Elisabeth of Bavaria

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Elisabeth of Bavaria (24 December 1837 – 10 September 1898) was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary as spouse of Francis Joseph I. As such, she held also the titles Queen of Bohemia, Queen of Croatia and others.[1] From an early age, she was called “Sisi” by family and friends (not "Sissi" as in the film or in the animated series).
While Elisabeth had limited influence on Austro-Hungarian politics, she has become a historical icon. Elisabeth is considered to have been a free spirit who abhorred conventional court protocol and at the same time a tragic figure; she has inspired filmmakers and theatrical producers alike.
wikipedia

Her pride and joy was her heel-length hair, which needed care for hours on end every day. She once called herself the “slave of my hair”. To keep this beauty, Sisi kept rigorous diets and took exercise excessively – she practiced horse-riding, gymnastics and hiking. Her beauty provided her with fame, but in later years physical weakness and hunger oedema followed. Horse-riding was not only a way for Sisi to exercise, train her body and to sustain her figure, it also was a means of self-projection. Ambitiously, Sisi exercised many hours a day, not only to be the most beautiful monarch in the world, but also to be the best horse-rider and to surpass the only aristocratic rival on horseback, Empress Eugénie of France.
wien-vienna.com

(I couldn't find a thread for her, please let me know if there's already one that I missed, thanks)


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How beautiful she is!”, shouts the Shah of Persia against all etiquette, when Elisabeth receives him in 1873. Men and women of her time enthuse over Elisabeth’s fabulous beauty, and are even more allured by her grace, charisma and the mysterious aura surrounding the Empress. Elisabeth is one of the most beautiful women of her time and she herself is perfectly aware of this. Her cosmetic treatment takes up the better part of her daily routine. Elisabeth is particularly proud of her thick hair, of which the combing and dressing takes up between two and three hours a day. Her hairdresser Franziska (Fanny) Feifalik plays a decisive role, since the former hairdresser of the Wiener Burgtheater is responsible for all the elaborate hairstyles. While hairdressing she has to put on white gloves and is forbidden to wear rings. After dressing, braiding and pinning up the hair for hours, the fallen out hairs have to be presented in a silver bowl, each lost hair bringing about a look of reproach from the Empress. Her niece remarks mockingly, that “the hairs upon Aunt Sisi’s head are numbered”. On a fortnightly basis, the hair is being washed with a specially made mixture of egg yolk and cognac, a procedure which takes up a whole day. In later years she probably tinges her hair with indigo and an extract made from nutshells. The hours spent with hairdressing are primarily used by Elisabeth to learn languages: Hungarian and later most notably ancient and modern Greek. For the latter she hired Constantin Christomanos, who reads to her, corrects her language exercises and philosophises with the Empress. Christomanos describes the hours of hairdressing in the Hofburg in the following way: “Hairdressing takes almost two hours, she said, and while my hair is busy, my mind stays idle. I am afraid that my mind escapes through the hair and onto the fingers of my hairdresser. Hence my headache afterwards. The Empress sat at a table which was moved to the middle of the room and covered with a white cloth. She was shrouded in a white, laced peignoir, her hair, unfastened and reaching to the floor, enfolded her entire body.”

In order to maintain her admired beauty, Elisabeth tests countless beauty formulas. There is no individual secret recipe which she swears by, but time and again she tries something new. The beauty products are either produced in the court pharmacy, or prepared by a lady-in-waiting in her own apartment. It is interesting that Elisabeth attaches less importance to experimenting with unusual creams, than a wide variety of washing waters, tinctures and lotions, from which she apparently is expecting more results. Elisabeth most often uses a simple creams, produced in the court pharmacy. This so-called Crème Céleste is made from white wax, spermaceti, sweet almond oil and rosewater. Another cream, which (as recently discovered beauty formulas show) is repeatedly ordered for Elisabeth and highly appreciated by many ladies at court, is cold cream, which is made from almond oil, cocoa butter, beeswax and rosewater. It owes its name to the cooling and refreshing way it affects the skin: given that the water-oil-emulsion is instable and slightly breaks on the skin, the water evaporates faster, making the cream feel pleasantly cooling. For facial tonics Elisabeth mainly uses rose facial tonics, which are supposed to protect the skin from inflammation and uncleanness. Additionally, the Empress tries camomile-rose, lavender as well as violet lotions. But Elisabeth also swears by rather eccentric methods, such as masks from crushed strawberries or from raw veal, which she uses to inlay a facial mask made of leather to wear during the night. Contrary to other women of her time, Elisabeth strictly opposes heavy make-up or perfume. She sets a high value on naturalness, only her magnificent head of hair is being sprayed with perfume essences. Significantly more time than the care of her face, Elisabeth devotes to her body care and personal hygiene. She bathes daily and likes to alternate steam with oil baths and cold baths. She is exceedingly fond of warm olive baths that are intended to keep the skin tender and smooth. At night she often sleeps with cloths soaked in vinegar above her hips, to preserve her slimness. Her favourite vinegar is violet vinegar, made from recently picked violet blossoms, cider vinegar, distilled water as well as violet powder: “Layer the violet blossoms into a bellied bottle, douse with cider vinegar. Shut tightly and allow to infuse for two days. Afterwards filter through a hair sieve and press out blossoms with a wooden spoon. Take some distilled water and stir violet powder until smooth. Add it to the distilled water and shake it thoroughly together.” Furthermore Elisabeth is sleeping without a pillow – arguably to retain her upright posture – and allegedly wraps her
neck with cloths soaked in Kummerfeld toned washing water

Lady in black: After the tragic death of her only son Rudolf in the year 1889, Elisabeth becomes more and more embittered, recedes into her own world, becomes unsociable and inapproachable. From now on she wears black exclusively, and most experience Elisabeth as black silhouette in the distance. Her last official appearance is in the year 1896 on the occasion of the millennium celebrations in Budapest. Kalman Mikszáth, present at the reception at Budapest Castle, describes his impressions: “There she sits, in the throne room of the royal castle in her black, lacy Hungarian robes. Anything and everything on her is sombre. From the dark hair a black veil flows down. Hairpins black, pearls black, everything black, only her face as white as marble and unutterably woeful… A mater dolorosa (sorrowful mother)… It is still her, but the grief has embedded its mark upon this visage… Not one stir, not one glance reveals concern. White as marble, resembling a statue…

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Youre welcome :flower:
I just started to read about her and she was a pretty fascinating person IMO.
Love her hair, but I wouldn't have hair so long that I had to spend 2 hours to get it done in the morning :rofl:
 

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