Tudor Cosmetics

I found a few entries in a book called 'Beauty and Cosmetics, 1550 - 1950' which had some interesting accounts about what Elizabethan did to make themselves beautiful. This book talks about recipes for making cosmetics and also how they were applied.

"From the day of her coronation on 15 January 1559 Elizabeth I made a strong visual statement. Looking perfectly young and virginal, her ivory face a gleaming oval framed by gilded ruff, her red-gold hair flowing, she offered herself as bride to England."
pg 11

"Her legendary complexion was enhanced by ceruse, a concoction of finely ground white lead powder, mixed with vinegar and applied over the entire face and neck. It created a perfect, luminous white, capable of smoothing away any pockmarks, blemishes and wrinkles, which made it popular for several centuries despite the obvious drawback of it being a deadly poison.

Alternatively there were white powders of ground alabaster or starch mixed with perfume but they were less popular as the effect gained was not as good. 

Rough highlighted the cheeks: red ochre gave a brownish red; bright shades could be achieved by white lead base dyed with red crystalline mercuric sulphide, madder, cochineal, vermilion or alkanet root (the roots of the plat Alkanna tinctoria,) which probably gave quite a deep burgundy shade as it is still used by artists for the purple lake pigment)."
pg 13

Two portraits of Elizabeth I. both portraits demonstrate the white face and coloured lips

Bibliography: 

Downing, Sarah Jane. Beauty And Cosmetics, 1550-1950. Oxford, UK: Shire, 2012. Print. pg 11 and 13

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Elizabeth_I_Rainbow_Portrait.jpg

http://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Pitti-portrait.jpg