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Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History Magazine.

From false rumps and fake teeth to toxic skin care and insect-laden hair.

Over the last 400 years, British women have resorted to some extraordinary lengths in the

pursuit of beauty. In her new book, Perfection, Margaret Lincoln delves into some of these past

beauty practices and considers their impact on the women who engaged in them. I spoke to her to find out

more. In your new book,ion, you look at 400 years of

women's beauty regimes. What kind of practices have you uncovered? Well, I think what people are

quite familiar with is the notion that in the 18th century people wore lead-best white makeup, which

was actually poisonous. But they might not have known

that in Victorian times, women were eating arsenic wafers or arsenic pills to give their skin pallor,

and that later on they were putting bears grease on their hair and various other concoctions.

So I think there's a lot in the book that's not particularly well

known and will open up people's eyes to the way in which beauty and the pursuit of social

acceptance has dominated women's lives for centuries. I guess something I wanted to reiterate

before we go any further and we look at some of those strange beauty regimes

is why this is important, why this is a significant historical topic. What do you think that we can

...