Marie Feodorovna, her youthful features & the ageing process

[ChristineM]

Queen Elizabeth I employed the most ghastly techniques in an endeavour to retain a youthful appearance.   The concoctions applied to her, already pockmarked, face eventually completed ravaged it.

'Beauty bears no pain' is a truism especially for those who undergo intensive public scrutiny.

tsaria

[Martyn]

I have never heard that Felix wore make-up, unless of course he was in drag, on one of his escapades dressed in his mother's finery.  I have only ever seen one photo of him in later life at Xenia's funeral and thought that he still looked quite good as an older man.
The Empress Eugenie had been instrumental in making discreet make-up acceptable during the Second Empire; she was known to employ kohl to enhance her lovely almond shaped eyes and quite possibly a little colouring for the cheeks.  Although she was labelled a parvenue, other aristocratic and society ladies were quick to follow her lead and make-up, which previously had been the province of actresses and courtesans was all of a sudden very much a la mode.

[rskkiya]

Felix wore mascarah and rouge into middle age, he seemed to think that he appeared younger with it...this was mentioned in Mr King's book - The Man who Killed Rasputin.

R.

[Annie]

He loved painting up his eyes (needs the batting eyes smilie from the other board I'm on)

[jehan]

Queen Elizabeth I employed the most ghastly techniques in an endeavour to retain a youthful appearance.   The concoctions applied to her, already pockmarked, face eventually completed ravaged it.

'Beauty bears no pain' is a truism especially for those who undergo intensive public scrutiny.

tsaria

Ah yes- in medieval and renaissance times, they used a makeup composed of a paste made of white lead (!)  I imagine it did worse things for one's general health than just one's complexion!

[Merrique]

I guess that saying is true...beauty is pain.I could not imagine putting myself through this kind of pain and torture just to look young and beautiful.But then again I'm not in the public eye (thank god) having to worry about my looks and what other people think of me.

It just amazes me what women did back then for beauty and fashion.

[grandduchessella]

The irony is, and was, that sometimes they ended up looking LESS attractive than if they'd aged gracefully and/or naturally. Then it was probably an over-reliance on powder and what-not giving a lacquered look. Now it's botox, collagen, etc...where people just look unnatural or frozen in time. It's a shame what some great beauties eventually end up looking like.  

[Ilana]

With regard to the lead... it did indeed kill some women.

[Annie]

Further to Annie's email, a friend of mine met Felix once at a lunch when the chap was a teenager and Felix was very old.  My friend said the thing that sticks in his mind was the amount of make up that Felix was wearing which was smeared all over his face and clothes which made him look very strange.  Sad.  

He was lucky to meet him!

Someone, I forget who, described elderly made-up Felix as 'macabre' :-/

[haleycopter]

I have heard before that the Imperial family (allegedly Nicholas II's family) kept Max Factor in their household (the actual person) to do Alix's and the girls' makeup, and that apparently it was kept quiet so that people marveled at how beautiful they were.  I've only heard this once - actually from my mom, who saw a special on TV about it - but I've never heard or found anything else to back that up.  Could any of you tell me if (or where) I could find any additional information, if that story is true?  Thanks.

[Forum Admin]

Close but not quite true, from a bio of him:

Born Max Faktor in Lodz, Poland during the 1870s, at the age of eight Max was placed in apprenticeship to a dentist-pharmacist. Years of mixing potions instilled in him a fascination with the human form. Factor opened his own shop in a suburb of Moscow, selling hand-made rouges, creams, fragrances, and wigs. A traveling theatrical troupe wore Factor’s make-up while performing for Russian nobility, and the door to fame and fortune opened wide. The Russian nobility appointed Factor the official cosmetic expert for the royal family and the Imperial Russian Grand Opera.

In 1904, Factor and his family came to America. He had a fresh start in St. Louis at the 1904 World’s Fair, selling his rouges and creams, and operating under the name given to him at Ellis Island, Max Factor.

[rskkiya]

I have also read that the Dowager Empress did have a kind of primitive "facial peel" preformed before Nicholas' coronation--It was mentioned in Radsinsky's book The Last Tzar.

I have noticed that poor Mr Radsinsky's isn'y accoured a lot of respect regarding his research and technical methods  -- so I do not know just how accurate this evidence might be...The desciption certainly sounded horrible!

R

[Lisa]

Here is MF posing for the coronation by Tuxen. I don't think this photo has been touched up, because it was a "professional" picture...
(thanks Brian, I think it come from one of your sites... )

[grandduchessella]

That's the picture I mentioned earlier. You can clearly see her age then but in fairness too, I bet she wasn't looking/feeling her best so soon after her husband's death.   You can really see how sad & worn she looks.

[haleycopter]

Thanks for the info Admin.