A "beauty spot", fashionable throughout the first three quarters of the century and an item of coquettery.
The mouche was made of superfine silk, usually black, and stuck to various parts of the face, throat and/or décolleté. There were different names and meanings depending on the shape and position of the mouche - most of the meanings were juicy.
Shapes, position, meanings and and names changed with fashion over the century, but the temple and décolleté remained favourite throughout. Possible shapes - growing more extravagant as the century progressed - preferably had frivolous associations, such as hearts and cupids, and could - according to rumour - be as eccentric as a carriage with four horses.