Personal Habits and Personal Style - Hair - Body #1

[moonlight_tsarina]

The Coty perfume company is sll around, only now they don't charge as much/they aren't as popular.

[ChristineM]

The Coty perfume company has been taken over by Rimmel.   It seems their archive has been destroyed.

tsaria

[moonlight_tsarina]

Aw, that stinks! Some lotion i have said "Coty" on it.
"Coty Paris" I believe.

[hikaru]

For the 300th Anniversary of Romanov , very famouse Moscow perfume company named Brokar made for
Alexandra Fyodorovna one perfume.
After revolution this perfume was renamed - new name is Krasnaya Mosckwa (Red Moscow) .
It was most famouse perfume of Soviet Times.
It is stiil now on the market.

[Yoyo22]

If OTMA did not use makeup, did they have any other kind of beauty routines  ? I'm thinking manicures, pedicures, massages, etc. I once read (that was ages ago, so I really have no idea where) that Romanov women were famous for their beautiful hands.
Yoyo

[ferngully]

from what age did they wear corsets? i'm just wondering because they had very straight backs and alix wanted her daughters to wear them because she did, women did at the time didn't they?
selina              xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[hikaru]

I know that Ekaterine the Great did it since 7 .
Maybe they are the same.

[Ortino]

I know that Ekaterine the Great did it since 7 .
Maybe they are the same.

I think that's too young, but I think it depends on the time period. Around this era, I've always heard that girls started to wear corsets around puberty, when they started to develop a "figure". Wearing a corset was not only to help your posture, but to keep looking slender and thin (particularly your waist) as was fashionable at the time. As young children are very active around that age, I highly doubt they would have had to wear one that young, for not only would be very uncomfortable, but also dangerous. Women could faint from the constraints of corsets from both heat and too much activity. A 7 year old, who is much more active than a adult generally, would probably not had to wear one for this reason. They also would have no figure at the age so it would be quite pointless.

[hikaru]

They started corsets since 9 in Ballet School.
If you are not wearing corset since you are yang, it is unpossible to begine to use it since 14.
Small girls just did not wear it all the time.
I think that it is also depended on the type of the dress.

[Lanie]

I think most girls started wearing corsets when they were considered "out in society"--16 or 18 depending.  So for OTMA probably 16.

[Ortino]

I think most girls started wearing corsets when they were considered "out in society"--16 or 18 depending.  So for OTMA probably 16.

I agree. They probably wore in it ballet school at such a young age given the nature of the profession. Good posture is essential.

[moonlight_tsarina]

For the clothes that OTMA wore, they were different than her mother and grand-relatives. For example, the Victorian corset was very different in appearnace compared the the Renaissance corset etc. Here's what I mean about the "loose" no corset look. I also aree with lanie about the age of 16 being "corset age".
As you might see the bodices are very loose, while the Victorian corset is usually worn with very tight bodices;on the fact i have never seen a picture of Alix wearing anything but a tight fitting bodicedress when she was in the court of her grand mother and when she was younger.
See:
The corset is very tight and creates a bell shaped "bosom":

and here's a loose one:

In some pictures of the Russian Court pictures, you can see Olga, Tatiana and Alexandraq are wearing very stern gowns with the hard bodices.

[ashanti01]

I know this may sound silly, but I was wondering if any of woman of the Imperial family shaved or waxed. Or was this even available back then?  I look at some of these pictures and see how nice some of their eyebrows are and think WOW! And then I don’t see very much facial hair which I know it is a problem for some woman today, therefore it must have been a problem back then for some too.

I saw a picture of Ella when she was a young girl and her eyebrow were really heavy and thick, but then I see a another picture where they look very nice, slim, and trimmed.

[Ortino]

Most likely as the girls got older, they used products to fix these types of problems. Or, maybe they just didn't have heavy set eyebrows or facial hair. Not likely though. I think for those close up shots like the formals, they would have had professional makeup artists making sure their faces were perfect. I cannot imagine them not all having them for important shots such as these.

[olga]

I think for those close up shots like the formals, they would have had professional makeup artists making sure their faces were perfect.

There has been debate on this, but I don't think OTMA Nikolaevna wore makeup, given Alexandra Fyodorovna strict moral code and society's view on cosmetics. It was only used by 'ladies of the night' and other women of ill repute.