Skin Care

This section includes products such as creams, lotions, and talcum powders. The text below provides some historical context and shows how we can use these products to explore aspects of American history, for example, race and conceptions of beauty and health. To skip the text and go directly to the objects, CLICK HERE

Hunter's Invisible Medicated Face Powder advertisement
Hunter's Invisible Medicated Face Powder advertisement, Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

Skin care products have historically accounted for a large percentage of the American cosmetics and hygiene industry, and this is still true today. More so than for most beauty products, the claims made about skin lotions, powders, creams, bleaches, ointments, and cleansers straddle the line between medicinal and cosmetic. Claims that products will improve or protect skin health have often come with the stated or implied promise that skin will also look better—smoother, cleaner, whiter, clearer, and glowing. Because beautiful skin is equated with health, it is almost impossible to divorce beauty claims from health claims, and beauty products from health products.

The Museum’s collection of skin care products shows how Americans have defined beautiful, healthy skin from the 1800s through the present. Many of these ideals have remained quite consistent. Before the mass-marketing of cosmetic products, women often made their own skin care preparations from recipes passed to them through mothers, friends, or women’s magazines. These recipes promised to remove freckles and ruddiness, to calm rashes, or to reverse damage done by wind and sunburn. Patent (proprietary) medicines and beauty preparations from the latter half of the 1800s made the same claims, while also promising to cure pimples and eczema, and make skin look youthful, soft, and smooth.

In the early twentieth century, a new generation of branded skin care products emerged. These products were usually sold in upscale, brand-dedicated shops, in druggists and department stores, or by licensed agents. Women such as Elizabeth Arden, Helena Rubinstein, and Madam C.J. Walker developed cosmetic companies that offered multi-product “systems” of skin care products.

Ardena Complexion Clear for Young Moderns from Elizabeth Arden
Ardena Complexion Clear for Young Moderns

These product lines promised to cleanse and clarify skin, making it look healthy, youthful, and radiant.

Skin care preparations from the 1900s on have continued to focus on ideals of youthful, clear, supple skin—they claim skin renewal and anti-aging properties, as well as healthful soothing, moisturizing, detoxifying, and anti-acne effects.

One skin care ideal that has changed over time is skin color. American ideals of skin health have always been tied to problematic ideas about race and economic class. White Americans have idealized a pale complexion for most of American history. A pale, creamy complexion and smooth, white hands not only signified that one was racially white, they also demonstrated one’s wealth by implying that a man—but far more importantly a woman—did not perform manual labor or work outside in the sun.

Because nineteenth-century Americans subscribed to an idealized version of “natural” beauty, the use of cosmetics to give the appearance of a white, smooth, clear complexion was looked upon as false and indecent. Women were supposed to “earn” their good complexion through good health practices and moral living. Powders and lotions often advertised themselves as “invisible” in order to satisfy the moral prohibition on artificial beauty.

Despite the social prohibition on cosmetic use, women often secretly sought and used cosmetic skin preparations. Skin color and clarity provided such economic and social advantage that many women were willing to use products that were harmful—these skin products often contained toxic mercury, arsenic, and lead—in an attempt to get closer to the ideal. Though doctors and women’s magazines railed against the dangers inherent to cosmetics, many women likely believed manufacturers’ packaging claims that their cosmetic products were “perfectly safe.”

 

Ro-Zol Complexion Clarifier and Bleach from OvertonWhite Witch for the SkinMadame A. Ruppert's World Renowned Face BleachPeggy Page Whitening BalmDr. James P. Campbell's SAFE Arsenic Complexion Wafers
Ro-Zol Complexion Clarifier and Bleach from Overton-HygienicWhite Witch for the Skin: "cleanses - softens - whitens"Madame A. Ruppert's World Renowned Face BleachPeggy Page Whitening Balm Dr. James P. Campbell's SAFE Arsenic Complexion Wafers

 

Both white women and women of color used products to bleach their skin, to lighten or conceal discolored areas, and to soothe and smooth irritated skin and acne. However, few mainstream cosmetic companies marketed to or acknowledged African American consumers, and most common skin care products were not manufactured in colors to suit darker skin. For example, talcum powder, used to protect and soothe skin while also absorbing the shine of perspiration, in its natural state provided a white tint to the skin. It was also available in pinkish or “flesh” (white skin-toned) tints.

 

Lucky Brown Skin Lightener
A Label from Lucky Brown Skin Lightener, African-American Cosmetic and Food Label Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institutiion

 

McBrady's Talcum Powder for Brown Skin People
McBrady's Talcum Powder for Brown Skin People, Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

In response, women such as Madame C. J. Walker and Annie Turnbo Malone started successful companies to supply darker skinned women with skin care and beauty products. Notably, neither company originally carried skin bleaching products. In fact, Walker asserted that her products were especially appropriate for the skin and the self-esteem of woman who must do manual labor.

In the late 1920s, acquiring a light summer tan became fashionable. By the 1930s, cosmetics companies began to offer face powders in darker shades that emulated a tan—or even a hint of exotic ethnicity—on white skin. L’Oreal’s Ambre Solaire, one of the first tanning products, was marketed in 1935. Although these early tanning oils promised to protect skin health while promoting a beautiful tan, they actually provided almost no protection from sun damage. The sun tanning fad of the 1920s-1930s did not do away with race or class concerns within the skin care industry. Product advertisements for skin lighteners assured women that they could reclaim their creamy complexions as soon as summer left.

In the 1960s, darker skin tones were more fully embraced, and skin care products changed in response. Both white men and white women sought deeply tanned, “bronze” skin, and tanning products now promised to give a long-lasting and dark tan.  As the link between sun-damaged skin and skin cancers emerged, new products were developed to protect the skin. Self tanners, which impart a suntanned appearance to the skin without sun exposure, were introduced in 1959 by Man-Tan.

Sunscreens with SPF (sun protection factor) ratings were introduced in the 1960s. The SPF rating is a way of measuring what percentage of the sun’s damaging UV rays are transmitted to the skin. Although sunscreens with higher SPF ratings are more protective in some ways, they were generally only effective against UVB rays, which cause the burned and peeling skin we associate with sunburn. UVA rays were not understood to be a concern, and were not addressed by the SPF rating. By the 1990s, it was understood that both UVA and UVB rays can cause both cancer and “aging” of the skin, and sunscreens began to be marketed for UVA protection. Sunscreens are now rated as “multi-spectrum” or “broad spectrum,” if they protect against both UVA and UVB rays. People with naturally darker skin color are slightly more protected from UV radiation than those with pale skin. However, because skin cancers are more difficult to spot on darker complexions, physicians strongly advise people of all skin colors to wear sunscreens. Self-tanning sunless preparations and strong sunscreen lotions continue to be popular for both beauty and health reasons.

 

Noxema Suntan LotionRevlon Bronze Lustre Tanning JellyGeorgetown Pharmacy Sunblocking Lotion SPF 15Bain de Soleil Sunless Dark Tanning Creme
ca. 1940s Noxema Suntan Lotion ca. 1971 Revlon Bronze Lustre Tanning Jelly 

 ca. 1988 Georgetown Pharmacy Sunblocking Lotion SPF 15

ca. 1997 Bain de Soleil Sunless Dark Tanning Creme

 

Bibliography ~ see the Bibliography Section for a full list of the references used in the making if this Object Group. However, the Skin Care Products section relied on the following references:

Gill, Tiffany M. Beauty Shop Politics: African American Women’s Activism in the Beauty Industry. Urbana; Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2010.

Jones, Geoffrey. Beauty Imagined: A History of the Global Beauty Industry. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Jones, Geoffrey. “Blonde and Blue-eyed? Globalizing Beauty, c.1945–c.19801.” The Economic History Review 61, no. 1 (February 1, 2008): 125–54. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0289.2007.00388.x.

Peiss, Kathy Lee. Hope in a Jar: The Making of America’s Beauty Culture. New York: Metropolitan Books, 1998.

Scranton, Philip. Beauty and Business: Commerce, Gender, and Culture in Modern America. New York: Routledge, 2001.

Segrave, Kerry. Suntanning in Twentieth Century America. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 2005.

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1917
patent date
1905-04-18
maker
Roessler & Hasslacher Chemical Company
ID Number
MG.M-00067
catalog number
MG.M-00067
accession number
61835
patent number
787776
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
1979.0798.205
accession number
1979.0798
catalog number
1979.0798.205
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Parke, Davis and Company
ID Number
1979.0798.208
accession number
1979.0798
catalog number
1979.0798.208
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
1979.0798.214
accession number
1979.0798
catalog number
1979.0798.214
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
after 1956
patent date
1944-08-01
trademark registered (Aveeno)
1956
maker
Aveeno Corporation
ID Number
1980.0698.108
accession number
1980.0698
catalog number
1980.0698.108
patent number
US2355028A
US2355029A
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1940s
maker
Elizabeth Arden Inc.
ID Number
1980.0698.112
catalog number
1980.0698.112
accession number
1980.0698
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Rexall Drug Company
ID Number
1983.0084.29
accession number
1983.0084
catalog number
1983.0084.29
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Shulton, Inc.
ID Number
1985.0475.172
catalog number
1985.0475.172
accession number
1985.0475
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1968
trademark filing date (Happy Face Facial Washing Cream with drawing of woman's face)
1968-02-05
trademark registration date
1969-05-20
maker
Toni Company
Gillette Company
ID Number
1985.0475.188
accession number
1985.0475
catalog number
1985.0475.188
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Rexall Drug Company
ID Number
1985.0481.250
catalog number
1985.0481.250
accession number
1985.0481
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Richard Hudnut
ID Number
1985.0481.267
catalog number
1985.0481.267
accession number
1985.0481
Pink metal powder tin with dark pink and blue print label and decorative gold and white border. "For Cleansing the Skin and Removing Superficial Blackheads." Net weight 4 ozs.; price $1.00.
Description
Pink metal powder tin with dark pink and blue print label and decorative gold and white border. "For Cleansing the Skin and Removing Superficial Blackheads." Net weight 4 ozs.; price $1.00. Directions for use on the back label: "Firm but gentle meal-like cleanser that sloughs off parched and lifeless cuticle . . . gives your skin radiant beauty. Cleanse with Cleansing Cream, Skin Freshener, Mix teaspoonful Special Cleansing Preparation with water to make thin paste. Apply paste with massage, covering neck and face completely, except area around eyes. Let dry, rub off with dry washcloth, concentrating on affected (blackhead) areas. Follow treatment for 7 days. For daily use, to replace soap and water, use dry on wet cloth. A hypo-allergenic product used in the Dubarry Success School."
Location
Currently not on view
date made
early 1950s
maker
Richard Hudnut
ID Number
1985.0481.272
catalog number
1985.0481.272
accession number
1985.0481
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
McKesson and Robbins
ID Number
1985.0481.340
accession number
1985.0481
catalog number
1985.0481.340
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1920s
maker
Lincoln Chemical Works
ID Number
1986.0873.04
accession number
1986.0873
catalog number
1986.0873.04
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1997
maker
SmithKline Beecham Consumer Healthcare
ID Number
1998.0102.10
catalog number
1998.0102.10
accession number
1998.0102
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1944
maker
McKesson and Robbins
ID Number
2004.0129.41
accession number
2004.0129
catalog number
2004.0129.41
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
McKesson and Robbins
ID Number
1982.0050.04
accession number
1982.0050
catalog number
1982.0050.04
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Kiehl Pharmacy Inc.
ID Number
1981.0589.024
accession number
1981.0589
catalog number
1981.0589.024
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1988
maker
Gillette Company
ID Number
1989.0196.083
catalog number
1989.0196.083
accession number
1989.0196
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
MG.254865.27
accession number
254865
catalog number
254865.27
White cardboard box, with silver, blue and red print.
Description
White cardboard box, with silver, blue and red print. Photograph of "Munyon," seated, on back of box with the text below: "I believe that I am offering to the public the most curative and also the purest and best toilet soap ever made." The bar of soap is wrapped in paper with print of branches and leaves and an illustration of a "witch" presenting witch hazel branches to a man. Net weight 2 7/8 oz. Folded paper insert included in box.
The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer are:
Prepared for chapped hands and lips, pimples, eruptions, prickly heat, blackheads, chafing and baby rash, and for removing disagreeable body odors.
Valuable as a shampoo. Especially prepared for tender skin.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1908-1918
ID Number
MG.M-11465.07
catalog number
M-11465.07
accession number
260557
Hand-held electric device with inscriptions that read “THE / SKIN MACHINE / by Clairol” and “CLAIROL, INC. STAMFORD, CONN.
Description
Hand-held electric device with inscriptions that read “THE / SKIN MACHINE / by Clairol” and “CLAIROL, INC. STAMFORD, CONN. 06904 / PATENT PEND.” and “MADE IN DENMARK / MOTOR IN JAPAN.” Clairol began advertising The Skin Machine in 1971, and received a trademark on the term in 1974.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Clairol
ID Number
2015.0223.01
catalog number
2015.0223.01
accession number
2015.0223
The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer are:For Skin Diseases; frequently effective in allaying many itchy conditions of the skinCurrently not on view
Description
The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer are:
For Skin Diseases; frequently effective in allaying many itchy conditions of the skin
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1908-1918
maker
Charles N. Crittenton Company
ID Number
MG.M-11465.03
catalog number
M-11465.03
maker number
No. 2065
accession number
260557

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