The Most Dangerous Beauty Trends Through the Ages

Much like how now we'll eat vitamins and veggies to get our skin glowing, women in the 19th-century did the same just with arsenic. They had special arsenic wafers (sold by Sears!) that they would nibble on throughout the day, slowly poisoning themselves so they would get the sick, pale look. The amounts they ate were small enough so that their skin would whiten, but not enough that they would actually keel over. 

Image: Sears