In the 17th and 18th centuries, it was fashionable for women to have pale white skin and red rouged cheeks. Many of them achieved this look with white lead. When this led to skin eruptions, they covered the eruptions with more lead. Lady Mary Coventry, a London society hostess, died of lead poisoning at the age of twenty-seven. In the early 20th century, women used arsenic to give their skin a luminous glow, and deadly nightshade to brighten their eyes and enlarge their pupils.
I know - saw a programme on it When I was a teenager, no money for make up but I heard smothering yer face with milk was good for the complexion so I did that but, before I went to work, rather than the night before So, off I went, got on the bus and people were definitely looking in my direction 'oh I thought, the milk must be working' then I realised I hadn't washed it off ! I won't mention the toilet water