On Monday’s blog, I talked about how Elizabethans smeared lead-based makeup on their faces. If you think that’s skeevy, how about bird poop?
Prior to the mid-19th century, Japanese geisha achieved a porcelain-white skin with the time-honored combination of lead and zinc-based makeup.
Anyone’s teeth would look yellow in contrast. So geishas often painted their teeth black. Black teeth contrasted nicely with the snow-white pallor of the face.
To achieve a lustrous complexion, many geishas smeared their faces with–yes–bird droppings. Today many fashionable spas have begun offering bird-dropping facials. I am not making this up. If you don’t believe me, Google it.