Vanity is as old as mankind. From the Pharaoes of Egypt to modern day women, cosmetics and make up have played an important role in culture. Caution was thrown to the wind in order to achieve the beauty ideal of the time.
Egypt
The ancient Egyptians put great value on cleanliness and personal hygiene. They were the frist known civilisation to use some kind of deodorant to fight body odor which easily developed in the heat. Little balls of incense were inserted in the cavities where limbs met. Perfumes in the form of cones, made of flowers soaked in oil or fat, were worn on the head. The cones slowly melted and the liquid perfume ran down over neck and body.
Decorative cosmetics were extremely popular, particulalry for the eyes. Green and black eye shadow prevailed. The green was obtained from ground malachite, an oxide of copper. Not a healthy option. The black was khol, made from a sulfide of lead. Lethal lead plays a great role in cosmetics over the centuries. Later, khol was made from soot. The paste was applied with little, rounded wooden sticks. Wigs were also popular, but natural hair was dyed using henna . Red ochre mixed with fat served as lip gloss.
Middle Ages
Contrary to common belief, bathing was originally widespread in the Middle Ages. This habit only changed at the time of the Great Plague, when physicians started to believe, that the infection penetrated the pores of the skin with the use of water.
Teeth were brushed with the help of green hazel twigs and rouge was made from brazil wood chips, soaked in rose water. On the other hand, if the face was too red, root of cyclamen was a popular remedy.
Christian teachings condemned the use of make up, but the crusaders brought its influence back from the East.
Renaissance
Renaissane saw a great make up revival. The female ideal was blond or red-gold hair, very white skin and very red lips. In order to achieve this, a quite lethal concoction was lavishly used. It's called ceruse and is a paste made from white lead (!) and vinegar, thickly applied to face, neck and chest. Equally poisonous belladonna drops were dripped into the eyes to make them sparkle. Raw egg white would be swept over the face to hide wrinkles and the hair was treated with henna and - quite revolting - urine.
Well known is the so called Venetian Hat. It's a wide-brimmed straw hat with a big hole in the crown. The ladies' long hair was pulled through, covered with camomille and egg yolk and they would then sit for hours in the sun to bleach their locks. Vermillion served as rouge for lips and cheeks.
18th Century
Hygiene in the form of bathing declined, to be replaced by perfumes and layers of powder. Some historians think, that parasites might have lived in the make up. Use however was lavish, by men and women alike. Face paint was obtained from saffron and flower pollen which was an improvement over lead powder. To make the skin more translucient, blue coloring was used to trace the veins. Black silk or felt beauty spots, originally invented to hide smallpox marks, became all the rage and grew in numbers and size.
Victorian Times
The French Revolution changed the abundance of make up and it further declined in Victorian times. Rouge and lipstick were considered indecent and a woman wearing it earned a bad reputation. A lady was allowed a hint of face powder and nothing else.
From the 1880s onwards, moral attitude towards make up changed again and with the emergence of beautiful and quite respectable models, much admired and featured in magazines, a revival began which lasts to this day. Dangerous ingedients like lead and belladonna were of course abandoned in favour of chemical formulas as the cosmetics industry grew and advanced. Today's trend turns more and more towards natural and organic products, so hopefully, the wish for beauty will no longer be incompatible with good health.
