Makeup Articles

With all the billions of dollars spent annually across the world\in the world on beauty products, sometimes we may find ourselves questioning, How did it get to this ? When did it become the rule for me to get up each morning and before I even leave am required to paint my face from completely? It is certain a female way back in old times did not all of a sudden wake up one day and decide to put on eyelashes, lipstick, eyeliner, foundation, and rouge all at once. No, it was, like many things, a building up of things from ages past.

Remember the Egyptians? That was four millenia ago. Cleanliness and looks were extremely serious to the people of Egypt. Egyptians believed the appearance was in direct connection with the well being of the spirit. They attempted to constantly look and smell pleasant. And with a society who values their appearance, they are assuredly going to have humans who are going to attempt to stand out. But the Egyptians, being the innovative culture they were, had cosmetics for reasons that were even more intelligent than just trying to look good.

Mesdemet was the most original kind of eye shadow- a combination of copper and lead ore. The dark shades they believed would avert evil eyes from their own. It was also an effective disinfectant and insect repellent. Kohl was a dark combination that was also put on around the eyes in an oval shape. It was a combination of lead, ash, ochre, copper, and burnt almonds. A combination of red clay and water was added to the cheeks to further enhance their appearance. They would also paint their nails shades of orange and yellow with a chemical known as henna.

Wealth was often measured by a person's light skin tone. If families had enough money, then you did not have to do anything. So a pale skin color was extremely crucial to some members of society. To get this appearance, women (and men also) would use a mixture of hydroxide, lead oxide, and carbonate in a powdered form to paint their faces and skin. Unfortunately, this caused a sometimes lethal side effect, lead poisoning.To remedy this problem, chemists in the nineteenth century at last invented a mixture of zinc oxide that made the skin able to breathe and kept people out of that irritating lead poisoning sickness. It worked so well that it is still practiced today by cosmetics manufacturers.

As cultures began to interact with each other more often, the practice of cosmetics was adapted by the Greeks from the Egyptians. Greek women would color themselves a pale shade with a base that had lead in it. More than once this ended up being fatal. As the Romans started to adopt the make-up habits, the effort to achieve beauty became less about functionability and turned into much more peculiar routes. They would decorate their nails with a mixture of sheeps blood and heated body fat. An old Roman man once stated, A woman without paint is like food without salt.

Many years after the Egyptian empire crumbled, the fashion norm around the world was a light skin color. Only women who were low-class and had to work out in the field all day with their husbands had dark, sun dired skin. The upper society women of course did not participate in manual labor like that therefore they stayed out of the sun and had white faces.

In the Edwardian era of London, about the time of the change of the century of 1900, society women with a disposable income would host exotic parties and do a bunch of entertaining to show off 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. City and exotic lifestyles with factors like dirty air produced by the cities at that time, poor diets, and little or no exercise aged the women fast. They would need products like anti-aging foams and face creams to mask their blemishes. Routine trips to the salon were also a normal part of the day. It was a little different back then than it is today. Ladies would go into the back of the salons and cover their faces as they went in. One of the most famous of these discreet beauty salons was the House of Cyclax, who would sell foams and rouges to ladies. Mrs. Henning, the owner, sold and created many products for her desperate customers who did not want anybody to know that they were getting older.

The modern day woman is the benefactor of years of mistakes with a practically unlimited choice of products for any look they want to accomplish. The beauty product business has become a billion dollar industry with literally thousands of competing companies. Skin Care products sell all year and even in times of financial hardship. So ladies, thank your ancestors and their concern for their own appearance for your own that you have nowadays. There were possibly mornings when they woke up and didn’t really want to go through the hassle of applying their face either.