Remaking history: Renaissance beauty recipes in the modern chemistry lab

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Remaking history: Renaissance beauty recipes in the modern chemistry lab

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Titian – Venus with a mirror.
Titian – Venus with a mirror. National Gallery of Art, Washington DC [Image: Images – Wikimedia Commons]

University of Auckland history and chemistry academics Erin Griffey, Cather Simpson, Michel Nieuwoudt and Ruth Cink explain the ways they are recreating historical beauty practices, and how this affects their research today

The desire to appear youthful and beautiful has provided impetus for extraordinary chemical experimentation with cosmetics for millennia. Historica, Master of the Fontainebleau School – Venus at her toilet, Master of the Fontainebleau School – Venus at her toilet. Musée du Louvre