These days the demographics interested in veins may be limited to nurses and the people commenting on fuckboy thirst traps, however they were once more widespread. In a time before Bondi Sands and St Tropez, beauty was measured by pallor – and one way to emphasise how pale you were was through the blueness of your veins.

The practice of drawing on veins has been recorded as far back as Ancient Egypt and Ancient Rome, but really came into its own among the upper classes in 17th century England and France. “It was more prevalent in the French court since the English were more conservative with face paint,” cosmetics historian Gabriela Hernandez explains. By the Victorian era, the practice had become widely adopted, with recipes for blue pastes appearing right up until 1915, according to make-up artist and historian Louise Young.

Rooted in the racist and classist ideologies of the time, Victorian beauty ideals favoured pale, almost translucent skin, known as alabaster. “Pale skin was a status symbol, showing that women were wealthy enough to stay indoors and avoid the sun,” says Young. Women took to extreme measures to achieve this pallid look, painting their faces with lead-based foundations and powders and even consuming arsenic to lighten their complexions. (The whitewashed face also conveniently covered up blemishes from acne, smallpox and syphilis.) And having prominent veins contributed to this look: “The veins made the skin look more delicate and translucent, making the white pastes appear more authentic – or so they thought,” Young says.

For those people whose veins didn’t stand out naturally – or were too caked in make-up to be seen – veins could be applied using a blue paste made from a mixture of calcium carbonate, gum arabic and Prussian blue, explains make-up artist Erin Parsons, who recreated the mixture for her series on vintage make-up. Oil-based cosmetic pencils were also used, manufactured by brands like Guerlain in the late 19th century. “These were usually paper-wrapped colour sticks made of fats and pigments, with waxes to make them harder,” says Hernandez. “The colour was drawn on the skin and blended with fingers, brushes or puffs.”

Much of this had to be done in secret because, back in the 1800s, the use of make-up was not approved of by men, who associated it with sex workers and actresses. “Make-up in that time period was frowned on, so women went to great lengths to appear as if they weren’t wearing it,” Young explains. If done subtly, though, these artificial veins could actually obscure the fact that make-up was being worn, as it created an illusion of naturalness. “By bringing out the veins and adding rouge, it’s as if you’re wearing nothing at all,” says Parsons who compares it to today’s practice of adding fake freckles on top of foundation to create a no-make-up make-up look. “By adding the freckles it creates this sense of naturalness to the skin. You’ve put on all your foundation, concealer and powder but by adding the freckles it’s meant to seem as if you have nothing on. It probably doesn’t always look realistic and I imagine it was the same sense with drawing on veins.”

Throughout history, veins have held significance beyond anatomical structures: ancient civilisations in Rome imbued veins with spiritual and life-giving properties. This reverence for veins persisted through the medieval and Renaissance periods, where they were thought of as essential channels through which the body’s vital forces flowed. Outside the Western world, people in Ancient Egypt traced their veins with blue paint made from calcium copper silicate – a mixture known as Egyptian blue. This application of blue was not an attempt to appear whiter but instead an appreciation of the colour.

The practice of vein colouring faded in the early 20th century, as trends shifted and rich people began to indicate their status through the tanned skin of endless leisure activities and sunny holidays. Practically speaking, the white pastes used back then were also extremely dangerous. Despite lead being recognised as a poison since 1631, it lingered in beauty products until the Victorian era’s shift towards ‘natural’ beauty phased it out. Movements such as the New Woman and the Suffragettes also meant that the fragile look of women lost its appeal, and more athletic aesthetics were adopted.