Sarah Rachel Russell

Sarah Rachel Russell or Leverson or Levison (c.1814 – 12 October 1880) was a British con artist, businesswoman, entrepreneur, suspected brothel manager, and felon who lived in early nineteenth century London, England during the reign of Queen Victoria. She owned and managed her own beauty salon where she sold goods and services that promised consumers eternal youth and beauty. Russell was especially renowned for her "Magnetic Rock Dew" tonic, allegedly sourced from the Sahara desert. In reality, her business was based on false promises of eternal youth and beauty to unwitting consumers, with many of the products she created being either useless, such as those made of water and bran, or even harmful. Russell's heavy use of marketing and fraudulent business practices would eventually lead to other illegitimate money-making schemes, resulting in her arrest and series of trials for fraud. She would later become notorious for blackmailing many elite women of London's upper classes.

Madame Rachel’s childhood took place in the Victorian Era of London, England, specifically the early nineteenth century. and born into a Jewish family. Growing up around the city’s most poverty ridden and severely overpopulated East End meant that she was one of the less fortunate in terms of having a stable income. To combat her issue of having little to no money, Russell would sell and distribute items in an area of her home city called Wapping.

Sarah Rachel Russell's younger years and time into adolescence would kickstart her introduction to way she could bring profit to her household. Her products of purchase would consist of skins of rabbits, dehydrated fish, hawking bottles, and even her used wardrobe in the means of making a quick buck. The hyper fixation and desire of selling goods and services to the public would bleed into her adulthood, however, would consist of disingenuous motives behind her marketing demographic and advertising strategies.

Russell’s adulthood years would continuously consist of bringing money into her household. She was married three times, which involved her marriage to an assistant chemist in Manchester and in 1844 to Jacob Moses, who deserted her in 1846 and later drowned when the Royal Charter sank in 1859.^[1] She lived with, and took the surname of, Philip Levison.^[2] She worked as a clothes dealer and later was briefly jailed for procurement before selling cosmetics and toiletries in 1860. Jobs pursued would consist of running and operating a fried fish shop in the Clare Market (now present-day London School of Economics), fortune telling priced at a penny within the Covent Garden’s public houses, and working in the sex work industry by recruiting actresses working for Drury Lane’s theatres to toil in a brothel owned and operated by one of her companions in Long Acre, which is a street located in Westminster in London.

Around the 1850’s, Russell begins to expand her marketing horizons by dabbling in the beauty and cosmetics industry. She would curate and sell hair dyes to the public and ultimately led her path towards success in this field of marketing. This accomplishment in sales led to Russell changing her clientele to richer, more lavish individuals now under the title of “cosmetician”. In the year 1863 and now under her new alias as “Madame Rachel”, she bought and opened a salon on Bond Street in the Mayfair District of London. This area had a reputation of being “snobby” or “stuck up” due to the opulent, wealthy citizens that roamed. Being neck deep in an industry where you are a provider of personal goods and services that could benefit a potential customer’s internal, self-perceiving conflict was a perfect front to make an increased, skyrocketing profit. The slogan “Beautiful for Ever” was plastered above the front door across the salon acted as bait to prey on the naivety of women and men seeking to be beautiful and committing to conventional beauty standards during the Victorian Era of England.

Cosmetics and beauty experienced an astronomical boom around the 1860’s. During this time in the Victorian Era, it was declared “unladylike” to wear makeup. In fact, wearable cosmetic products used to enhance one’s features were meant to be indulged by those in theatre and the sex work industry. The only way women and men could adhere to conventional beauty standard was to be of nobility status and from pinching one’s cheeks and biting lips to enhance the blood flow to those certain areas of the face, ultimately achieving that flushed, youthful look. A sense of yearning for the day that British citizens didn’t have to solely rely on dangerous, at-home beauty concoctions was strong. Madame Rachel opening the doors of her salon was the solution they needed and desired.

The presence that Madame Russell exuded was that of someone who regularly visited areas outside of Britain and had knowledge of the exotic products she sold. She donned lush robes, beautiful jewelry that draped her physique, and adorned herself with crystal talismans. One of her pricey goods was called “Magnetic Rock Dew of the Sahara”, which had the purpose of wrinkle removal and ranged at a price of $160 in today’s money. According to the product’s description, it offered to increase the rate of youth in the individual that used it and had been used in the country of Morocco for its helping agent. Other commodities that she sold in her salon were called the Circassia Golden Hair Wash, which aided in the problem of greying hair, Royal Arabian face cream, Honey of Mount Hymettus soap, Arab Bloom face powder, and various essences, perfumes, creams, and washes.

Like many Victorian Era cosmetics, Russell's products were often based on or included substances known to be toxic, such as arsenic, corrosive sublimate, and prussic acid. Lead carbonate was also used, however, the connection between lead and its negative health impacts would not be widely recognized until the turn of the 19th century.

Otherwise known as “enameling of the face”, this cosmetic practice would be used to whiten one’s skin color and came to be due to the high demand of confining to the predominant English beauty standard of being fair-skinned, which resembled a symbol nobility and wealth. The dark secret of these skin-whitening practices through Russell was that it was severely dangerous from copious amounts of arsenic in the mixture she used. Majority of the ingredients were poisonous and caustic and would eventually lead to skin inflammation or sometimes death depending on how regularly the person used it consistently. The sad reality of this demand was that conventional beauty standards negatively morphed the self-perception of the individual who was seeking to be beautiful.

By any means to be considered attractive in the eyes of those living in nineteenth-century Britain, desperate consumers would flood through Madame Russell’s salon’s doors despite their skepticism. That was until the law caught up with her fraudulent acts and fake claims.

Sarah Rachel Russell was involved in many marketing scandals and was a notorious con artist in the beauty industry. She took part in other schemes that she believed could make her more profit and did so unlawfully. Madame Rachel was exposed for consistently blackmailing female consumers that were not able to pay in-full their first trip shopping, having her goods and offered services being deemed as fake, distributing abortion-inducing medications, and potentially running a brothel right above her salon.

Though she had first been tried in August of 1868, the first attempt at legal action against Russell failed and no conviction was reached.^[3] Retried a month later, Russell was- after a sensational four day trial ( (1868-September-22) (1868-September-25)September 22–25, 1868)- convicted of fraud and sentenced to five years in prison, which she served in Millbank Prison.^[4] Baron Huddleston was part of the prosecution.^[5]

An individual that frequently visited Madame Rachel's beauty shop was a woman by the name of Mary Borradaile. She was a widow and had a financial income that placed her within the middle-class tax bracket. Being considered "prey" among Rachel's predator-like traits meant that she fell victim to the conartist's ploys to steal money from her with fake, hallow promises of beauty and having a youthful presence. Borradaile indulged in Madame Russell's exotic baths and makeup, however was hesitant to splurge larger amounts of money on other expensive services.

Using careless methods to get what she desired, Sarah Rachel Russell would do anything for the sake of making profit which also meant harming her customers psychologically and mentally. Borradaile had a relationship blooming with a gentleman named Thomas Heron Jones, who was seventh Viscount Ranelagh. To damage her reputation as a widower, Russell claimed that Ranelagh wanted to arrange a secret marriage between him and Borradaile. This rumor gave her the advantaged to take widowess's inheritance she received from her late husband, which was approximately over $7,000 in US currency.

During the trial, Mary Borradaile was on the stand as a victim of Russell's fraudulent endeavors and mistreatment, however it was debated if the jury would show remorse or be in favor of her. During the court hearings, she was losing respect as a person because of how the jury felt about her role as a consumer and her moral standpoint of spending her late husband's money. Using her income from a late marriage partner on goods and services that were not deemed as necessary made Borradaile look incompetent and selfish. This sparked the conversation of middle-class women and their role as buyers and those who spend their money on useless services.

When she was released from clandestine prison in April 1872, Russell started and operated a new beauty business on Duke Street and then later in Great Portland Street. 1877 marked a decade since she swindled Borradaile of her money and was the year she found another victim that would fall into her trap by the name of Mrs. Pearce. By the time she was able to sense she was getting scammed, Russell pawned all the family jewels she used as payment to know of and use the "secret" that would make her beautiful forever. Pearce took Russell to court in the year 1878 of April and was convicted a second time where she had to serve 5 years-penal servitude.

Six years after her initial release in 1872, she was tried a second time in 1878 and was again sentenced to jail in Woking.

The effects of Russell’s trial had sparked criticisms from everyday buyers that her manipulative advertising had been mishandled for a decent amount of time, which caused a sense of anxiety to purchase from other sellers. The multiple series of trials proved that there were not proper laws set in place to protect British consumers from the false, harmful advertising and products marketed for them.

Her daughter Helene Crossmond-Turner was an operatic soprano who overcame the scandal associated with "Madame Rachel" and sang with success in England, America, and Italy, notably in the role of Aida in Verdi's opera of the same name. On April 22, 1888, following an argument with the producer, Augustus Harris, over a contract to appear at Covent Garden, in which she tore up the agreement and was replaced by alternative singers, she shot herself in the back of a cab at Piccadilly Circus, later dying at nearby St. George's Hospital.

She was a cousin of the musician Henry Russell.^[6]

In 1880, she died in Woking Prison on October 12, 1880 after serving two years^[7] and claimed to be knowledgeable of the secrets of beauty until the day she died. She is buried in Willesden Jewish Cemetery in London;^[7] her grave is hard to find, and does not have a headstone.

• Rappaport, Helen (2010). Beautiful for Ever: Madame Rachel of Bond Street – Cosmetician, Con-Artist and Blackmailer. Ebrington, Gloucestershire: Long Barn Books. ISBN 978-1-902421-52-0.
• Imbler, Sabrina. “The Victorian Influencer Who Peddled Poisonous Beauty Elixirs.” Atlas Obscura, Sabrina Imbler, 6 Aug. 2019,^[1]
• Rappaport, Helen. “Beautiful for Ever: The True Story of Madame Rachel.” Helen Rappaport, 12 Sept. 2018, https://www.helenrappaport.com/womens-history/the-true-story-of-madame-rachel/
• Whitlock, Tammy. “A ‘Taint Upon Them’: The Madame Rachel Case, Fraud, and Retail Trade in Nineteenth-Century England.” Victorian Review, vol. 24, no. 1, June 1998, pp. 29–52,^[2][3]

• Jones, Glyn (1971). Beautiful For Ever – A Play for women London: Samuel French Ltd. ISBN 978-0573130014
• The Extraordinary Life & Trial of Madame Rachel at the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, London at The Open Library