Selling Beauty: Cosmetics, Commerce, and French Society by Morag Martin

Abstract

hope is that the republican values of France, based on equality and brotherhood will be understood and respected. In succeeding moments, we learn that the public defense lawyer of one of the skinheads was of Arabic origin. We also witness the reading of a letter, written months later by the parents of François, to the three young men in prison. In the letter they express the hope that these youths will grow in tolerance and respect for others, and they invite them to write back to them if they wish. This film takes a mature look at violence in contemporary society and a mature and humane response to it by an afflicted family. Appropriate for a course about contemporary society in France, it would be equally adaptable to a course on world cultures, or even a criminal justice course with an international outlook. It provides both educator and students with abundant information. Neumann University (PA) Maria G. Traub Society and Culture edited by Marie-Christine Koop MARTIN, MORAG. Selling Beauty: Cosmetics, Commerce, and French Society, 1750–1830. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2009. ISBN 978-0-8018-9309-4. Pp. viii+228. $55 (HC). This study offers an overview of the history of the French cosmetics industry, arguably the world’s best-known purveyor of beauty products. Morag Martin, Associate Professor of History at the College at Brockport, State University of New York, traces the industry from the mid-eighteenth century to the early nineteenth century, at which time it already possessed many features of its modern successor, including its commercialization. Several parts of this book were published previously , but the majority of the eight chapters consist of entirely new material. The author demonstrates how tastes in beauty (and the products used to create it) evolved during this time period, from artificially whitened skin, reddened cheeks and powdered wigs inherited from the Ancien Régime, to the subsequent Rousseau-inspired, more natural ideal created with less artifice. She analyzes the cosmetic industry’s response to these changes in consumer taste using as her sources newspaper ads for cosmetics, beauty manuals and medical treatises, as well as stories, poems and anecdotes about beauty (2). The result is a richly annotated examination of the French toilette—both female and male—in its historical and commercial context, the reading of which occasionally feels like a slightly voyeuristic experience. One of the things this reviewer found especially interesting about this book is the fact that Martin not only guides us into the private spaces where women went to make themselves presentable, while showing simultaneously how the definition of this term evolved over time, but that she also takes readers behind the scenes of the male beautification process. Men and primping are not commonly linked, but this book partakes in the recent gender study-inspired interest in the history of masculinity and thus discusses such topics as men’s use of rouge, perfumes, face paint, creams and wigs. In addition, the last chapter is devoted entirely to men’s hair and perhaps more importantly, the dreaded lack thereof. Throughout the book, readers also get a glimpse of the history of medicine Reviews 177 since cosmetics were part of medicine and physicians were involved in creating and selling them. In summary, while the initial five chapters focus on the second half of the title, “beauty,” the final three chapters are centered on the title’s first half, “selling .” In the former part, Martin discusses first how cosmetics were consumed, produced, and advertised at the end of the eighteenth century, and then how beauty products, as they became ever more available to increasing numbers of French consumers, came to be the object of growing criticism from æsthetic, moral and medical perspectives. In the latter part, readers learn how entrepreneurs selling cosmetics reacted to this criticism and the accompanying change in the definition of beauty. Twelve black-and-white figures appear alongside the text, aptly illustrating various beauty standards as well as advertising techniques used to sell cosmetics. In this reviewer’s opinion, the four figures included in Chapter Seven entitled “Selling the Orient” are instrumental in making it one of the strongest chapters, even though it has...