For centuries cosmetics have offered the promise of perfection. Paints and powders, brushes and pencils are the artistic tools with which woman can re-create the self. Yet historically, cosmetics have been perceived as mere ornament, secondary, trivial, even deceptive. The subject of beautification, however, was an important discourse within the dramatic, social and literary worlds of early modern England. Domestically, kitchens were actively engineering the cosmetics that would be on display in the public sphere as well as on the stage. This book will draw attention to the cultural preoccupation with cosmetics by exploring a wide range of early modern texts and the theatrical appropriation of cosmetic metaphors and materials. It also places overdue importance upon the subject of early modern beauty practices by arguing that the contemporary culture of cosmetics extended beyond practice and vanity and into the domains of theatre, art and poetry. Given the prominence of the phenomenon of cosmetics in Shakespearean and Renaissance drama, surprisingly little attention has been paid to it as a whole in the Renaissance period. Certainly, there have been excellent studies, such as Annette Drew-Bear's brief survey of face painting conventions on the Renaissance stage, and Frances Dolan's article, ‘Taking the Pencil out of God's Hand: Art, Nature and the Face-Painting Debate in Early Modern England’, which charts the analogous relationship between the art/nature debate and moral discourse on cosmetics.