Drop Dead Gorgeous

Last week was heavy, so this week we’re lightening the mood with… centuries of people poisoning themselves to look hot. Seeee? FUN. Dayna digs into the long, gorgeous, deeply unhinged history of beauty and fashion that tried to kill the people wearing it. There’s lead foundation in shades of Corpse and Slightly More Expensive Ghost, arsenic pills sold as “absolutely safe and harmless,” eye drops made from deadly nightshade, and X-ray salons that zapped women’s upper lips. There’s French face cream made with radium. And the men don’t get off easy: mercury-poisoned hatters, collars that strangled grown men, shaving brushes that carried anthrax, and a Pittsburgh millionaire who drank radium water until his jaw came off. Along the way we meet the women who paid the real price: a 19-year-old flower-maker poisoned by the green dye on the flowers she made, and the Radium Girls who fought back while they were dying.  Dark, funny and fact-checked. Read your ingredient labels, lore lovers. Sources Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Dr. James P. Campbell’s Safe Arsenic Complexion Wafers: https://www.si.edu/object/nmah_1339217 Smithsonian Magazine, “Three Horrifying Pre-FDA Cosmetics”: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/three-horrifying-pre-fda-cosmetics-180963775/ The Quack Doctor, Dr MacKenzie’s Arsenic Complexion Wafers: https://thequackdoctor.com/index.php/dr-mackenzies-improved-harmless-arsenic-complexion-wafers Cosmetics and Skin, Lash Lure: https://cosmeticsandskin.com/bcb/lash-lure.php Museum of Quackery, The Tricho System: https://www.museumofquackery.com/ephemera/tricho.htm IMSS, X-Ray Hair Removal: https://imss.org/?p=9439 Wikipedia, Tho-Radia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tho-Radia Ripley’s, The Radium Girls: https://www.ripleys.com/stories/radium-girls Wikipedia, Eben Byers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eben_Byers Wikipedia, Radithor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radithor CDC Emerging Infectious Diseases, “Anthrax Cases Associated with Animal-Hair Shaving Brushes” (2017): https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/23/5/16-1554 Live Science, “The Strange History of Anthrax Cases Tied to Men’s Shaving Brushes”: https://www.livescience.com/58667-shaving-brushes-anthrax.html Friends of Newport & Carisbrooke Cemeteries, Robert P. W. Atkins (1909 inquest): https://www.foncc.org.uk/burials/research/mj_atkins_d1425.pdf London Museum, “Pointy shoes and sexuality in medieval London”: https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/pointy-shoes-sexuality-medieval-london Wikipedia, Battle of Sempach: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sempach Wikipedia, Spana Prosecution (Aqua Tofana): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spana_Prosecution Further reading Alison Matthews David, Fashion Victims: The Dangers of Dress Past and Present (2015) Rebecca Herzig, Plucked: A History of Hair Removal (2015) Kate Moore, The Radium Girls (2017) From Lizzie Borden to Elizabeth Báthory, the infamous Blood Countess, Loreplay explores true crime, haunted history, paranormal mysteries, and the people behind the legends. Join host Dayna Pereira for ghost stories, witch trials, urban legends, cryptids, and dark history told with researched storytelling, sharp sarcasm, and absolutely no patience for historical bullshit. Follow Loreplay wherever you listen to podcasts and find us on Instagram at @loreplaypod. Come play. 📲 Come hang out with me outside the void: Instagram and TikTok: @loreplaypod Website: https://loreplaypod.com Prefer to Watch 👀 Find us on YouTube here:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP49XVyr_raHi3VVxXr91_w 👀 GOT A STORY? (I know you do…) If you’ve experienced something weird, spooky, glitchy, or straight-up unexplainable.. send it in. Your story might be featured in a future episode. 📩 Submit here: [email protected] ⚠️ Listener Discretion: We talk about dark stuff here.. death, violence, and the occasional deeply cursed human behavior. If that’s not your vibe, totally fair… but if it is? Welcome home. 🖤 💀 If you liked this episode: Follow, rate, review, share it with a friend who also loves questionable life choices and spooky stories. It helps the show grow, and keeps me emotionally stable (barely).