Halloween, Part 2: Beauty Tips from the Blood Countess
Ok, so I am really excited about doing this blog. I love Elizabeth Bathory, she’s one of [yes, one of. I’ve got unique hobbies, ok?] my favorite female serial killers. I thought about doing this as a straight information dump, just because she is so fascinating. But I actually would recommend you go out and do some research on your own, and come to your own conclusions about her vanity, guilt and bloodlust. I’ll include some of the better links with solid information on her. Today, we’re going to play dress up with the Blood Countess!
Gory and wrong? You bet. Halloween levels of horror? Check. Winning this week’s game of gross out? I’m trying.
Anti-Aging Beauty Tips from Elizabeth Bathory
A literal bloodbath is just the thing!
The key to a youthful glow is bathing. You really can’t skip this step, you’ve got to start with a good base. Using the freshly drained blood of several virgins [I would recommend girls ages 10 to 14], allow yourself a nice long soak. Really let all their ageless beauty absorb into your skin. It may be sticky at first, but go ahead and let it coagulate – it forms a lovely mask. If you run out of servant girls in your own pay or peasants from the surrounding countryside, I suggest advertising with the local merchant class for would-be etiquette students. Their parents are more than happy to send daughters to learn from a high born Lady, and they won’t be expected back for such a long time.
After you’ve had your regenerative bath, have your remaining servants clean the blood up with ashes and wool cloth. The wool is naturally antibacterial, and it really keeps blemishes to a minimum.
If you’re feeling a headache coming on, the best remedy really is a nice snack from the face of a kitchen maid. Have her brought to your bedside and nibble a little of her flesh off, you’ll be feeling better in no time. If you’re not feeling up to that, you can always force her to make a meal from her own flesh. It takes longer, but I can’t stress enough the healing power of consuming young bodies.
If your husband is away at war and your trusted family advisor is plotting to betray you, you can relieve your stress with some fun games. Who Freezes First is a really good one. Get those servant girls soaking wet and send them outside in the winter. Watch from the warmth of your chambers as they slowly turn blue! It’s summer time? Try a new hobby. Stitching fingers and lips together is really a great way to practice focus and hand dexterity. Your hands, of course, not the servant’s.
And most importantly, don’t let pesky things like not being able to testify to your own innocence at your murder trials get in the way of a perfectly good beauty routine. You’ll only end up bricked into your own chambers at the end of the day.
Keep all those in mind while prepping for your lingerie with ears this month!
duh.
Ok but seriously, I'm so amped for this costume. I was testing some looks out this morning, and I'm going to go in a slightly less than historical direction. There are only two decent portraits of the actual Elizabeth Bathory that don't seem to be either reproductions of the original or anachronistic images of a vampire lady. But this is apparently what she actually looked like. She was in fact rather pretty.
but this just doesn't scream bloodthirsty vampiress, does it?
Since Bathory lived around the same time as Elizabeth I, I'll be taking my styling cues from that time period. That means long, pointed bodices and big collars. If you look through portraits of wealthy women during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, you see a lot of volume and detail everywhere. Women wore several underlayers, including hose or socks, petticoats (the skirts that went under your skirts to make them stick out more), skirt supports called bum rolls, and stays (the precursor to the corset, also called a bodys). The waistline was incredibly long and slim, which helped balance the enormity of the sleeves and skirts and collars that were ballooning out everywhere else. The skirt silhouette was very geometric, with the bum rolls supporting the skirt straight out from the hips and allowing them to drop at almost a right angle to the floor.
The only other portrait decent of Bathory I could find actually shows her wearing the wide, stiff neckwear called a Whisk Collar, so I'll definitely incorporate that. For the most part, though, I'm just going to take inspiration from 17th century silhouettes, much like I did with The Babe's costume, and make something that works better for halloween.
Testing, Testing, 1 2 3…
This corset is wildly not okay....
This is result of fiddling around this morning. I need to make a bum roll (heheh, bum roll..) that looks like a bum roll (heheh..) and not like a bustle, and a pair of stays that don't look like a 1950s corset. But how fun is the collar?
The basic pieces of this are the stays, the skirt, the lace overdress, and the collars. On top of the neck ruff that I have showing in the picture above, I'd like to have a whisk collar as well. The whisk collar has a twofold costume benifit. Firsly, it basically screams vampires thanks to the pop culture image of Dracula; secondly, Bathory is actually shown wearing one in a portrait.
Whisk collars are fun!
Basically, this is going to be an awesome Halloween. There will be fangs and blood and gore. I plan on threatening everyone I meet all night. If you want to read more fun things about the Blood Countess, these are some lighter reads that will give you some good information.
Rejected Pricesses (also, if you're not following this blog you aren't living)
Infamous Lady (this is actually a site for a book, but the info section keeps it somewhat brief and very informative. Less fun, more educational)
Erzebeth Bathory (regular ol’ wiki…)
If you want to read more, I recommend
Countess Dracula, Tony Thorne (the primary source for the Rejected Princesses post)
Dracula Was a Woman: In Search of the Blood Countess of Transylvania, Raymond T. McNally (One of the better known sources for information on her translated into English)