About This Episode
What is this episode about?
The episode "ShortHand: Deadly Beauty Practices" from RedHanded covers the toxic history of beauty hacks, tracing how far human vanity has pushed people in the quest to look drop dead gorgeous. The episode moves From Belladonna eye drops used to create a fashionable dilated-pupil look, through to the practice of literally eating arsenic in pursuit of a flawless complexion.
Rather than a single case, this ShortHand episode surveys a range of historical beauty practices that carried serious, sometimes fatal, risks. It asks a simple but chilling question: would you risk your life for the perfect makeover? The episode frames these Deadly Beauty Practices as part of a longer pattern of people pursuing beauty ideals regardless of the cost to their health, with a clear warning that none of these methods should ever be attempted.
Hosts and release
Suruthi Bala and Hannah Maguire host RedHanded, a weekly show with roughly 400 episodes covering serial killers, cults, and lesser-known criminal cases. This particular installment is a shorter ShortHand entry, running 27 minutes as episode number 240, released on September 22, 2026. The show is available on Spotify and Amazon Music, with exclusive bonus content offered via Patreon. Listeners interested in the broader catalogue can find flere episoder af showet covering similar dark corners of history and true crime.
