For those who’re a historical past buff like me, you might be curious to know the sweetness secrets and techniques of Empress Sissi. In any case, her magnificence, even in outdated age, was legendary…
Sissi was some of the stunning girls 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 comfortable 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 to be. Maintaining her svelte determine and her face free from wrinkles turned an obsession for her. She couldn’t stand the considered rising outdated or what her pregnancies have been doing to her physique.
“Ah, the horror of rising outdated, to really feel the hand of Time laid upon one’s physique, to observe the pores and skin wrinkling, to awake and worry the morning gentle, and to know that one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 by way of to remain younger and delightful:
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 lots.
Strolling was a typical train for girls on the time, however Sissi took it to the acute. Her walks may last as long as 10 hours! Even the protests from her attendants, compelled to comply with 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 shortly turned among the finest horse riders of her time.
Sissi was additionally obsessive about gymnastics. She had a gymnastics room put in at her palace and could possibly be seen dangling from the rings! Her topics have been horrified. Of their minds, this wasn’t a pastime appropriate for an Empress.
Some historians in the present day assume she might have had anorexia, or no less than, some type of disordered consuming. I’m unsure that is the right analysis, nevertheless it’s clear that her weight loss program and train routines that one thing was off.
She’d typically go days consuming solely milk, orange juice, or skinny broth. There are experiences 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 any case, as an empress subjected to strict royal protocol, there have been so many issues she couldn’t management in her personal life.
Her meals have been so tiny, and if you pair that with infinite strolling, using, 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 have been bit gross…
An instance? She utilized uncooked veal on her pores and skin at night time. Typically, 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 through 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 court docket.
Elizabeth was a fan of bathing (phew!). She washed her physique in heat water infused with olive oil. At night time, 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 have 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? Normally, one among her ladies-in-waiting or the court docket pharmacy.
Make-up
You’d assume Empress Sissi liked make-up.
Fallacious. 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 essential of girls who wore make-up, like the attractive Princess Pauline von Metternich: “She wears two inches of crimson powder on her lips and is wearing materials from international locations which might be far-off despite the fact that she is simply too flat’. Ouch!
Hair Care
Empress Elizabeth had lengthy, luscious, chestnut brown hair that just about reached the ground. It was her delight and glory and she or he spent two to 3 hours a day caring for 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 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 rigorously wrap her hair in material and let it air dry (no warmth allowed!). It may take a whole day. Typically, 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 will help you obtain your greatest pores and skin day ever – day-after-day. I bust skincare myths and debunk advertising and marketing jargon that will help 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 will help you create the very best skincare routine on your distinctive wants.
