30 Apr 2022

Prof Erin Griffey: recreating Renaissance beauty products

From Saturday Morning, 9:39 am on 30 April 2022

Rosemary flowers in white wine is one of the Renaissance-era skincare recipes that art historian Erin Griffey is recreating with a team of scientists for the groundbreaking Beautiful Chemistry Project.

"We've tried it and it does… smooth your skin, it does give it a little bit of a lustre almost like you were applying a really really subtle highlighter."

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Professor Erin Griffey Photo: Supplied

Griffey is working through thousands of fascinating recipes for products that Europeans used to look attractive and youthful between the years 1500 and 1700.

A team of chemists are recreating the products and performing high-tech chemical analyses on their active ingredients and effectiveness.

So far, the Beautiful Chemistry Project has "done a deep dive" on the rosemary in white wine product, a "wrinkle removal oil" containing myrrh, and a face mask containing deer antler.

"[The three products] have a lovely soft scent and lovely texture on the skin and the chemical analysis suggests they are extremely effective."

Centuries-old skincare recipes often contain bitter almonds and lemons two brightening ingredients still used in the skincare industry today, she says.

She's hopeful these old-school creations may be even more effective because of their purity.

"One thing it's made me reflect on is what is the percentage of active ingredients in the beauty products I do buy and use. Because the products we're making are just chock-full of active ingredients. There's no filler in them."

Just as today, and especially for women, appearance and especially one's face was seen as a calling card of health, Griffey says.

"Authors from the time stress this they say the face is the most important part of the body because it's the most visible part of the body.

"Equally, these sources underscore that for women there is a particular currency in facial beauty because this is the advertisement of your health.

"The stakes are particularly high during courtship and the idea is [a man] who wants to find a wife that is healthy, ie fertile, and they read the complexion as an indication [iof this]."

Because she didn't have an heir, Queen Elizabeth I (1558 to 1603) attempted to advertise her health and youthfulness through very white skin a beauty ideal for European women at the time.

Although it's commonly believed she wore lead-encrusted makeup to achieve this look  as some women did there's very slim evidence of this, Griffey says, and medical texts of the period reveal that the toxicity of lead was well-known.

Lizard parts, scorpion oil, hares blood and animal bile feature in some of the other Renaissance-era beauty products Griffey is excited to analyse in the Beautiful Chemistry Project.

"As an academic who works in olden times usually you're looking for a needle in a haystack because there's so little information.

"Suddenly I'm working on this project where the haystack is all needles, everything is a treasure… and I feel so excited to be at a university that's basically said 'yeah, we love this interdisciplinary project'."