When you’re a historical past buff like me, it’s possible you’ll be curious to know the wonder secrets and techniques of Empress Sissi. In spite of everything, her magnificence, even in previous age, was legendary…
Sissi was probably the most stunning ladies of her time – and he or she 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 glad 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 might management: her seems to be. Protecting her svelte determine and her face free from wrinkles grew to become 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 worry the morning gentle, 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 via to remain younger and exquisite:
How Empress Sissi Maintained Her Slim Determine
Empress Sissi was so pleased with her tiny, 50cm waist, she went to nice lengths to maintain it that method. 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 might 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 beloved horses and shortly grew to become top-of-the-line 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 right this moment suppose she could have had anorexia, or not less than, some type of disordered consuming. I’m undecided that is the right prognosis, nevertheless it’s clear that her food plan 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” food plan, simply to maintain her weight down whereas nonetheless getting some vitamins. This implies 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 limitless strolling, driving, and hours of gymnastics, it paints a reasonably stark image of how desperately she clung to the one factor she felt she might 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!
One in every 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 in the course of 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 grew to become a success 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 fad 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? Normally, one in all her ladies-in-waiting or the courtroom pharmacy.
Make-up
You’d suppose Empress Sissi beloved make-up.
Incorrect. 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 crucial 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 international locations which might be far-off despite the fact that she is just too flat’. Ouch!
Hair Care
Empress Elizabeth had lengthy, luscious, chestnut brown hair that just about reached the ground. It was her satisfaction and glory and he or she 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 middle 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 equivalent 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 fastidiously wrap her hair in material and let it air dry (no warmth allowed!). It might take a complete 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’ve gotten it, the wonder secrets and techniques of Empress Sissi. It’s simple to get misplaced within the fairytale: the robes, the portraits, the waist no corset might squeeze any tighter. However behind all of it was a girl doing no matter she might 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 – daily. I bust skincare myths and debunk advertising jargon that can assist you determine what’s well worth the splurge and what’s greatest left on the shelf – utilizing science, not hype. I additionally provide skincare consultations that can assist you create the perfect skincare routine to your distinctive wants.