ten dazzler treatments that were once popular just are really incredibly dangerous

arsenic beauty treatment ad

Beauty trends come and get.
Jussi/Flickr
  • Cosmetics used to incorporate arsenic, mercury, and radioactivity — all of which tin can be deadly.
  • People used to swallow record worms to lose weight and article of clothing tight corsets that acquired deformities.
  • Eyelashes used to be sewn into the eyelids with a needle.

Like clothing and hairstyles, dazzler trends come and go. 1 minute it's achieving glowing drinking glass peel, the next it'southward coating your tongue in glitter.

Only just because a dazzler tendency is popular doesn't mean it's prophylactic. Throughout history, people take ingested harmful substances and undergone dangerous, painful procedures in the hopes of attaining perfection.

Here are 10 beauty treatments that definitely needed to go out of mode.

Makeup laced with lead caused the death of the Countess of Coventry in 1760.

Maria, Countess of Coventry.
After Jean-Étienne Liotard/Wikimedia Eatables

Lead poisoning was common in the 18th century due to the popularity of atomic number 82 cosmetics, co-ordinate to the Museums and Collections section at University College London.

Maria Gunning, Countess of Coventry, used a white lead compound known as ceruse to powder her skin. It was also used to powder hairstyles. She contracted lead poisoning and died at the historic period of 27.

"Safe arsenic complexion wafers" were anything but safe.

Beauty trends come up and go.
Jussi/Flickr

Arsenic was known to exist dangerous and addictive in the Victorian Era, simply small amounts in the form of edible wafers were idea to non only be rubber but to aid i achieve that sought-after pale complexion, giving the peel an "indescribable brilliancy" co-ordinate to advertisements.

Arsenic is acarcinogen that is "extremely poisonous to humans," according to Healthline.

Mercury is a common ingredient in skin lightening soaps and creams — and a dangerous one.

Some products are notwithstanding made with mercury.
Kittisak Jirasittichai/Shutterstock

Mercury can cause kidney harm, skin rashes, and nervus damage, according to the World Wellness Organization. The Eu and many African nations have banned cosmetics containing mercury. Just minuscule amounts of mercury in eye products (65 parts per million) and other cosmetics (one part per 1000000) are allowed in the U.s., according to the FDA.

The poisonous "belladonna" (meaning "cute woman") institute got its name from the way women used its oil to dilate their pupils.

Atropa belladonna, also known every bit nightshade.
kanusommer/Shutterstock

Co-ordinate to "The Big, Bad Book of Botany: The Globe's Nigh Fascinating Flora" past Michael Largo as excerpted in Slate, atropa belladona's poisonous extracts were historically used by assassins to impale their targets — and by women to dilate their pupils to look more than seductive. The roots are the most potent part of the plant, but even one foliage can exist fatal.

Radioactive cosmetics were advertised as "an astonishing new forcefulness for betterment."

An ad for radioactive cosmetics from 1918.
New York Tribune Magazine/Wikimedia Commons

WhenMarie and Pierre Curie discovered radiation in 1898, cosmetic companies jumped at the chance to incorporate information technology into beauty products before agreement the potential adverse furnishings.In the 1920s and '30s, companies like Radior and Tho-Radia offered radioactive creams, soaps, and other dazzler products purporting to revitalize the peel with its luminous energy.

Also much exposure to radiations can crusade cancer, radiation sickness, and decease.

Radioactive toothpaste was idea to whiten teeth.

Toothpaste.
Kenneth Lu/Flickr

Doramad, a toothpaste containing radium, was produced in Germany during World State of war 2. According to a translation published pastOak Ridge Associated Universities, the label advertised the fact that its radioactive qualities "increases the defenses of teeth and gums" and "gently polishes the dental enamel and so information technology turns white and shiny."

Like radioactive makeup and creams, radioactive toothpaste presented serious risks of radiation poisoning.

Pills containing record worms were a method of weight loss in the Victorian era — and some people still endeavour information technology.

An ad for tape worms promising weight loss.
FDA/Flickr

The secret to eating any you desire and not gaining weight? To some,tape worms.

Advertisements in the late 19th and early 20th centuries urged people to eat "sanitized record worms" that would offset weight proceeds past eating the food they consumed.

Some people still attempt this nutrition. In 2013, TODAY reported that a woman in Iowa bought a tapeworm online and swallowed it, then went to her doctor for help.

"Ingesting tapeworms is extremely risky and can cause a wide range of undesirable side effects, including rare deaths," Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, medical director of the Iowa Section of Public Health,wrote in an electronic mail to public health workersafter the patient was seen. "Those desiring to lose weight are advised to stick with proven weight loss methods — consuming fewer calories and increasing physical activity."

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