe for crisp fried chicken.
Eyebrows were removed using arsenic and rock alum, then polished with gold, while hair color was enhanced through a bizarre bleaching process involving human urine. Though grotesque, these extremes were deemed essential for attaining the coveted ideal of beauty.
10 Strange Beauty Secrets Unveiled
From veal masks to vinegar baths, the world’s most celebrated women proved that true glamour often demands the strangest of sacrifices. Dive into each ritual and discover how far they went to secure their place in the annals of beauty.