Makeup: A Glamorous History

Taking three iconic eras in British history – The Georgians, the Victorians and the 1920s – the host, professional makeup artist Lisa Eldridge explores what the beauty look tells us about the world it grew out of. From the high hair and heavily painted faces of the aristocratic Georgians, to the demure ‘natural’ faces of the middle-class Victorian lady, to the red lipped bobbed hair flapper, the series explores key moments in Britain’s past.

Lisa uses her knowledge of makeup and cosmetic product development to authentically recreate the look. Using contemporary recipe books and original formulas she makes cosmetics that haven’t seen the light of day for hundreds of years, trying them out on herself to see how they really worked and what they actually looked like. Lisa visits archives, and meets experts and historians, to understand why the beauty look developed as it did. In each episode Lisa recreates the look on a model, building it up step by step, using products that she has made, and in a final reveal we see what an authentic period beauty would have looked like.

Makeup can be seen as frivolous subject but what this series reveals is that what someone puts on their face – and why – says as much about an era as art, architecture or food.