There are legends that
Cleopatra bathed in
goat milk daily for her
complexion. These legends have not been confirmed and some historians believe that Roman Empress
Poppaea (wife of
Nero) set this bathing fashion after Cleopatra's death.[2][better source needed]
Tincture of benzoin was also referred to as a 'milk bath' in the United States in the 1800s, which could in some cases be confused for baths of cow milk, also popular at the time.[5]
There are references to cows milk as a bath technique found in India in the 1800s in "Fifty-one years of Victorian life" by Margaret Elizabeth Child Villiers,Countess of Jersey.[6]
In the early 1900s, singer and Broadway star
Anna Held was reported to bathe in milk daily. She was later quoted as having bathed in milk two times a week when living in Paris, finding it difficult to do so while traveling. Her husband
Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. later reported to the press that she bathed in milk daily and set up photo shoots so that reporters could photograph the milk being delivered to her.[7]
A buttermilk bath was also a common historical bathing technique for show animals and remains in practice today (such as for pigs and dogs).[8]
In folklore
According to scholars, milk baths were used "as a recipe for beauty", as well as for healing, rejuvenation and disenchantment.[9]
In film and media
A milk bath for supposed medicinal purposes for a dying child can be seen in the 1931 film Night Nurse.