Where was their makeup: a curio

[Robert St Devil]

Albert Backert (i think) tells the man at the Three Nuns that the older prostitutes... those in their 30s and 40s... make themselves look younger by putting on makeup? However no makeup is ever found at the scene of the crime.
To consider: Eliz is dressed for the evening, and Polly has a mirror.

[Rosella]

When you consider what was then available --rouge for the cheeks, a bit of lip rouge, some kohl for round the eyes, and hair dye, it would still have cost money. All right if you were charging 6d to a shilling a go and popping it away in your piggy bank. However Jack's victims were all destitute really, and whatever spare money they had went on a bed for the night and drink.

[Azarna]

In "From Hell" and other movies they always have make-up on, same with many documentaries, heh.

Marge, from "The Simpsons" said "Ladies pinch, whores use rouge." But I am sure these whores probably had to make do with pinching too. Pinching cheeks hard for faux rouge. And biting lips to make them redder.

[Pcdunn]

I think makeup was more likely for the "house" women, who had more of a chance to obtain such things. The average Unfortunate would not have worried about such a thing, when trying to survive another night on the streets.

[Robert St Devil]

Polly seems to be "adept" at her trade and earning a little money. We know that she earned at least 12d that Thursday, meaning that she could have been with at least 3 clients - "I've had my doss money three times today and spent it.". Would 3 clients have been more than expected for a Thursday night? Were her delicate features considered attractive? During her 3 weeks at 18 Thrawl, I'd expect that she had to outright earn (or supplement) her income by way of her trade. I'd expect that she charges at least 4d per session since that was the going rate for 18 Thrawl St per night.
Working off the Casebook Victims Timeline for Polly Nicholls, we know that she is in-between decisions on the morning of her murder: 18 Thrawl St or The White House. She tells as much to Emily Holland, and that she intends one more go at a client before trying the house on Flowers & Dean St. Meaning, she intends to charge at least 4d.

We know by the comb and mirror that Polly's appearance still matters to her, which can also be suggested for Eliz Stride when she borrows the dress brush. And, we could expect that she (& the others) would require "tools of the trade" as mentioned by Backert(?) in order to look 10 years younger than their mid-age appearance. Pardon my piggish, Ros, but makeup tends to be viewed as a necessity rather than a luxury in most classes. But still... not one case of rouge or kohl scattered about the crime scene.

I am not suggesting that Jack the Ripper murdered these women for their Maybelline; but, to borrow a term I picked up off of DJA, he does "pocket rifle" through their belongings. The hyperopic suggestions are: was he a cross dresser? Or was a woman possibly involved?

[Rosella]

You would need a mirror and a comb though, anyway, in those days of middle parts and long hair drawn into a back bun. The tousled look wasn't in for anyone in Victorian England, though some women in the aesthetic movement did wave and frizzle their hair.

Yes, females today regard makeup as important, even when, like myself, they rarely wear it. However, in Victorian England it just wasn't so. Makeup was restricted to actresses, (and even they didn't wear it when off duty) a few bohemian types in Society, and prostitutes. Ordinary women wearing lip rouge and kohl would have been regarded as jezebels and shunned.

Prostitutes higher up the scale and in the West End might have got away with it but I just can't see Polly, Annie, Liz, Kate or Mary parading around with vivid lips and cheeks without gaining the attention of the local constabulary, something they definitely wouldn't have wanted!

I just can't see these rather tired and extremely poor women (and I take your point about Liz Stride having a sixpence to spare) bothering about makeup when they were worried about where their next meal was coming from or where they were going to sleep that night.

I don't even know if rouge sold for 4d but even if it did it would be far more likely in my opinion that the 4d would be spent on a baked potato and a drink and the next 4d on a bed for the night and the next on a drink or two than it be spent on cosmetics. After all, Polly's hair was starting to grey and if she had any spare cash it would surely have gone on hair dye rather than anything else. That it hadn't been shows I think that she hadn't the money to buy it.

[Robert]

They may not have bothered with it too much. Nights were dark, men were drunk.

[miss marple]

Apart from upmarket whores,and actresses, the ordinary Victorian woman did not wear make up. Make up did not become popular until the 1920s and even then a fully made up woman was regarded as 'fast' A bit of rouge and powder was the norm.The respectable woman avoided being made up. My London grandmother born 1897 never wore make up and had incredible skin even in her eighties, My mother would tell me how in the late 30s and forties her and her sisters would not be allowed to wear make up, it was regarded as common.
After the war make up became normalised and became more sophisticated and it really took off in the fifties.
It is difficult for some modern minds to understand that the concerns of the late Victorians were not the same as the concerns of today. There was not an obsession with clinging on to youth. Women aged quicker, once they hit the menopause, they became old women. If you went back in time you would be shocked by the smells of people and goods. There was no deodourant, baths were less common, non existant amongst the poor.
Sweat and heavy tobacco and beer smells would saturate clothes. Smells from factories, stinks from abbatoirs, and gone off food.
The concept of make up was practically non existant, when keeping clean was a major effort. Men were used to women being natural. There were no mass produced colour magazines showing'ideal' women. Even though the five were prostitutes, in their minds they probably still saw themselves as fairly respectible women who had fallen on hard times rather than' painted trollops' doing what was necessary to keep body and soul together.

Ever heard the expression' All fur coat and no knickers'

Miss Marple

[Errata]

Ever heard the expression' All fur coat and no knickers'

Miss Marple

No. But now I will use it constantly.

[Joshua Rogan]

I've just stumbled across the Albert Bachert story mentioned in the original post;

"Albert Bachert, of 13 Newnham-street, Whitechapel, has also stated: "On Saturday night at about seven minutes to 12 I entered the Three Nuns Hotel, Aldgate. While in there an elderly woman, very shabbily dressed, came in and asked me to buy some matches. I refused, and she went out. A man who had been standing by me remarked that those persons were a nuisance, to which I responded "Yes." He then asked me to have a glass with him, but I refused, as I had just called for one myself. He then asked me if I knew how old some of the women were who were in the habit of soliciting outside. I replied that I knew or thought that some of them who looked about 25 were over 35, the reason they looked younger being on account of the powder and paint. Having asked other questions about their habits, he went outside and spoke to the woman who was selling matches, and gave her something, I believe. He returned to me and I bid him good-night at about 10 minutes past 12. I believe the woman was waiting for him. I do not think I could identify the woman, as I did not take particular notice of her, but I should know the man again. He was a dark man, height about 5ft. 6in. or 7in. He wore a black felt hat, dark clothes, morning coat, black tie, and carried a black shiny bag."

[Jon Guy]

All Liz Stride could do to look her best before going out was ask to borrow a brush for her clothes.

Frances Coles had a bonnet bought for her. I suppose she could have asked for make up but she was young and preferred a bonnet.