Section
Received Wisdom
What is actually established, and what merely circulates
Beauty history is unusually full of confident anecdotes that trace back to nothing. Here is where we sort them.
- 01
What we actually know about the history of beauty
Beauty history has a bad evidence problem. Here is how the bad claims are made, how they travel, and how to test one in about four minutes.
- 02
Everything old is new again: the revival pattern
A treatment is announced as a breakthrough, turns out to have a long precedent, and is announced again a generation later. The cycle has a mechanism.
- 03
Cleopatra, the milk bath, and the stories that trace back to nothing
Six famous claims about historical cosmetics, followed backwards to their sources. Several arrive nowhere. One arrives at the wrong empress.
- 04
The tanning turn: how pale and brown changed places
For centuries a tan meant labour and pallor meant rank. Within about two decades that reversed, and the usual explanation for it is far too neat.
- 05
The universal beauty standard that never was
Symmetry, averageness, a particular waist to hip ratio. The claim that these are universal is repeated constantly. The evidence is much more modest.
- 06
Dangerous cosmetics, and what the record actually shows
Radium, thallium, lead, mercury and a lash dye that blinded people. The documented cases are worse than the invented ones, and they follow a pattern.
The Gazette, four times a year
One long letter a quarter: what we have been reading, what turned out to be untrue, and what is worth going to see. No selling, because we have nothing to sell you.
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