The ideal German women did not use cosmetics as it was considered unhealthy, deceptive, and masking natural beauty. For a regime wanting to promote the earthy peasant woman who embraced natural beauty, cosmetics went against Nazi ideology. In reality, cosmetics were widely used and for a variety of purposes too. According to scholar Irene Guenther, it was not natural beauty that was a goal, but artificial natural beauty. Some of the cosmetics used in Nazi Germany included hair dye, lipstick, mascara, bronzer, etc. Much of the use of cosmetics was used for the goal of achieving the ideal look which included blonde hair and tanned skin. Below, some Ads from the Frauen Warte:
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| Cream from Nivea |
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| ad concerning freckles |
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| Vasenol for the face and body |
Cosmetic use was even advertised such as in the Frauen Warte, a leading magazine for Nazi women. In the pages of this magazine, there were ads for face creams, bronzers, and many other goods meant to give the look of perfect beauty. It may seen highly unusual for a leading magazine geared towards women in this regime to advertise cosmetics and beauty aids, but really it is not considering the fact that women wanted to look good and maintain a look of perfect beauty that was supported by the regime.
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| hair ad for securing a modern hair style |
The pressures of war threatened to remove any unnecessary production of goods that were deemed unessential such as cosmetics. When Hitler almost shut down a cosmetic factory, his girlfriend, Eva Braun, persuaded him to keep it open, and he did. The use of cosmetics then, although not encouraged by ideology, was accepted but in the pursuit to achieve the look of natural beauty.
Beauty salons were considered unessential and even a burden but some remained open for the duration of the war. This keeping open of some beauty salons was an effort to maintain a sense of normalcy and to give the illusion that Nazi Germany was still prospering. Another reason why these salons remained opened was possibly for morale reasons. Who made use of these salons? It more than likely was not the average woman living in the country . . .instead it was possibly the urban woman with some means. The next question to be asked was how functional were these salons? I would argue that these salons clinging to life operated on minimal means given the rationing, shortages, and the war.
Sources and Further Reading
Beauty salons were considered unessential and even a burden but some remained open for the duration of the war. This keeping open of some beauty salons was an effort to maintain a sense of normalcy and to give the illusion that Nazi Germany was still prospering. Another reason why these salons remained opened was possibly for morale reasons. Who made use of these salons? It more than likely was not the average woman living in the country . . .instead it was possibly the urban woman with some means. The next question to be asked was how functional were these salons? I would argue that these salons clinging to life operated on minimal means given the rationing, shortages, and the war.
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| foot powder ad. |
Sources and Further Reading
Dirix, Emmanuelle and Charlotte Fiell. 1940s Fashion: The Definitive Sourcebook. London: Goodman Fiell, 2013.
Guenther, Irene. Nazi Chic?: Fashioning Women in the Third Reich. New York: Berg, 2004.
Guenther, Irene. “Fashioning Women in the Third Reich”, in Life and Times in Nazi Germany edited by Lisa Pine. New York: Bloomsbury, 2016.
