Perfection - 400 Years of Women's Quest for BeautyA colourful account of womens health, beauty, and cosmetic aids, from stays and corsets to todays viral trends Victorian women ate arsenic to achieve an ideal, pale complexion, while in the 1790s balloon corsets were all the rage, designed to make the wearer appear pregnant. Women of the eighteenth century applied blood from a black cats tail to problem skin, while doctors in the 1880s promoted woollen underwear to keep colds at bay. Beautification