Beautiful for ever - Helen Rappaport

In the 1860s, the pursuit of artificial beauty was still very much publicly frowned upon and the purchase of cosmetics and hair colourants was carried out 'under the counter', away from public scrutiny. So it was, that rich society women made their way heavily veiled by closed carriage to a luxurious premises at number 47a New Bond Street. The sign over the door promised them they would be 'Beautiful For Ever!' and they believed it. They hoped especially it would win them husbands or keep the ones they had. The slogan was the clever marketing ploy of the establishment's wily entrepreneur, Madame Rachel. She had it all: a posh address in Mayfair, royal cachet 'as purveyor to Her Majesty the Queen', as well as, by special appointment, to Empress Eugnie of France; a catalogue of highly sought after exotic cosmetics and beauty treatments advertised in the choicest of publications such as the Court Journal, and a clientele, sotitled, so rich, so influential - and so gullible - that her accounts book would be a blackmailer's dream.