Makeup Articles

With all the billions of dollars spent per year across the world\in the world on skin care products, often we may find ourselves questioning, How did it get to this point? When did this become the norm for me to wake up each morning and before I even go out the door feel obligated to paint my face from top to bottom? Surely a female way back in the past did not just wake up one morning and make the decision to put on eyelashes, lipstick, eyeliner, base, and blush all at once. As you might have guessed, it was a combination of thousands of years and lots of learning experiences.

The Egyptians were the first to use cosmetics. That was over four millenia ago. Cleanliness and looks were terribly meaningful to the Egyptians. They believed the appearance had a direct juncture with the well being of the spirit. They attempted to constantly look and smell good. And with a culture who values their looks, you are inevitably going to have humans who are going to make themselves stand out. But the Egyptians, being the inventive civilization they were, had cosmetics for reasons that were even more practical than just attempting to look great.

Mesdemet was the earliest type of eye shadow- a substance made of copper with lead ore. The dark shades they believed would avert evil eyes from their own. It was also an efficient sterilizer and bug deterrent. Kohl was a dark powder that was applied around the eyes in an oval shape. It was a mixture of lead, ash, ochre, copper, and burnt almonds. A mixture of red clay and water was added to the cheekbone area to further enhance their appearance. They would also paint their nails hues of orange and yellow with a chemical known as henna.

A light, pale complexion was also a symbol of abundance. If families had enough wealth, then you did not have to labor. So it was extremely important for some people to have a white complexion. To get this appearance, women (and men too) would use a mixture of hydroxide, lead oxide, and carbonate in a powder form to paint their faces and skin. Unfortunately, this lead to a sometimes fatal side effect, lead poisoning.To cure this, chemists in the nineteenth century finally created a combination of zinc oxide that did not block the skin from being able to breathe and kept people out of that aggravating lead poisoning sickness. It was so effective that it is still practiced today by cosmetics producers.

A white complexion was the fashion around the world after the Egyptian civilization disappeared. A tanned, sun-dried face was associated with being a pleb who worked out in the field all day alongside her spouse. The upper class ladies of course did not have to endure hard work like that so they were able to stay under the roof and had white skin.

As time moved on and civilizations were exposed to each other more and more, the Greeks began to pick up on the various habits of the Egyptians use of cosmetics. They would color themselves a pale color with a base that had lead in it. This proved terminal more than once. As the Romans began to adopt the cosmetics practice, the effort to achieve beauty became less about functionability and took a turn into much more unusual routes. The Romans would decorate their nails with a combination of sheeps blood and cooked body fat. An ancient Roman citizen once said, A woman without paint is like food without salt.

In the Edwardian era of London, about the time of the turn of the century of 1900, women with a recreational income would throw exotic parties and do a lot of entertaining to exhibit their wealth. It was extremely important for a woman to be the most attractive belle there, especially if they were the hostess of the gathering. Women at that time who lived these exorbitant lifestyles did not eat nutritiously, would not work out, and inhaled the heavily polluted air that the cities of the time produced. They would rely on products like anti-aging foams and face creams to help hide their imperfections. They would also go to the salon. It was a little different in the past than it is in the present. Ladies would sneak into the back entrance of the salons and hide their faces as they entered. One of the most famous of these secret beauty salons was the House of Cyclax, who would sell foams and rouges to women. Mrs. Henning, who was the owner, sold and created multiple products for her frenzied consumers who did not want anyone to know that they were getting on in the years.

The modern day woman is the benefactor of years of mistakes with a virtually never ending choice of products for any look they want to achieve. The beauty product business has become a billion dollar industry with literally thousands of competing companies. Skin Care products sell year round and even in times of financial hardship. So ladies, give thanks to your ancestors and their concern for their personal appearance for yours that you have today. There were possibly mornings when they woke up and didn’t really want to go through the trouble of putting on their face either.