Changing Perceptions of Freckles: From Blemishes to Beauty Marks

For most of modern Western history, freckles—particularly on women’s faces—were considered undesirable blemishes that needed to be covered or removed. Smooth, white skin was a necessity for the upper class, while skin that had been exposed to the sun was associated with workers who spent their days outdoors. 

So, for centuries, women went to great lengths to shield their skin from the sun and subjected their faces to everything from homemade lemon juice formulas to chemical peels and mass-produced freckle removal creams.

The word “freckles” and its variations began appearing in European texts between the fifth and 12th centuries, says Laura Fitzachary, a fashion and beauty historian. They are mentioned in The Trotula, a set of three texts on women’s medicine and cosmetics written in the 12th century in Salerno, Italy. It contains two recipes for removing freckles. The first was to create a mixture of oil of tartar and vinegar and “anoint on [a] freckled face for 15 days.” The other called for making a powder from a plant root, ground cuttlefish bones and frankincense, which was mixed with water and applied to the face before rubbing it with rose water or water of bran to gradually remove the freckles. 

“Having smooth, blemish-free skin is the general beauty ideal that's perpetuated by the historic west from the medieval period right up until the 20th century,” Fitzachary says.

There was a reason why the upper classes wanted to be freckle-free. “It marked you as someone who was a laborer and not of the upper class,” says Ilise Carter, a beauty historian and the author of Red Menace: How Lipstick Changed the Face of American History. The rejection of freckles was in line with the era’s xenophobic and classist biases against nonwhite and outdoor-working women.

From the 15th through 18th century, skin blemishes were seen as the result of excess blood—something associated with lust and “anxieties about female chastity.” That idea continued into the 19th century, when facial marks or blemishes were linked to “a woman’s ill temperament, living to excess or sinful misdeeds,” Fitzachary says.

Folklore across Europe also associated freckles and blemishes with witchcraft, she says. During the witch trials in England, women with fair, clear complexions were less likely to be accused, since fair skin was linked to goodness, as well as health and beauty.

Though 19th-century medicine was progressing rapidly, remnants of the humoral theory from antiquity lingered. The theory held that the human body contained four fluids (called humors)—black bile, yellow bile, blood and phlegm—that needed to remain balanced for good health. The levels of these humors were believed to fluctuate with the seasons, and doctors thought oxygen molecules in the skin became “excited” when exposed to sunlight, causing them to bind with compounds like iron and result in freckles or a tan. To prevent this, some women underwent bloodletting to rebalance their humors and avoid freckles or sunburn.

By this point, people understood that freckles were the product of spending time in the sun. “Of all the results that exposure of the skin to the sun or air produces, the most disagreeable is that known by the name of tan, or freckles,” wrote British physician and surgeon Dr. William Kittoe in his 1845 book The Ladies’ Medical Friend. He advised women never to be exposed to the sun “uncovered,” suggesting they wear a large bonnet or veil or carry a parasol. Women also wore gloves to protect their hands from the sun and some even ingested arsenic to whiten and brighten their skin, says Carter. "The goal was to look like a marble statue,” she says.

There were plenty of cosmetics on the market during the Victorian era that helped women achieve a “natural” look featuring a white, clear complexion. But these products weren’t accessible to everyone. “It's upper-class women—women of aristocracy—who have the luxury of time to apply cosmetics, and have the money and the time to worry about having blemish-free skin,” Fitzachary explains.

Though recipes for homemade freckle-removal formulas had existed for centuries, the first mass-manufacturered products began to appear in the late 19th century. Popular anti-freckle products included Dr. Berry’s Freckle Ointment, Othine Freckle Remover and Stillman’s Freckle Cream. 

“In the late 1930s and into the 1940s, at-home freckle removal products like Stillman’s became more accessible and promised to unveil young, healthy, beautiful skin underneath,” Fitzachary says. “Right around World War II you start to get wording [focused on] revealing youth, rejuvenation, lustrousness, and brightness of skin.” 

Around the same time, women could undergo what was essentially an early form of a chemical peel, which caused severe inflammation and peeling. “That level of dermis comes off, and with it some of the melanin that’s created your freckles,” she says.

Perhaps the best-known jar of freckle cream was discovered in 2012 on an uninhabited island in the southwestern Pacific republic of Kiribati. Though broken into five fragments, it resembled a jar of Dr. Berry’s Freckle Ointment. Some speculate it belonged to aviator Amelia Earhart—who was known to dislike her freckles—and theorize it could have ended up on the island if her plane crashed there when she disappeared in 1937.

In the mid-to-late-20th century, attitudes toward sun exposure began to change. As the United States developed a larger middle class with the means to take vacations and spend time outdoors, tanning and freckles became fashionable. “Sun-kissed skin showed that you have leisure time, and became adopted by the upper class,” Carter says.

In the 1960s, British model Twiggy helped make freckles vogue by choosing not to cover hers with makeup. The growing acceptance of freckles was part of the Youthquake cultural movement, Fitzachary says, which embraced the youthful look of teenagers.

The 21st century ushered in a new era for freckles. Faux, drawn-on freckles appeared on the spring/summer 2014 runways, and TikTok trends have featured freckles as a sign of beauty. People are "drawing them on their face to look youthful and sun-kissed,” Fitzachary says.