How far are you willing to go to get the hot new look? Much of human history has been driven by the desire to present ourselves in our best light. As it turns out, there’s not much that people won’t do in their struggle to be attractive. Here are ten of the grossest things people have tried in the name of beauty.

10 Eel Exfoliation Bath

Some very expensive bubble baths leave you feeling slimy after you get out of the tub. Their manufacturers prefer to say “moisturized”—but for one treatment, “slimy” is definitely the word. To get that perfect glow in their skin, some people in China are taking baths filled with tiny eels.

Each eel is about the size of a pencil. They wriggle over the body and nibble at the dead skin covering it. This leaves the youthful-looking living skin underneath shining through. Unfortunately, the eels haven’t learned to differentiate between the skin on the outside and the internal membranes.

A gentleman wearing loose underwear in the eel bath felt a sharp pain and found that an eel had found its way into his penis. It took a three-hour surgery to remove the errant fish and prompted other countries to watch out for those looking to import the eels.

9 Radiation Therapy

Whenever a scientific discovery is made, there’s always a scramble to find a marketable use for it. Sometimes, this benefits mankind; sometimes, it leads people to smear their faces with radioactive elements.

The eerie glow of radiation made newly documented elements like radium and polonium seemed like ideal boosters for that healthy glow everyone wants. The mysterious radiation rays were quickly touted as cure for medical ailments and were also used in cosmetics. Radiation was added to face creams, soap, rouge, and powders. For those wanting extra sparkly teeth, there was radioactive toothpaste.

Of course, the downside to these radioactive products was that instead of health, they caused untold numbers of cancers. Sores and hair loss are common side effects of radiation poisoning, as well. Those who worked with radium developed bone necrosis and incurable cancers. This soon put an end to the fad for radioactive products.

8 Lead, Arsenic, And Mercury

While today’s must-have is a tan, which suggests we have the leisure to be continually on the beach, in the past, the reverse was the case. To have a tan showed that you spent your days toiling outside. To cultivate a pale face, you needed the money to stay indoors. Or you could take the shortcut of covering your face in white lead, as people have throughout history. The problems with this were not unknown even then. The lead would rot the skin, requiring ever more to be used to cover up the effects of the treatment. The skin would break open as it thinned. Lead also causes aggressiveness, headaches, vomiting, seizures, and eventually death—then you have the perfect pale flesh.

Those wanting to remove spots, freckles, and other skin problems could turn to another dangerous element. “Dr. James P. Campbell’s Safe Arsenic Complexion Wafers” promised to clear the complexion. Ironically, one of the organs hit hardest by arsenic poisoning is the skin. An overdose of arsenic can lead to hair loss, bloody vomit, diarrhea, and convulsions. But at least you won’t have freckles.

While those products are thankfully things of the past, there is a current vogue for everyone to appear with as light skin as possible. Skin lightening products very often contain mercury, an element which can lead to many horrible side effects, especially kidney problems. You may end up with a fashionably Western face but a deeply unfashionable dialysis machine.

7 Bee Stings

You should always be wary of following celebrity advice. Being pretty and a good actor does not make you a doctor. Gwyneth Paltrow has gone on record about her beauty treatments, and one of them has a sting in the tail.

The actress told an interviewer:

I’ve been stung by bees. It’s a thousands of years old treatment called apitherapy. People use it to get rid of inflammation and scarring. It’s actually pretty incredible if you research it. But, man, it’s painful.

The treatment is painful for Paltrow, but it can be deadly, and not just to the bees. One case of liver failure has been linked to apitherapy.

Those unwilling to be actually stung by bees can simply buy cosmetic products containing the venom. Not that it will do anything except speed the decline in bee populations and your bank balance.

6 Fish Pedicure

Fish aren’t picky eaters. If you dip your toes into a tank of Garra fish, they will quickly dart in and nibble off the dead skin from even the smelliest feet. They are toothless and usually stop at eating the tough outer skin, but there are reports of them taking their feeding frenzy too far and causing bleeding. While the risks of getting an infection from the fish is thought to be very low, there are dangers to dangling your feet in water used by both fish and other clients. Fungal infections could easily spread, and bacteria in the fish tank could cause boils.

Leaving aside the “ick” factor of being eaten by fish that live solely on other peoples’ stinky feet, some legal areas deem the fish to be unsanitary. One Arizona fish spa was shut down, as cosmetic products had to be disinfected and dried before reuse—obviously not an option with fish.

5 Tapeworm Diets

Losing weight should be easy. If you burn more calories than you consume, your weight goes down. But food is so delicious that many find reducing their caloric intake is too hard to do. So they look for ways to increase their calories burned (other than exercising, obviously).

One way of losing weight is to get yourself a friendly tapeworm to take up residence in your intestines. This worm will eat a portion of your food, and it will grow rather than your waistline. While there is evidence that people in the past sold pills which supposedly contained tapeworms, there are recent cases of people actually going through with it. Tapeworm infections cause weight loss and loss of appetite—but also pain, malnutrition, diarrhea, blindness, convulsions, and death.

4 Placenta

The placenta is an organ that develops in pregnant mammals to filter oxygen and nutrients to embryos and remove waste products. Most animals will eat the placenta after birth to regain its nutrients. Some humans do, too. Some aren’t content with leaving it at that, though.

Because of their association with youth and birth, some face creams include placenta in the hopes of it passing some of that goodness on to the user. Unfortunately, there is no evidence that they work. The most common form of placenta used comes from sheep, but those with deep pockets and no gag reflex can also buy creams with human placenta.

While placenta may not do much for the face, the side effects can be alarming. Its use in hair products has caused girls as young as 14 months old to begin to develop sexually due to the level of hormones it contains. Stopping use of the products reversed the effects.

3 Snails

Snail facials are a beauty treatment in which live snails glide across your face. The trail of gel they leave behind is said to fight the signs of aging. Snails have been used for thousands of years to treat inflammation, so there may be something to it. Snail facial specialists say they reduce scars, acne, and stretch marks. There is no scientific confirmation of this, however—so perhaps wait before you plop some snails on your face.

For those who cannot stand the idea of snails rasping at their skin with their radula (a toothed, tongue-like structure) you can buy creams that contain snail gel. The snails exude the gel, which is said to be more effective when they are stressed. There is no information on how the makers of snail gel cream go about stressing out their snails, but it’s unlikely these creams are animal-friendly.

2 Bull Semen

In the crowded marketplace of cosmetics, you need something that separates you from the competition. One way of doing that is to reveal that the magic ingredient in your face mask and hair conditioner is bull semen.

The inventor of the semen hair treatment had been looking for a high-protein recipe and apparently thought the best option would be bull sperm. She comforts her customers by saying, “It really works. The semen is refrigerated before use and doesn’t smell. It leaves your hair looking wonderfully soft and thick.”

If you want the glamorous look without the mental images, Imprivo makes a range of products containing the coyly named BSP (Bull Seminal Plasma).

1 Foreskin Facials

“As smooth as a baby’s buttocks” is a common expression. Some cosmetics companies have taken that cliche and run with it. Taking the foreskins left over after baby boys are circumcised, they have turned human flesh into cash in the bank.

There are face creams which use the cells from foreskins to enrich their products with growth factors, collagen, and other proteins that are claimed to reverse the signs of aging. Because the foreskin contains stem cells, a single one can be grown in the lab to produce enough cells for thousands of treatments. This has not reduced the controversy around using them as an ingredient, especially among those who see circumcision as a form of genital mutilation.

For those who want the direct benefits of stem cells, it is now possible to have cells derived from foreskins injected into your face. The fibroblast cells reinforce the structure of the skin, it is claimed, and users say they detect improvements in their appearance. With each vial of cells costing around $1,000, though, you might hope for more dramatic results.

Being pretty isn’t easy. The most beautiful women in history weren’t just born that way. They put hard work into it—and, sometimes, a few crushed bug guts, stewed birds, or dung.

It’s the dirty little secret behind glamour: No matter how fantastic someone looks, it never comes naturally. Behind every great beauty in history, there’s a dirty secret about all the work that went into looking that good.

10 Empress Elisabeth: A Face Mask Lined With Raw Veal

The most beautiful woman on earth, in the 19th century, was Empress Elisabeth of Austria. She was famous across Europe for her impeccable skin and the thick, chestnut hair that fell all the way down to her feet.

None of which came easy. To keep her skin beautiful, she would crush strawberries over her hands, face, and neck, bathe in warm olive oil, and sleep in what has only been described as a “mask lined inside with raw veal.”^[1]

It was the closest she came to eating food. Her favorite dish was pressed extract of chicken, partridge, venison, and beef—which isn’t so much a “food” as something you’d find in a spice cabinet. And even then, she’d wrap herself in a corset so tight that her waist only measured 49.5 centimeters (19.5 in) around.

She spent three hours each day getting her hair down, mainly because it was so long that it would get tied up in knots. And when it was put up in ribbons, her hair would get so heavy that it would give her headaches.

It meant that, more often than not, she was stuck indoors, too afraid to let the wind ruin her hair. But if you want to be beautiful, sometimes you have to give up on little luxuries, like ever leaving your house.

9 Cleopatra: Bathing In Donkey Milk

Queen Cleopatra won the hearts of the most powerful men alive. Maybe it was her grace. Maybe it was her charm. Or maybe it was that sweet aroma of dung and insect guts.

Cleopatra, after all, almost certainly followed the usual beauty conventions of her time—and that meant wearing a lipstick made out of mashed-up beetle guts and putting powdered crocodile dung under her eyes.

But Cleopatra didn’t limit herself to a peasant’s beauty regimen. She was a queen, and that meant that she could afford the most luxurious treatment of all: bathing in sour donkey milk. Her servants would milk 700 donkeys each day so that they could fill a tub with their milk. Then, once it had gone bad, Cleopatra would bathe inside.

The theory was that it would reduce wrinkles—and it may actually have worked. Soured lactose turns into lactic acid, which can make the surface layer of skin on a woman’s body peel off, revealing the smoother, blemish-free skin underneath.^[2]

That was the real secret to her beauty: burning her flesh off.

8 Nefertiti: Wearing Enough Makeup To Kill You

The Egyptian queen Nefertiti’s name meant “the beautiful one has come”—and she lived up to it. She was so beautiful that, in the early 20th century, a statue of her face caused an international sensation. More than 3,000 years after she died, her looks were still front-page news.

And no wonder. She put no small amount of work into looking good.

The queens of Nefertiti’s time would be buried with their makeup,^[3] and so, while they didn’t write many of their beauty secrets down, we’ve been able to find their methods left behind in their tombs. While her tomb has never been found, the tombs of her contemporaries give us a pretty good idea of how she did it.

Nefertiti was completely hairless. Her entire body was shaved from head to toe with a razor, including the hair on the top of her head. Instead, she topped her head with a wig and painted her eyes black with something called kohl.

Ancient Egyptian kohl, incidentally, was made out of the dark lead ore galena—which means that Nefertiti was slowly killing herself with lead poisoning every time she put on makeup.

But it’s highly unlikely that the lead killed her. There’s simply no way it could have finished her off before her lipstick. Her lipstick, after all, contained bromine mannite, another toxic substance that it’s generally believed would have poisoned her long before the lead she dabbed around her eyes.

7 Queen Elizabeth I: Coating Your Skin In Lead

Poisoning yourself with lead is no passing fad. It’s been a great look for thousands of years. While Nefertiti may have dabbed a little lead around her eyes, it was nothing compared to Queen Elizabeth I.

During the Elizabethan era, the most popular skin product was something called “Venetian ceruse”—which, quite simply, was a mixture of lead and vinegar that women would put all over their skin to make them look porcelain white.^[4]

Nobody used more of it than Queen Elizabeth herself. When she was 29, Elizabeth contracted smallpox and was left with scars all over her skin. She was too humiliated to show her scars in public—and so, instead, she covered every inch of her flesh with the toxic white paint.

Queen Elizabeth used so much of it that she was completely unrecognizable without it. When one man, the Earl of Essex, accidentally peeked a sight of her without her makeup on, he went around joking that she’d hidden a “crooked carcass” underneath that thick veneer of Venetian ceruse.

6 Marie Antoinette: Stewed Pigeon Water

The French queen Marie Antoinette didn’t exactly let herself eat cake. She had a reputation as a world-class beauty, and she was determined to keep it up.

Like Empress Elisabeth, she would go to bed with a face mask, but Antoinette’s—made of cognac, eggs, powdered milk, and lemon—sounds a little bit less like a beauty treatment and a little bit more like the catering menu at a birthday party.

She’d start the morning by washing her face with a facial cleanser made out of pigeons. In those days, that was a selling point: the product came proudly labeled with the mean “Eau Cosmetique de Pigeon” and a little ad promising every bottle had been made with “eight pigeons stewed.”^[5]

Then she would get dressed—for the first of three times each day. As queen of France, Marie Antoinette was expected to never wear the same thing twice. And so, each year, she would 120,000 livres on clothes, the equivalent to about $4 million today.

She may even have indulged in the popular French fashion of tracing her veins with a blue pencil. At the time, the women of France wanted to be so thin that they were translucent—so they’d draw the inner workings of their bodies, trying to convince the men that they had transparent skin.

5 Mary, Queen Of Scots: Bathing In Wine

Mary, Queen of Scots, wasn’t a natural beauty. She was born with a nose a little large and a chin a little too sharp—but she was a queen, and she was determined to be beautiful.

To keep her skin as striking as possible, she had her servants fill a bathtub with a white wine.^[6] She would wade in it, convinced that the wine was improving her complexion.

It sounds decadent, but it’s actually something people still do today. Today, it’s called vinotherapy, and there are places all around the world where you can experience the Mary, Queen of Scots, treatment for yourself.

It’s hard to say exactly what the queen used, but the modern vinotherapists don’t actually pour drinkable, alcoholic wine. Instead, they use the leftover compost from the winemaking process; the “pips and pulps” of grapes that get left behind. So, no—you can’t get drunk off of it.

4 Empress Zoe Porphyrogenita: Starting Your Own Cosmetics Lab

Empress Zoe Porphyrogenita was one of the most beautiful women in the Byzantine Empire. She didn’t just look good when she was young, though. Even when she was well into her sixties, it’s said, she still looked like a 20-year-old.^[7]

She certainly worked hard enough for it. After becoming the empress, Zoe Porphyrogenita had an entire laboratory dedicated to making her cosmetics built inside of the imperial palace. It was a real cosmetic factory, every bit as huge and expensive as the ones that supply whole countries. At this one, though, Zoe was the only customer.

It was expensive—but for the empress, blowing a small fortune was just all in a day’s work. It’s said that she was “the sort of woman who could exhaust a sea teaming with gold-dust in one day.”

But it’s also said that “like a well-baked chicken, every part of her was firm and in good condition.” This is definitive proof that it worked, because, clearly, Zoe looked so good that the men who saw her were so smitten that they couldn’t even form a sentence that didn’t make your skin crawl.

3 Lucrezia Borgia: Spending Multiple Days Washing Your Hair

The poet Lord Byron once said that Lucrezia Borgia’s hair was “the prettiest and fairest imaginable.” He wasn’t just trying out a line for a new poem—he was in love, so much so, in fact, that he stole a strand of her hair and kept it by his bed.

It sounds one of those touching love stories that usually end with someone filing a restraining order. Lucrezia, though, probably appreciated it. She deserved a little recognition for the amount of work she put into that hair—because she would spend days washing it.^[8]

Lucrezia’s hair was bright and blonde, but that wasn’t nature. Everyone else in her family had dark hair. Lucrezia, though, made sure hers shined like the Sun by rinsing it in lye and lemon juice for hours, then drying it out in the sunlight for the better part of a day.

It took so much time that she repeatedly canceled trips to wash her hair. Multiple letters from Lucrezia’s attendants have survived to to this day. In them, she politely apologizes to people and explains that she will be a few days late because she has to “put her clothes in order and wash her head.”

2 Helen Of Troy: Bathing In Vinegar

Helen of Troy had the face that launched 1,000 ships. She was a woman so beautiful that thousands of men died for her honor.

Well, either that, or else she was just a figment of an old Greek guy’s imagination. If Homer really did make her up, though, he had a remarkable understanding of women’s cosmetic care. Because packed deep in her legend is a beauty regimen that really works.

Helen of Troy, according to the Iliad, would bathe in vinegar.^[9] Every day, her attendants would prepare what, technically speaking, was a bathtub full of acid, and she would just dive right in.

Today, people tend to assume that she used apple cider vinegar or that she diluted it in water, simply because, otherwise, it sounds pretty horrible. After all, that’s something people still do today—bathe in a mixture of apple cider vinegar and water. And it actually works. The vinegar balances the body’s pH levels, which can have a cleansing effect.

But there’s nothing saying Helen of Troy ever added water. She may just have dived right into a bathtub filled to the brim with white vinegar. It would’ve hurt, and she would’ve smelled—but that’s what it takes to look good enough to start a war.

1 Simonetta Vespucci: Arsenic, Leeches, And Human Urine

Even if you don’t know her name, you’ve seen Simonetta Vespucci’s face. She was the muse for some of the greatest painters of the Renaissance.^[10] She was even chosen to model for the goddess of love herself at the center of the painting The Birth of Venus.

In the Renaissance, everyone wanted to look like her. And so they copied her beauty regimen—leeches, poisons, and all.

To keep their skin pale, white, and beautiful, the women in Vespucci’s time would attach leeches to their ears. The leeches would drain the blood out of their faces, leaving them deathly pale.

Those who didn’t want to go that far, though, could always use a face mask. Renaissance women would mix bread crumbs and egg whites with vinegar and then apply it liberally on their faces—a beauty secret that, conveniently, doubles as a great recipe for fried chicken.

Eyebrow hair, at the time, had to be plucked, or, ideally, burned straight off. Women would remove their hairs with arsenic and rock alum and then sand it all down with gold.

But that was nothing compared to what they’d do to get that long, flowing, golden mane of hair on her head. For Vespucci, it just came naturally, but the poorer women who wanted to copy her found their own way. They bleached their hair in human urine.

Sure, it sounds gross—but every beautiful woman has to do a few things that just aren’t pretty.

Africa is a beautiful place. Here you will find wildlife, sunsets and raging thunderstorms like nowhere else on Earth. The continent is home to breathtaking beaches, magnificent mountains, shimmering deserts and spectacular waterfalls. Africa is the source of the Nile River, which is the longest river in the world and flows through 11 countries. Dinosaurs roamed the landscapes here and complex geography shaped the continent into what it is today. On this list are just some of the images that capture the sheer beauty of Africa, the place more than 1.2 billion people call home.

10 African Civilizations More Amazing Than Ancient Egypt

10 Well-preserved piece of history

Amid a 11th-century caravansary in Ouadane, Mauritania, stands the stunningly well-preserved Ouadane Mosque. It is believed that Quadane became a prominent city during the 11th century and was part of the trading and religious ‘hub’ along one of the main trans-Saharan routes. The mosque itself was built during the 15th century as the population and town expanded.

The walls that surround it suggest that ‘Old Ouadane’ was a fortified village. It is thought that the mosque was abandoned during the 19th century as some of its walls still have clay plaster clinging to it.

Ouadane is also the closest town to the Richat Structure, another beautiful landmark otherwise known as the Eye of the Sahara, which is so large that it is visible from space.

9 Lakes of Ounianga

Chad, as they say, is not for the faint-of-heart. Ongoing conflict has made the region a no-go zone several times and it is one of the poorest countries in the world.

However, Chad is also home to some of the most stunning natural landscapes on Earth. These include the Lakes of Ounianga which are found in the Sahara desert. These lakes are the only Unesco World Heritage site in the country and are said to receive only 2mm of rainfall each year. They are supplied by underground fossil water and some of the 18 lakes are salty while others are fresh.

8 Wildlife in Kenya

If wildlife is what you want to experience, then Kenya is the safari destination for you. At the Masaai Mara National Reserve you will find the ‘Big 5’ as well as wildebeest, zebras, giraffe, hippos and crocodiles over an area of 583 square miles. Rare species are also found here, including black leopards, white giraffes and ‘polka-dotted’ zebras.

This national reserve is one of the world’s most famous wildlife conservation areas and is also the destination of the largest animal migration, namely the Great Wildebeest Migration. During the annual migration over two million animals including wildebeest, zebras and antelope migrate from the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania to Maasai Mara. As they cross the Mara River they have to fight off several crocodiles submerged in the water.

The reserve was established in 1961 as a wildlife sanctuary and was turned into a game reserve in 1994. It is situated along the Great Rift Valley in Southwest Kenya, which is also a great tourist attraction in the country with its ancient lakes and volcanic mountains.

7 For the love of nature

The Virunga National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is home to 1/3 of the world’s endangered mountain gorillas. The park was established almost a century ago to ensure the protection of these gorillas of which there are only 1,000 left today. The park is also the location of active volcanoes, rainforests and mountains.

Around 800 rangers are employed to protect the national park, especially the gorillas and elephants, and this has been described as one of the toughest jobs in the world. In a country ravaged by civil war, these rangers put their lives on the line to protect the animals and in the past 12 months alone, more than 20 rangers and park staff have been murdered by rebels. The most recent attack was in January 2021 in which 6 rangers were murdered.

The park rangers remain staunchly dedicated to taking care of the gorillas and other animals however, choosing to stay even amid constant threat from outside forces. They live near the gorillas, and spend their days feeding them and playing with them, especially the orphaned gorillas as they need constant care.

6 Strange island

There is no doubt that the Okavango Delta is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Botswana. But there is a lot more to this landlocked African country than just the world’s largest inland delta. Here you will find the Kalahari Desert, the largest salt pans in the world, Baines baobab trees and huge sand dunes.

One of the most unique and stunning places in Botswana is Kubu Island. The island is made up of dry granite rock and is surrounding by a ‘sea’ of white salt from the Makgadikgadi Pan. Artifacts dating to the Stone Age have been found here and experts believe that the island may have been used for ancient rain-making ceremonies. It is estimated to be 2.7 billion years old and is considered sacred by locals.

5 Lazy day at the river

Zambia is well known for the ‘Smoke that Thunders’ or as most people know it, the Victoria Falls. The country was named after the fourth biggest river in Africa, the Zambezi, and is also home to the world’s biggest man-made lake, Lake Kariba. The lake is used for commercial fishing and to supply electric hydropower to both Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The Victoria Falls are situated on the Zambezi River, which is home to a large number of river hippopotamus. Going on a river cruise will almost guarantee you an encounter with a ‘yawning’ hippo or two in the water. Or maybe you will spot dozing at the water’s edge just like the one in the picture.

4 Highest mountain peak in Africa

In Zanzibar, Tanzania, the beaches are white and sandy, the ocean blue, and traditional boats float lazily in the shallow waves. Wildlife roams the several national parks in the country, including the Serengeti. Tanzania is home to many natural attractions including Mount Kilimanjaro which is the highest peak in Africa.

The mountain was formed over a million years ago by volcanic movement along the Great Rift Valley and its three volcanic cones formed around 750,000 years ago. Its slopes consist of rainforest and alpine meadow teeming with buffaloes, elephants, leopards, monkeys and an abundance of birdlife. Just about every type of ecological system can be found on Kilimanjaro including heath, alpine desert, an artic summit and cultivated land.

3 Historic Twyfelfontein

Twyfelfontein loosely translates to ‘doubtful fountain’ and is the site of one of the largest rock art concentrations in Africa. The site is located in the Kunene Region of north-western Namibia and has been inhabited for around 6,000 years. Hunter-gatherers were the first to call Twyfelfontein home and later Khoikhoi herders lived here as well. UNESCO declared the rock petroglyphs a World Heritage Site in 2007.

The engravings on the red-rock boulders of Twyfelfontein are estimated to be around 6,000 years old and experts believe they were created by San medicine people or shamans. Some of the most popular rock engravings include a giraffe, a lion-man with a hand protruding from the end of its tail and a kudu dancing a jig. There is even an engraving of a seal, which is considered to be truly remarkable as the closest ocean to the site is 100 km away.

2 Roman influence in Africa

In El Jem, Tunisia, known in Roman times as Thysdrus, stands the remains of a massive 35,000-seater amphitheatre believed to be the third largest ever build. The amphitheatre was built by the Romans around 238 AD and bears a strong resemblance to Rome’s Colosseum.

Underneath the structure’s arena, is an intact basement which was discovered by archaeologists in 1904. The basement is 65m long and divided into two vaulted galleries. Inside the galleries are cells and rooms in which the wild animals and gladiators were housed before they stepped into the arena to take part in the violent fights and public spectacles the Romans loved.

The El Jem amphitheatre is one of the most visited attractions in Tunisia and is protected as a UNESCO Heritage site.

1 The splendor of the Lowveld

And then of course, there is South Africa. Home to Table Mountain, Robben Island, the Namaqualand Flower Route, the Garden Route, Valley of a Thousand Hills, the Drakensberg mountain range and a whole lot more.

In the Mpumalanga province lies the Blyde River Canyon, recently renamed the Motlatse River Canyon. The canyon is the third largest on Earth and is characterized by several stunning rock formations and vantage points including ‘Three Rondavels’, ‘God’s Window’, Pinnacle Rock and Bourke’s Luck Potholes. These are all part of the scenic Panorama Route which starts at the Long Tom Pass outside Lydenburg and ends at the border of the Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces.

Top 10 Misconceptions About Africa

Nowadays, it’s very easy to look at current beauty fads and be pretty confused as to why they’re so popular. Things were no different in times gone by. It’s both fascinating and shocking when you realize the things people did to appear attractive to others. With an array of bemusing and dangerous beauty trends throughout recorded history, it’s clear that women (and men) have always been looking for ways to alter their appearances to look and feel better.

Let’s take a look at some of the fascinating and odd things that people used to do to be considered more attractive by their society’s standards.

10 The Greek Unibrow

While early ’90s pop stars championed the “barely there” over-plucked brow, the ancient Greeks went crazy for the unibrow. A woman wasn’t considered attractive or of high status unless her shapely brows met in the middle of her forehead. Regarded as a symbol of purity and intelligence, the unibrow was the must-have look of the time.

When you were lucky enough to already have a slight unibrow, you could rub soot onto the middle to enhance the area. If you weren’t so blessed with a natural monobrow, you could easily imitate the trend with a few simple tricks. Dedicated fashionistas would dye goat hair and stick it to the area with resin to emulate the desired brow.^[1]

9 The Bulging Blue Veins of the French Pre-Revolution Era

In the strange, royal world of pre-revolution France, white skin was revered among rich people for a variety of racist and classist reasons. Marie Antoinette is a prime example of a royal who favored the ultra-white skin aesthetic. She and her upper-class friends would powder themselves white to appear even paler.
Since deathly-pale skin often causes blue veins to stand out more, a fashion was born. Coloring in your veins with blue pencil to make them really pop!

Bright blue veins and faux-white skin weren’t even the weirdest trends of the time. The higher the status, the higher your hair. If you didn’t have enough hair to have a hairstyle as tall as the height of your face, a huge, wobbling wig would do the job.

You only have to look at a painting of Marie Antoinette or another of her Versaille entourage to see the over-the-top and frivolous style of royalty and gentry at the time. Their towering, lard-smeared wigs sit atop pinched, white faces. Bodies appear uncomfortably and unnaturally stuffed into ridiculous dresses that dwarf the figure inside them. ^[2]

8 The Prevalence of Codpieces in England

It wasn’t just women who subscribed to ridiculous fashion and beauty trends. For 500 years, the codpiece went in and out of style, in varying sizes, for high-status men in England and throughout Europe. The male fashion style during the 1400s comprised tight linen leggings and a tunic, which didn’t leave much to the imagination.

Unsurprisingly, this tight pant style drew criticism from moralists and religious leaders at the time. Eventually, under Edward IV’s rule, men were ordered to cover their private parts, so the concept of the codpiece was born.

They gradually evolved to symbolize both masculinity and power due to the armor-style protective function. Codpieces grew and grew to ridiculous proportions, offered in velvet, silk, and cotton, often heavily bejeweled and embroidered. Henry VIII’s codpiece can still be seen at the Tower of London!^[3]

7 Gladiator Sweat Face Cream and Aphrodisiac

If the idea of smearing someone else’s sweat all over you makes you retch, it’s probably best to stop reading now! The Ancient Romans did many strange things, and collecting and using gladiator sweat run-off was one of them.

The general idea was that the better the gladiator fought in the arena, the more potent and powerful their bodily fluids. Women could buy little glass vials of the sweat to use as a face cream intended to improve their complexions. The gladiator’s sweaty grime was scraped off the men’s bodies with a special tool called a strigil. This was then mixed with olive oil to create a better consistency and used like a moisturizer all over the body.

Men and women also believed the sweat and blood of gladiators to be a powerful aphrodisiac and often consumed it mixed with wine! Each to their own.^[4]

6 The Tuberculosis Look of the Victorian Era

The Victorian era was a prime time for hazardous and horrible beauty fads. We’re all aware of the corset, the undergarment created in the 1800s, that was used for crushing a women’s figure into a more desirable form. High-status Victorian women and men liked the “tuberculosis look,” which inflicted you with pale skin, a fragile form, and red lips.

Some fashion victims began to contract the horrible disease on purpose because the illness was said to enhance the natural beauty of a woman. Men were reported to have loved the sparkling, dilated eyes that the fever inflicted. The slow, gradual march toward death was romanticized, as was the thinning of women’s bodies as they progressed with the disease.^[5]

5 The Extremely Long Nails of the Chinese Aristocracy

In Ancient China, many high-status people grew their nails long to symbolize their wealth and power. While it demonstrated that they didn’t need to do manual labor, it also may have originated from ideals that revered the importance of the physical body. Not wanting to harm or alter your physical form may have included the idea of keeping your nails intact by growing them long.

Because nails were considered so precious by the rich, protecting them became paramount. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, specially adorned nail guards were used by upper-class women to protect and decorate their long nails. Jade and other precious stones were embedded in these long, sparkling nail accessories to add extra glitz.^[6]

4 Baldness “Cures” of Ancient Egypt

It’s not only in recent times that some men have been reluctant to go bald gracefully. In Ancient Egypt, it was a well-known baldness remedy to mix lead, onions, iron oxide, honey, and animal fat to create a paste. This grim concoction was applied to hairless heads in the vain hope of re-stimulating hair growth.

They were also known to blend down animal hooves and dog paws with date juice and leave that on the scalp. Needless to say, neither mixture worked, and they probably caused bad rashes and awful smells.^[7]

3 Black-Dyed Teeth in Japan

Ohaguro was an ancient custom in Japan that involved blackening your teeth with a mixture of iron, vinegar, and tannins. One of the main reasons for this preference for black teeth was that pure black objects were regarded as extremely rare and beautiful.

While it was usually a trend favored by rich, married women, it was also common to see geishas with jet-black dyed teeth. It symbolized maturity, status, and beauty. It was mainly practiced throughout the 1600s until the mid-1800s, when it was dropped in favor of natural pearly whites.^[8]

2 The “Baby Look” of Medieval Times

Hair removal, and addition, is still a huge part of modern beauty obsessions, so it comes as no surprise that it was a common theme in recent history too. Plucked-off eyelashes and eyebrows were combined with shaved foreheads to give medieval women that weird baby alien look. Large foreheads were revered and considered extremely attractive by men.

This odd trend included plucking away all of your facial hair and ensuring that your hairline was as far back as possible. Hairlessness was considered pure and innocent, creating a popular look that, by today’s standards, definitely wouldn’t be considered so beautiful.

This prominent forehead and bald-faced ideal remained popular throughout the Renaissance period. It was even adopted by Queen Elizabeth I, who removed her own brows for the large-faced look. [10] ^[9]

1 Gargling with Portuguese Urine

Dental care has certainly been questionable throughout the ages. While nowadays there’s an obsession for too-white teeth, in Ancient Rome, they gargled with human urine! According to historians, the Romans used to import Portuguese pee to gargle and rinse their teeth with. They apparently believed the Portugueses’ stuff to be higher in potency than their own—who knows why!

The ammonia in urine was used to disinfect the mouth and whiten teeth, which actually works, but it just sounds gross. It became such a popular part of their hygiene routine that Emperor Nero taxed the bottled urine trade, and it was a known mouthwash ingredient well into the 18th century.^[10]

When it comes to beauty products, the term “non-toxic” can be difficult to decipher. And it’s not regulated by any governing body, like the FDA. Now, many products also use the term “toxic-free” to indicate that the product “has been created without the use of any potentially toxic, carcinogenic, or poisonous ingredients that could be questionable in safety.” While this term is also not federally regulated, it is backed by the ToxicFree Foundation.

Even with these unregulated labels, we tend to ignore the ingredients or harmfulness of some of our favorite and most used beauty products—to our own detriment. So let’s look at 10 of the most dangerous beauty products we still use every day.

10 Skin Creams That Contain Mercury

Mercury is a normal occurring metal in nature. However, whenever delivered into the environment, it tends to be harmful. In California, over the past ten years, there have been more than 60 poisonings connected to unknown, unlabeled, or homemade skin creams that contained the harmful mercury, usually listed as mercurous chloride, calomel, or others. You should keep away from handcrafted or unlabeled creams and other brand-name containers that are not sealed when purchased. Unsealed containers might have been altered and may contain mercury or other contaminants. Individuals utilize these kinds of creams for blemishes, freckles, flaws, age spots, and treating skin inflammation and acne. These creams are typically sold in local shops, at flea markets, by individuals, or on the web. When there is no list of ingredients on the product, simply don’t use it.

Many of these products are made outside of the U.S. and are imported. In prior poisonings connected with imported skin cream, a few kids and infants—who obviously weren’t the intended user—became extremely ill from contact with the mercury tainting their homes or through contact with relatives who used the items. Kids and pregnant women are particularly sensitive to the harmful impacts of mercury. Symptoms of mercury poisoning include tremors, memory issues, numbness and tingling, and changes in vision or hearing. So be mindful when choosing your favorite beauty product or trying new brands.^[1]

9 Mascara

Your mascara wand gets contaminated when you use it! Bacteria grows and thrives in the dark, moist environment of your mascara tube. Even though many cosmetics contain preservatives that slow germ growth, bacteria will build up over time. This can result in certain bacterial diseases like eye cysts or pinkeye.

Pay attention to expiration dates! Also, throw away the mascara after four to six months (max) from when you first opened the tube. Do it sooner if you notice clumping or any change in texture, color, or smell. Mascara should be disposed of and replaced, no matter the amount left in the tube or how much you paid for it!^[2]

8 CC Creams

For those like myself who prefer the no-makeup or low-maintenance look, CC creams—also called color-correcting or complex-care creams—are a natural choice. CC creams generally act as a three-in-one, with sunscreen, moisturizer, and foundation. Other creams may also make formulas that advertise concealers, anti-aging cream, bronzer, highlighter, or oil absorbers—or some combination of these attributes. Used to address any discoloration like redness, dullness, and dark circles, CC creams have lured over many tinted-lotion supporters with their feathery surface and covering capacity. Tragically, that is the place where the greatness of CC creams ends, particularly for certain brands.

Some major CC cream brands like Olay Total Effects 7-in-One Pore Minimizing (Fair to Light) are dangerous because of the presence of acrylamide. Acrylamide occurs in certain plant foods like potatoes, some grains, and coffee. It forms when these products are cooked for long periods or at high temperatures. However, it is also added to items like cosmetics and plastics and has been linked to cancer! (Which is the reason it’s not shocking that it additionally crops up in cigarettes smoke!)

Other ingredients to watch for in CC creams are oxybenzone and retinyl palmitate (vitamin A). Oxybenzone, found in about 20% of CC creams, is a widely used sunscreen ingredient that can penetrate the skin, cause allergic skin reactions, and may disrupt hormones. Studies have also reported an increased risk of endometriosis and lower birth weight in daughters. While indoor or night-only creams often contain retinyl palmitate or other vitamin A derivatives, using CC creams with prolonged exposure to the sun can result in excess skin growth and spur the development of skin tumors and lesions. It’s best to skip CC creams with these ingredients—do your homework before buying.^[3]

7 Nail Polish

If you’ve ever wrinkled your nose when having your nails done (or do them yourself), you know the smell of nail polish and acetone remover is not the most pleasant. Do you think that may be because your polish is trying to tell you something?

Nail polishes contain harmful chemicals that can potentially do damage, from simply discoloring nails to causing thin and brittle nails to something a bit more harmful. In Sally Hansen Diamond Strength No Chip Nail Tone, high levels of styrene were found. Essentially used in the production of plastics and rubbers, styrene has been associated with irritation of the skin, eyes, and upper respiratory tract. Long-term exposure to styrene in humans can adversely affect the central nervous system, causing headache, fatigue, weakness, depression, hearing loss, and nerve damage.

Many brands market themselves as five-free. This refers to polishes that do not contain five specific ingredients: formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate, formaldehyde resin, and camphor. And removers do not fare much better. Nail polish remover generally contains things like isopropyl acetone, which can irritate the eyes and lungs, and ethyl acetate, which acts as a respiratory system and eye irritant. Another possible ingredient, methyl ethyl ketone, may be a neurotoxin. Oh, goody! So, in addition to the polish, the remover can prove harmful, with long-term use even developing into myeloma. I think I’ll stick with natural nails from now on.^[4]

6 Perfume

Perfume is something that we’ve been utilizing for centuries, giving little consideration to how unsafe it may be to our health. Many famous people release their own line of perfume or are compensated for using their name, including Halle Berry, Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, and a lot more. These celebrity scents are finding a comeback after an oversaturation—pardon the pun—of the market in the early 2000s. Even with their namesakes’ hands-on involvement and rash of social media followers, are these perfumes really safe?

Even the most wonderful eye-catching, stunning perfume bottles are simply…chemicals. Perfume ingredient chemicals are complex combinations of synthetic and/or natural substances which are added to products to give them a distinctive scent. They are loaded with synthetic substances like coumarin, BHT, citral, benzyl salicylate, oxybenzone, and lilial. The last ingredient, lilial, is also known as butylphenyl methylpropional and is linked to cancer. The EU has prohibited its use beginning March 2022. So check out what your favorite scent is made of before shelling out your hard-earned money!^[5]

5 Setting Powder

Nobody likes to have an oily face. Hey, neither do I. After all that time and work we’ve done to get that flawless look for the day, we need to do something to keep it looking good. Which is the reason setting powders and sprays are so popular. Yet, you might be placing yourself in harm’s way when attempting to conceal your shine.

These popular products include ingredients like talc, titanium dioxide, and polytetrafluoroethylene. Talc is a naturally occurring substance, but it shouldn’t be inhaled or swallowed; both can prove harmful and cause eye and lung irritation, chest pain, lethargy, vomiting, diarrhea, and coma. Titanium dioxide is a UV filter that should not be in your pressed or loose powders (in lotions and creams, it’s low risk). And that last ingredient— polytetrafluoroethylene—well, that’s Teflon. Yep, that stuff that keeps your eggs from sticking to the pan! After all that, a little shine doesn’t seem like a terrible thing, right?^[6]

4 BB Creams

Another lazy girl cosmetics staple, BB Cream, surprised the world when it came out about a decade ago, flying off the shelves when it hit the western markets. Many beauty brands then jumped on the BB bandwagon, hoping to cash in on the abundance of customers vying for the product. Like CC creams, they are marketed as an “all-in-one” beauty product that acts as a serum, moisturizer, primer, skin repairer, foundation, and sunblock. Sadly, BB creams can be a no-no for individuals who choose options like Aveeno Clear Complexion BB Cream, Maybelline Dream Fresh BB 8-in-1 Skin Perfector, and e.l.f. BB Cream.

Besides the scents and oxybenzone (already mentioned in this list), these items all contain methylisothiazolinone, which just means it’s bad for you! Methylisothiazolinone is a widely used chemical that causes hypersensitive responses and irritates the skin, eyes, and lungs. This is another substance that is restricted in Europe from being used in leave-on items —like the BB cream you keep on your skin all day. One more warning for this terrible substance is that, in lab tests, it was deemed a potential neurotoxin. Besides their chemical makeup, these creams really don’t do as they promised as many of them are made with cheap and synthesized ingredients and really not designed to nourish your skin.^[7]

3 Lip Gloss

On the off chance that you thought lip shine or lip loss was only a nuisance when getting your hair stuck to it on a blustery day, you haven’t heard anything yet. Sephora’s fave brand, Philosophy, has lip shine products that are drool-worthy in how great they smell, with aromas like Pink Frosted Animal Cracker, Peppermint Stick, and Senorita Margarita. All things considered, it shouldn’t be surprising that these scrumptious flavors have a lot of aroma to them. But they are both drying and irritating. And that’s just the beginning.

The Senorita Margarita flavor additionally contains citral. Even though citral is a natural ingredient derived from plant sources, it can still lead to potentially serious allergic reactions. Symptoms of an allergic reaction to citral may include rashes, blisters, itchy skin, and swollen eyes and lips. It’s important to be aware that just because something is natural doesn’t mean it is completely safe or without side effects. Often the opposite is true. In addition, some lip glosses contain lead, cadmium, chromium, aluminum, and five other toxic metals.^[8]

2 Blush

Blush should bring life and color back to your face, isn’t that so? So why do so many blushers contain formaldehyde? Found in CoverGirl Cheekers Face Blush and CoverGirl Instant Cheekbones Contouring Blush (in an assortment of tones), it’s really horrible to imagine that such a chemical is being used on the face. Showing up as a few different substances in these items, you will find them under two names: polyoxymethylene urea and quaternium-15.

Polyoxymethylene urea is a synthetic polymer used by the cosmetic industry as a bulking agent and to form the outer shell of microcapsules (that hold the color in this case). It is also a formaldehyde releaser that—you got it—releases formaldehyde over time. It’s been connected to organ damage and viewed as an allergen. Quaternium-15 is a formaldehyde-releasing preservative. It’s likely a wise option to leave any products containing these chemicals on the shelf.^[9]

1 SPF Foundation

With the information we have now about skin disease and tanning, an ever-increasing number of brands have been adding SPF to the items that are used all over the face. From foundations to BB creams to concealers, added SPF gives us the feeling that we’re shielding ourselves from harmful UV rays

Then again, actually, we’re not.

To get the SPF advantages of sunscreen in a foundation, we’d need to apply much more than we really do, which is something that major beauty care product companies don’t tell us. For CoverGirl’s Outlive Stay Fabulous 3-in-1 Foundation with SPF in any available shade, the EWG found that the SPF protection was insignificant—and definitely not what was being advertised. For most makeup containing SPF, the actual amount of sunscreen applied to the face is minimal, leaving the skin exposed. So it’s best to use regular sunscreen first, then apply any makeup containing SPF, if you prefer. Oh, but don’t think that your 30 SPF sunscreen and 18 SPF foundation means you have 48 SPF coverage—sunscreen is only as strong as the highest SPF from a single product.^[10]