Sparkling Eye

For ancient Egyptians, Romans, and Persians, sparkling eyes were considered beautiful and they applied the heavy metal antimony to make their conjunctiva sparkle. A woman with a high forehead was considered beautiful during the Elizabethan era, and upper-class Elizabethan women plucked or shaved their frontal hairs to achieve this look. These women also covered their skin with ceruse (lead-based) makeup, which caused peripheral neuropathy, gout, anemia, chronic renal failure, and disfiguring scarring, requiring the application of more ceruse makeup. Chronic users, such as Queen Elizabeth I, acquired a misshapen appearance. Upset over her grisly visage, the Queen banished all mirrors from her castle. Her servants sometimes painted a red dot on her nose, an inside joke mocking her clown-like appearance.