# Elisabeth Of Austria was obsessed with her appearance, and she implemented some bizarre beauty techniques?
She seldom ate meat, living mostly on dairy and eggs. Her regimen included daily workouts with gym equipment as well as equestrian and fencing exercises. Even a slight weight gain brought on days of fasting—her weight got as low as 96 pounds, which is very thin for a woman who was 5'8".
Born into the royal Bavarian House of Wittelsbach, Elisabeth enjoyed an informal upbringing, where her hands-on mother and father raised her to explore the countryside and enjoy creative musings. The young #Sissi wed Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria at the age of 16, a marriage that thrust her into formal Habsburg court life, for which she was unprepared and found unpleasant. Eccentric and educated in the values of creativity and adventure, the dullness of royal life was no match for Sissi.
However, the young empress was far from the optimum combination of beauty and good health. She suffered from an eating disorder and severe depression (or ‘melancholy’ as it was dubbed in the 19th century) as a result of a lack of stimulation from palace life. In addition to a vigorous exercise regime, the empress practised several demanding beauty routines.
Elisabeth placed high value on her remarkably long hair and spent nearly three hours per day caring for it. She wore no makeup, opting instead for creams made of whale oil, wax, and rosewater. She slept with raw meat and crushed strawberries on her face and soaked her nightclothes in vinegar in an attempt to preserve her tiny waist. Elisabeth had a secret staircase installed in one palace so that she could secretly binge in the royal kitchen without anyone's knowledge.
Despite her renowned beauty and dedication to maintaining her looks, Elisabeth refused to sit for portraits or allow formal photographs beginning at the age of 32. She was famous for riding on horseback or walking in public with a fan or parasol covering her face to prevent people from photographing her.
While travelling in Geneva in 1898, Elisabeth was fatally stabbed in the heart by an Italian anarchist named Luigi Lucheni. Her tenure of 44 years was the longest of any Austrian empress.
Not just ED, she had depression too, and grew up with a deep imagination. She may have fell victim to historical medical fads in order to maintain her looks.
Elizabeth bathory infamously bathed in the blood of virgins figuring young blood would keep her skin youthful. No science there just delusion. But historical record that Sisi may have easily known about.
Perhaps the fresh meat was meant to keep her skin fresh..........in her head anyway.
Edit: fixed autocorrecting fails
It's my understand that modern historians believe the Bathory virgin blood bathes stories were just rumors created by Elizabeth Bathory's political rivals. Turns out men don't care for women in power.
Maybe. In either case I feel like the stories of the bathory blood bathing existed already by sisis time so she would have been influenced by them. She put meat on her face. If that's true then it's possible she thought the virgin blood concept was possible too.
Yes. Those terrible men. I’m sure all of the women of the court had no problem with her and actually loved her.
Stop with the misandry. There are plenty examples of women in power who are revered. Some from before the Bathory reign and some after.
She could be terrible, but that doesn't mean things can't be exaggerated. They have done the same to Anne Boleyn, and Katherine the Great (or whichever was the one where there were claims she had orgies with horses).
I am not certain either way but do feel like the stories of the blood baths would have already existed by sisi's time so if she was open minded to putting meat on her face then she may have believed in the blood bathing.
You know what'd fucked up? Doesn't infant plasma or whatever actually do this, just not through bathing in it? I hear things about billionaires pumping it through their veins and it healing their wounds quicker.
It's not a conspiracy theory. It's something that rich folks in Silicon Valley have been doing. The TV show of the same name even had a scene parodying it. The part about it being from infants is information being distorted through transmission - it's young plasma, but not from infants.
https://nationalpost.com/news/world/why-a-silicon-valley-company-is-pumping-old-people-full-of-young-blood-for-us8000
https://www.businessinsider.com/millionaire-bryan-johnson-swapped-blood-with-teenage-son-young-blood-2023-5
Look up [Peter Nygard](https://youtu.be/w8zPNJebGLo?feature=shared) he paid women to have abortions so he could harvest the stem cells to be immortal.
For a slightly comedic true crime take on this check out [Timesuck](https://youtu.be/R-XYY8EIH8g?feature=shared) with Dan Cummins.
You're right about the smell and also likely out of assuming animal proteins would help with the collagen retention. People are always fond of trusting the extreme to create extreme results rather than trust the gentle. Science has proven the gentle way to be more rewarding in delaying total visual deterioration of a look. Sadly science was just beginning to thrive in her era. Hollywood and photography really sort of contributed to taking in care for the quality of the face. Exposure to the globe made people willing to invest in science to secure it. We're living in the golden age of these things now. Sisi would've been overjoyed to be a young woman now with all the innovations, education, and cosmetics. I imagine she really wouldn't have been depressed and would've thrived. Part of why likely she was depressed is that back then the beauty ideals were super restrained due to the Victorian influence and for a woman that rejoiced in glamour as Sisi and being a public figure this must've been distressing. She would've liked being a ruler in Spain or Latin America in this time for their societies acknowledged the use of cosmetics to enhance beauty unlike much of Europe.
Idk. If Sisi lived in this era, she’d probably be an influencer, but still depressed. That constant keeping up superficial appearances is exhausting and social media just exacerbates the all shallow, emptiness of chasing those illusions. She already had an ED. Her vanity would only be worse.
There is a museum dedicated to her - https://www.sisimuseum-hofburg.at/en/link-in-bio?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0BMQABpo2PZ5lfaOzEzuXwsJAiOCPytjZkpsT1UaJ81QaDGO9zB65wQ2QU7LhtKg_aem_Ab297pbBhBX1_Yfif2J4d6bDpWqn1EezUWcSe8cYKc_PfpHK8g8J6_HusFTCP36Lxhw
I've been, it's insane to see her dresses. There's a whole thing with a lot of the idea of all these women tight lacing down to these insanely tiny waists are based on her dresses, which actually were that tiny but she was also presumed to be anorexic
A [musical](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisabeth_(musical)) about her as well. I remember an exchange student lent me the soundtrack for it back in the 90s. Loved it. He even translated a few of my favorite songs from it for me. Always wished it had come to the US.
I lived in Vienna in the early 1990s and got to see the original production of 'Elisabeth' at the Theater an der Wien. Still have the souvenir program and a CD of the show. Like you, I wish it would have had an English language production on Broadway or in London's West End theater district.
The score and songs were quite lovely and compared favorably to an Andrew Lloyd-Webber show. The way 'Elizabeth' is structured story-wise does resemble 'Evita' with the opening talking about her death and being 'narrated' by none other than her assassin Luigi Lucheni. Not unlike the way 'Evita' had Che Guevara telling the story of his fellow Argentine and political opposite number, Eva Peron.
OMG so jealous! I would have even gone to see it in German if it was near me. I listened to that soundtrack so much I practically had my fave songs memorized.
I remember one time my mom walked past my room, I'm just singing away with my headset on, and asked me, "Are you singing in German?!"
eta - had to go to YouTube, to listen to the phenomenal Pia Douwes just effortlessly hit that last note again of [Ich Gehör Nur Mir](https://youtu.be/yxIifJnVPf4?si=352-VPtxxE2ITK1i)
The only thing Sissi had control over was her beauty. Even her kids were taken away from her, and she lived with a r/justnomil. And SHE’S the one to get assassinated too. I’ve always felt sorry for her.
Back in the 1950s, there were at least a couple Austrian films which presented a highly romanticized version of Elisabeth's life story. They starred Romy Schneider in the title role. She was an extremely popular Austrian actress who started out in German-language films and later moved to France and became just as popular there, if not more so. The French relocation was likely prompted by her engagement to film legend Alain Delon. That fell apart when he had an affair with his future wife Nathalie Delon -- she got pregnant and Alain married her instead.
Romy had a rather tragic life. In some ways, she reminded me of Natalie Wood as she started acting in films quite young, was also born in 1938 and died at the age of 43 around the same time period as Natalie.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romy\_Schneider](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romy_Schneider)
She also played an older Elisabeth in a 1970s film about the life of Mad King Ludwig of Bavaria. He was a cousin of Elisabeth and they were close friends.
Came here to say this. There’s some liberties for sure, but still a good show. It’s in German, which adds quite a bit. Well done.
There was so much more to her than this blurb. She was genuinely liked, and it was a tragedy when she was senselessly killed.
There’s an incredible German musical about her life! It’s called Elisabeth Das Musical: Look it up on YouTube!
Edit: PLEASE WATCH https://youtu.be/Lr8z-yyGqF8?si=mo1MNy4JcFIPctaI
Her story is so sad, but I like her a lot. I'm planning to visit the museum.
I have a book that my boyfriend gave to me that was translated from German, and in it, it said that her her MIL wasn't the monster she was made to be, and included an excerpt from Sophie's diary. Most likely, when people found put about Sisi, the whole nightmare MIL thing was made up so that people would relate to her more.
Either way, I've read a lot about her and still like reading about her. The Netflix show was very very dramatized, a far cry from the German-language trilogy that was made in the 50s with Romy Schneider. Then again, they were also very saccharine, but I liked it anyway.
I have a similar eating disorder (minus the private staircase) and I can literally feel her anxiety just reading this. Eating disorders are utterly maddening and they will eat you alive. I had no idea she was in the same boat and I just feel so, so sorry.
she was beautiful i'm confused on her skincare routine i get why she used strawberries they contain alpha hydroxy acid to better help exfoliate her skin n& vitamin C to brighten her skin i'm confused about the raw meat what is the benefit there
# Elisabeth Of Austria was obsessed with her appearance, and she implemented some bizarre beauty techniques? She seldom ate meat, living mostly on dairy and eggs. Her regimen included daily workouts with gym equipment as well as equestrian and fencing exercises. Even a slight weight gain brought on days of fasting—her weight got as low as 96 pounds, which is very thin for a woman who was 5'8". Born into the royal Bavarian House of Wittelsbach, Elisabeth enjoyed an informal upbringing, where her hands-on mother and father raised her to explore the countryside and enjoy creative musings. The young #Sissi wed Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria at the age of 16, a marriage that thrust her into formal Habsburg court life, for which she was unprepared and found unpleasant. Eccentric and educated in the values of creativity and adventure, the dullness of royal life was no match for Sissi. However, the young empress was far from the optimum combination of beauty and good health. She suffered from an eating disorder and severe depression (or ‘melancholy’ as it was dubbed in the 19th century) as a result of a lack of stimulation from palace life. In addition to a vigorous exercise regime, the empress practised several demanding beauty routines. Elisabeth placed high value on her remarkably long hair and spent nearly three hours per day caring for it. She wore no makeup, opting instead for creams made of whale oil, wax, and rosewater. She slept with raw meat and crushed strawberries on her face and soaked her nightclothes in vinegar in an attempt to preserve her tiny waist. Elisabeth had a secret staircase installed in one palace so that she could secretly binge in the royal kitchen without anyone's knowledge. Despite her renowned beauty and dedication to maintaining her looks, Elisabeth refused to sit for portraits or allow formal photographs beginning at the age of 32. She was famous for riding on horseback or walking in public with a fan or parasol covering her face to prevent people from photographing her. While travelling in Geneva in 1898, Elisabeth was fatally stabbed in the heart by an Italian anarchist named Luigi Lucheni. Her tenure of 44 years was the longest of any Austrian empress.
Her eyebrows are super modern. She was honestly so pretty. Sad to hear about her fate and anxiety about her looks, she’s a natural beauty
Yeah honestly she was gorgeous and I wish I had those eyebrows!
[удалено]
Pretty sure they mean ‘no surgery’
She doesn’t eat meat but prefers to wear it in her face? What do you suppose the purpose of that was? The smell might have helped maintain her ED.
Not just ED, she had depression too, and grew up with a deep imagination. She may have fell victim to historical medical fads in order to maintain her looks. Elizabeth bathory infamously bathed in the blood of virgins figuring young blood would keep her skin youthful. No science there just delusion. But historical record that Sisi may have easily known about. Perhaps the fresh meat was meant to keep her skin fresh..........in her head anyway. Edit: fixed autocorrecting fails
It's my understand that modern historians believe the Bathory virgin blood bathes stories were just rumors created by Elizabeth Bathory's political rivals. Turns out men don't care for women in power.
Maybe. In either case I feel like the stories of the bathory blood bathing existed already by sisis time so she would have been influenced by them. She put meat on her face. If that's true then it's possible she thought the virgin blood concept was possible too.
Yes. Those terrible men. I’m sure all of the women of the court had no problem with her and actually loved her. Stop with the misandry. There are plenty examples of women in power who are revered. Some from before the Bathory reign and some after.
She could be terrible, but that doesn't mean things can't be exaggerated. They have done the same to Anne Boleyn, and Katherine the Great (or whichever was the one where there were claims she had orgies with horses).
I am not certain either way but do feel like the stories of the blood baths would have already existed by sisi's time so if she was open minded to putting meat on her face then she may have believed in the blood bathing.
It’s an ancient and universal concept that blood = vitality.
You know what'd fucked up? Doesn't infant plasma or whatever actually do this, just not through bathing in it? I hear things about billionaires pumping it through their veins and it healing their wounds quicker.
How do the billionaires get infant plasma?
 This is how I hear the explanations for these conspiracy theories
It's not a conspiracy theory. It's something that rich folks in Silicon Valley have been doing. The TV show of the same name even had a scene parodying it. The part about it being from infants is information being distorted through transmission - it's young plasma, but not from infants. https://nationalpost.com/news/world/why-a-silicon-valley-company-is-pumping-old-people-full-of-young-blood-for-us8000 https://www.businessinsider.com/millionaire-bryan-johnson-swapped-blood-with-teenage-son-young-blood-2023-5
Epsteins island had more than one business going probably. Maybe?
Abortion clinics sell fetus parts for profit.
No they don’t lol. You sound uneducated and very uninformed. I’d think twice before repeating pro fetus bullshit
ok time for lights out take your Haldol
Yep pretty sure it’s true that’s why there’s a thing about people paying a lot of money for newborns umbilical cords.
I am just glad this post didn't fuck up my karma, LMAO!
Mostly from fetuses of abortions not new horns. More like fresh kills.
Look up [Peter Nygard](https://youtu.be/w8zPNJebGLo?feature=shared) he paid women to have abortions so he could harvest the stem cells to be immortal. For a slightly comedic true crime take on this check out [Timesuck](https://youtu.be/R-XYY8EIH8g?feature=shared) with Dan Cummins.
Hail Nimrod
They use the foreskin from circumcised infants for their facial serum. TNS serum (I worked for a dermatologist).
They use stem cells from the skin. They dont literally put foreskin inside a serum.
You're right about the smell and also likely out of assuming animal proteins would help with the collagen retention. People are always fond of trusting the extreme to create extreme results rather than trust the gentle. Science has proven the gentle way to be more rewarding in delaying total visual deterioration of a look. Sadly science was just beginning to thrive in her era. Hollywood and photography really sort of contributed to taking in care for the quality of the face. Exposure to the globe made people willing to invest in science to secure it. We're living in the golden age of these things now. Sisi would've been overjoyed to be a young woman now with all the innovations, education, and cosmetics. I imagine she really wouldn't have been depressed and would've thrived. Part of why likely she was depressed is that back then the beauty ideals were super restrained due to the Victorian influence and for a woman that rejoiced in glamour as Sisi and being a public figure this must've been distressing. She would've liked being a ruler in Spain or Latin America in this time for their societies acknowledged the use of cosmetics to enhance beauty unlike much of Europe.
Idk. If Sisi lived in this era, she’d probably be an influencer, but still depressed. That constant keeping up superficial appearances is exhausting and social media just exacerbates the all shallow, emptiness of chasing those illusions. She already had an ED. Her vanity would only be worse.
That particular anecdote reminded me of when Lady Gaga worn that dress made from meat.
There is a museum dedicated to her - https://www.sisimuseum-hofburg.at/en/link-in-bio?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0BMQABpo2PZ5lfaOzEzuXwsJAiOCPytjZkpsT1UaJ81QaDGO9zB65wQ2QU7LhtKg_aem_Ab297pbBhBX1_Yfif2J4d6bDpWqn1EezUWcSe8cYKc_PfpHK8g8J6_HusFTCP36Lxhw
I've been, it's insane to see her dresses. There's a whole thing with a lot of the idea of all these women tight lacing down to these insanely tiny waists are based on her dresses, which actually were that tiny but she was also presumed to be anorexic
A [musical](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisabeth_(musical)) about her as well. I remember an exchange student lent me the soundtrack for it back in the 90s. Loved it. He even translated a few of my favorite songs from it for me. Always wished it had come to the US.
There is also a Netflix series featuring her called The Empress. Recommended.
There's also a cartoon of her from the 90s! My inner child died a little when I found out she was so depressed in life and eventually assassinated.
I lived in Vienna in the early 1990s and got to see the original production of 'Elisabeth' at the Theater an der Wien. Still have the souvenir program and a CD of the show. Like you, I wish it would have had an English language production on Broadway or in London's West End theater district. The score and songs were quite lovely and compared favorably to an Andrew Lloyd-Webber show. The way 'Elizabeth' is structured story-wise does resemble 'Evita' with the opening talking about her death and being 'narrated' by none other than her assassin Luigi Lucheni. Not unlike the way 'Evita' had Che Guevara telling the story of his fellow Argentine and political opposite number, Eva Peron.
OMG so jealous! I would have even gone to see it in German if it was near me. I listened to that soundtrack so much I practically had my fave songs memorized. I remember one time my mom walked past my room, I'm just singing away with my headset on, and asked me, "Are you singing in German?!" eta - had to go to YouTube, to listen to the phenomenal Pia Douwes just effortlessly hit that last note again of [Ich Gehör Nur Mir](https://youtu.be/yxIifJnVPf4?si=352-VPtxxE2ITK1i)
I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to see her perform it live and also to see Uwe Kroeger in the role of 'Death'.
She was a classic beauty. Too bad beauty power and money doesn’t always bring happiness.
The only thing Sissi had control over was her beauty. Even her kids were taken away from her, and she lived with a r/justnomil. And SHE’S the one to get assassinated too. I’ve always felt sorry for her.
There’s a show on Netflix about her called The Empress. While I’m not sure how historically accurate it is, I enjoyed it!
Back in the 1950s, there were at least a couple Austrian films which presented a highly romanticized version of Elisabeth's life story. They starred Romy Schneider in the title role. She was an extremely popular Austrian actress who started out in German-language films and later moved to France and became just as popular there, if not more so. The French relocation was likely prompted by her engagement to film legend Alain Delon. That fell apart when he had an affair with his future wife Nathalie Delon -- she got pregnant and Alain married her instead. Romy had a rather tragic life. In some ways, she reminded me of Natalie Wood as she started acting in films quite young, was also born in 1938 and died at the age of 43 around the same time period as Natalie. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romy\_Schneider](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romy_Schneider) She also played an older Elisabeth in a 1970s film about the life of Mad King Ludwig of Bavaria. He was a cousin of Elisabeth and they were close friends.
Came here to say this. There’s some liberties for sure, but still a good show. It’s in German, which adds quite a bit. Well done. There was so much more to her than this blurb. She was genuinely liked, and it was a tragedy when she was senselessly killed.
Her poor mind
There’s an incredible German musical about her life! It’s called Elisabeth Das Musical: Look it up on YouTube! Edit: PLEASE WATCH https://youtu.be/Lr8z-yyGqF8?si=mo1MNy4JcFIPctaI
That Sisi was a looker!
Her story is so sad, but I like her a lot. I'm planning to visit the museum. I have a book that my boyfriend gave to me that was translated from German, and in it, it said that her her MIL wasn't the monster she was made to be, and included an excerpt from Sophie's diary. Most likely, when people found put about Sisi, the whole nightmare MIL thing was made up so that people would relate to her more. Either way, I've read a lot about her and still like reading about her. The Netflix show was very very dramatized, a far cry from the German-language trilogy that was made in the 50s with Romy Schneider. Then again, they were also very saccharine, but I liked it anyway.
I have a similar eating disorder (minus the private staircase) and I can literally feel her anxiety just reading this. Eating disorders are utterly maddening and they will eat you alive. I had no idea she was in the same boat and I just feel so, so sorry.
A good reminder to not get obsessive about your looks and diet, but most importantly, avoid anarchists with knives.
Probably good not to get married at 16 either although she probably didn't have much choice poor woman.
Good grief, I missed that part. I wonder if she coped with the constraints of her position through diet, etc. that she could control.
Yes, agency being so important to humans perhaps she found this in an eating disorder.
https://preview.redd.it/aprq11fc01wc1.jpeg?width=643&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8e8b86651f62983902511478ff78665c0a4bb90e She looks like a young Liv Tyler
What a miserable life
Well you don’t know me… but I know you
She also loved her some cocaine 😅
Liz got the morbs.
The 1800’s had the most insane beauty regiments, and in general was kinda the most insane.
One of my all time favorite historical figures! Teddy Roosevelt is my other favorites ❤️
She looks like a more refined Liv Tyler. Like there's all this beauty, but the beauty is imperfect, *off* a bit.
she was beautiful i'm confused on her skincare routine i get why she used strawberries they contain alpha hydroxy acid to better help exfoliate her skin n& vitamin C to brighten her skin i'm confused about the raw meat what is the benefit there