Ep 86 The English Rose: Toxic Beauty, Then and Now

This week on Medical Media Mixer, we sit down with Paula Crichton De Alba, director of the 2024 short horror film The English Rose, to explore one of history’s most disturbing intersections: the toxic beauty rituals of Victorian women. From arsenic complexion wafers sold in the Sears & Roebuck catalogue, to lead face paint that cracked if you smiled, to mercury eyelash treatments recommended in Harper’s Bazaar, to belladonna eye drops that caused blindness — Victorian women were literally dying for beauty. PA-C Tara Prisco breaks down the clinical toxicology of arsenic, lead, and mercury poisoning: epidemiology, symptoms, testing, and treatment. Dr. Nicole Peniston brings the psychological lens, exploring the harm loops, impossible beauty standards, and the question that anchors the whole episode: has anything really changed? Cocktail recipes drop every weekend on our socials. New episodes every Monday. ▶ Film & Filmmaker The English Rose (2024) — IMDb The English Rose — Seed & Spark (Director’s notes & background) https://www.paulacrichton.com/ Paula linktree ▶ Historical & Cultural Sources Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder — Molly Brown House Museum Victorian-era Cosmetics — Wikipedia Dangerous Beauty: Hazardous Chemicals and Poisons in Historic Cosmetics — Science Museum Group The Poisonous Beauty Advice Columns of Victorian England — Atlas Obscura Skincare Trends of the Past: Toxic and Sometimes Fatal — Curology ▶ Books Fashion Victims: The Dangers of Dress Past and Present — Alison Matthews David (Bloomsbury Academic, 2015) Bitten by Witch Fever: Wallpaper & Arsenic in the Nineteenth-Century Home — Lucinda Hawksley (Thames & Hudson) How to Be a Victorian: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Victorian Life — Ruth Goodman (2014) ▶ Clinical & Medical Sources Lead Poisoning — Lanphear B et al. NEJM 2024 Metal Chelators and Neurotoxicity — Bjørklund G et al. Archives of Toxicology 2017 The Toxicology of Mercury — Clarkson TW et al. NEJM 2003 Mercury Overexposure: Systematic Review — Shi Y et al. Frontiers in Public Health 2026 Arsenic Exposure, Toxicity, Diagnosis, and Management — Baker BA et al. JOEM 2018 Acute and Chronic Arsenic Toxicity — Ratnaike RN. Postgraduate Medical Journal 2003 Metals in Cosmetics: Implications for Human Health — Borowska S et al. Journal of Applied Toxicology 2015 Mercury in 549 Skin-Lightening Products — Hamann CR et al. JAAD 2014 Mercury Exposures From Skin-Lightening Products: Systematic Review — Bastiansz A et al. EHP 2022 Toxic Metals in Cosmetics — Bocca B et al. Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology 2014 Episodes every Monday ⭐️ Subscribe, Rate and Review! 🍸 Recipes drop on socials Discounts: 15% off Comfrt apparel Purple Carrot: 40% off your first box ClassPass: 2 weeks free 15% off non-alcoholic spirits at The Zero Proof 💳 Support us on Patreon | ☕️ Buy Me a Coffee Contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.