When you’re a historical past buff like me, chances are you’ll be curious to know the sweetness secrets and techniques of Empress Sissi. In any case, her magnificence, even in previous age, was legendary…
Sissi was one of the stunning ladies of her time – and she or he knew it. It was her magnificence that captivated the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph and prompted him to ask for her hand in marriage.
Sadly, there’s no joyful ending to this fairytale. Sissi was a free spirit who longed for freedom and independence – the one two issues forbidden to an Empress.
Imprisoned in a golden cage and unable to take management of her life, Sissi turned to the one factor she may management: her seems. Holding her svelte determine and her face free from wrinkles turned an obsession for her. She couldn’t stand the considered rising previous or what her pregnancies had been doing to her physique.
“Ah, the horror of rising previous, to really feel the hand of Time laid upon one’s physique, to look at the pores and skin wrinkling, to awake and concern the morning mild, and to know that one is not fascinating! Life with out magnificence could be nugatory to me.”
Unhappy, isn’t it? Right here’s the lengths Empress Sissi went by to remain younger and exquisite:
How Empress Sissi Maintained Her Slim Determine
Empress Sissi was so happy with her tiny, 50cm waist, she went to nice lengths to maintain it that manner. She hardly ate something all day and exercised rather a lot.
Strolling was a standard train for ladies on the time, however Sissi took it to the intense. Her walks may last as long as 10 hours! Even the protests from her attendants, compelled to observe her round, couldn’t persuade her to shorten them. Solely bodily ache or sickness did.
She additionally spent hours on the saddle. She liked horses and rapidly turned the most effective horse riders of her time.
Sissi was additionally obsessive about gymnastics. She had a gymnastics room put in at her palace and may very well be seen dangling from the rings! Her topics had been horrified. Of their minds, this wasn’t a pastime appropriate for an Empress.
Some historians at this time suppose she might have had anorexia, or a minimum of, some type of disordered consuming. I’m unsure that is the proper prognosis, nevertheless it’s clear that her weight loss program and train routines that one thing was off.
She’d generally go days consuming solely milk, orange juice, or skinny broth. There are reviews she even tried a “meat juice” weight loss program, simply to maintain her weight down whereas nonetheless getting some vitamins. This means a necessity for management – in spite of everything, as an empress subjected to strict royal protocol, there have been so many issues she couldn’t management in her personal life.
Her meals had been so tiny, and once you pair that with countless strolling, driving, and hours of gymnastics, it paints a reasonably stark image of how desperately she clung to the one factor she felt she may nonetheless declare as hers: her look.
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Skincare
Empress Elizabeth of Austria was a skincare fanatic who jumped from one lotion to the opposite. A few of these recipes, just like the strawberry facial masks or rose tonic, sound scrumptious, whereas others had been bit gross…
An instance? She utilized uncooked veal on her pores and skin at evening. Generally, she additionally used a cream with lard, marshmallow roots and floor slugs. Enjoyable truth: the cream took 4 hours to make!
Considered one of her lotions, Cream Celeste, was a thick concoction of spermaceti, cera alba, candy almond oil and glycerin she used to moisturize her pores and skin throughout the chilly winter months.
Her Chilly Cream, was made with beeswax, candy almond oil, rosewater and cocoa butter. It gave your pores and skin a refreshing feeling that was so nice, it quickly turned successful with the women of the courtroom.
Elizabeth was a fan of bathing (phew!). She washed her physique in heat water infused with olive oil. At evening, she’d sleep with garments soaked in vinegar above her lips – she was satisfied it helped her keep slim.
She additionally dabbled in goat’s milk baths and herb-infused steam baths, which had been all the trend on the time for his or her “purifying” results. And these concoctions weren’t whipped up in a couple of minutes, both. Some lotions needed to be stirred for 12 hours. Who made them? Often, considered one of her ladies-in-waiting or the courtroom pharmacy.
Make-up
You’d suppose Empress Sissi liked make-up.
Flawed. She didn’t need something to do with it. She believed make-up solely interfered with nature’s work. For her, it was all about pure magnificence.
Elizabeth was additionally very important of girls who wore make-up, like the attractive Princess Pauline von Metternich: “She wears two inches of pink powder on her lips and is wearing materials from nations which might be far-off regardless that she is just too flat’. Ouch!
Hair Care
Empress Elizabeth had lengthy, luscious, chestnut brown hair that nearly reached the ground. It was her pleasure and glory and she or he spent two to a few hours a day taking good care of it!
Her hairdresser was Franziska (Fanny) Angerer Feifalik, a former theatre hairdresser. The Empress sat on a low chair within the heart of her dressing room, whereas Fanny, all wearing white (together with gloves!), combed and styled her hair into elaborate hair-does.
Afterwards, she’d accumulate any straight hair from the comb and material and counted. If too many had damaged off, Sissi would get upset.
This routine said 2 to three hours a day. Within the meantime, Sissi saved herself busy by studying languages similar to Hungarian and Greek.
Washing her hair took hours, too. She did so each fortnight, utilizing a mix of cognac and egg yolk!
And drying it? An entire manufacturing. Her attendants would rigorously wrap her hair in material and let it air dry (no warmth allowed!). It may take a whole day. Generally, she’d even sleep along with her hair draped over a particular body to keep away from messing it up in a single day.
The Backside Line
There you may have it, the sweetness secrets and techniques of Empress Sissi. It’s straightforward to get misplaced within the fairytale: the robes, the portraits, the waist no corset may squeeze any tighter. However behind all of it was a girl doing no matter she may to really feel like herself.
About Gio
Hello, I am Gio. I am a no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is pores and skin coach and author on a mission that can assist you obtain your greatest pores and skin day ever – on daily basis. I bust skincare myths and debunk advertising and marketing jargon that can assist you determine what’s definitely worth the splurge and what’s greatest left on the shelf – utilizing science, not hype. I additionally supply skincare consultations that can assist you create the very best skincare routine in your distinctive wants.
