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They were promoted as healthy but in reality, they were dangerous as they often contained lead and arsenic. Commercially made recipes were also advertised in women's magazines. These creams could be made with ingredients women already had at home like soap, buttermilk, lemon juice, vinegar, rainwater, rosewater, glycerin, horseradish or oatmeal. Gloves were also used to take care of hands, so at night women slept with old gloves filled with various skin-improving recipes found in magazines, advice manuals, and encyclopaedias.
![opera gloves pattern opera gloves pattern](https://i.etsystatic.com/8484476/r/il/7a432a/1046819444/il_794xN.1046819444_7nku.jpg)
Their goal was to avoid the thickness and coarseness of working-class women's hands. Accordingly, ladies wore gloves which were too small for them in order to shrink their hands. They were therefore seen as social markers. N the Victorian era, gloves were deeply connected to the notion of the "perfect hand" which were to be "shapely, finely made, and white, with blue veins, taper fingers, and rosy nails, slightly arched” (Beaujot, 31).
![Opera gloves pattern](https://cdn1.cdnme.se/5447227/9-3/20_64e61dfc9606ee7f8b257166.png)