Venetian ceruse

Some sources state that Elizabeth I of England may have used Venetian ceruse.[1]

Venetian ceruse or Venetian white,[2] also known as blanc de céruse de Venise[3] and Spirits of Saturn,[4] was a 16th-century cosmetic used as a skin whitener. It was in great demand and considered the best available at the time, supposedly containing the best quality white lead sourced from Venice, the global merchant capital at the time. It is similar to the regular ceruse, although it was marketed as better, more exclusive and more expensive than the regular ceruse variant.[5] The regular ceruse white pigment is a basic lead carbonate of chemical formula 2 PbCO
3·Pb(OH)
2 while the mineral cerussite is a simple carbonate of lead (PbCO
3).

A recipe from 1688 described the cosmetic as a mixture of water, vinegar, and lead.[5] The cosmetic's use of white lead as a pigment was detrimental to the human body and caused lead poisoning, skin damage, hair loss and in some cases eventual death.[1][4]

  1. ^ a b Thomas, L.M. (2020). Beneath the Surface: A Transnational History of Skin Lighteners. Theory in Forms. Duke University Press. p. pt26. ISBN 978-1-4780-0705-0. Retrieved 2020-07-17.
  2. ^ "Venetian white, n.", Oxford English Dictionary.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Eastaugh2007 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference StClair was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Eldridge2015 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).