For those who’re a historical past buff like me, you might be curious to know the wonder secrets and techniques of Empress Sissi. In any case, her magnificence, even in previous age, was legendary…
Sissi was probably the most stunning girls 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 blissful 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. Conserving 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 observe the pores and skin wrinkling, to awake and concern the morning gentle, and to know that one is not fascinating! Life with out magnificence can be nugatory to me.”
Unhappy, isn’t it? Right here’s the lengths Empress Sissi went by means of 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 means. She hardly ate something all day and exercised quite a bit.
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, pressured 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 cherished horses and rapidly grew to become 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 might 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 immediately assume she might have had anorexia, or a minimum of, some type of disordered consuming. I’m undecided that is the right analysis, however it’s clear that her eating regimen and train routines that one thing was off.
She’d generally go days consuming solely milk, orange juice, or skinny broth. There are experiences she even tried a “meat juice” eating regimen, simply to maintain her weight down whereas nonetheless getting some vitamins. This implies 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 had been so tiny, and while you pair that with limitless strolling, using, 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 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 among 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 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 had been all the fashion 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 court docket pharmacy.
Make-up
You’d assume Empress Sissi cherished make-up.
Unsuitable. 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 ladies who wore make-up, like the gorgeous Princess Pauline von Metternich: “She wears two inches of crimson powder on her lips and is wearing materials from nations which might be far-off although 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 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 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 fabric 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 comparable 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 fabric and let it air dry (no warmth allowed!). It might take a complete 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 have got 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 lady doing no matter she might to really feel like herself.