The Origins of Makeup
Women have always pursued ideal beauties, ranging from tribal practices such as scarification, to the daily routines of makeup application in our modern day society. We like to use cosmetics to enhance what God gave us, create what he didn’t and conceal what we wish he hadn’t!
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Ancient Egyptian makeup
Egyptian Era
The first recorded forms of cosmetics traces back to the Egyptian empire, about 4000 BC. Egyptian women used kohl, made with ingredients such as burned almonds, lead and soot, to blacken their lashes and upper lid. Cleopatra even made her lipstick from crushed beetles! In fact, their cosmetic line was impressive to say the least. Can you believe that in those days they had developed natural formulas to make hair grow and get rid of scars, wrinkles and stretch marks?
The concept of enhancing natural beauty with makeup started to spread throughout the middle east, with Romans, Greeks and Arabs taking a liking to the idea. A Roman philosopher once said “A woman without paint is like food without salt” and a medical encyclopedia has been found to have described makeup as the “Medicine of Beauty”.
Victorian and Elizabethan Era
However, cosmetic practices weren’t always favoured as they spread into Europe. Church leaders in the middle ages thought it was sinful and immoral to wear makeup, being misleadingly arousing for men. This led to makeup being deemed unladylike, against common social etiquette and banished to the prostitutes. However, Queen Elizabeth | was a trend setter. Her portraits popularized the black lips look, as well as the white painted face known as ‘the Mask of Youth’. Women in the Elizabethan and Victorian era liked to be thought of as fragile, associating those with a suntan to be the vulgar working class. The paler you were, the more you could afford to not work and stay indoors. Ladies would go to great lengths to whiten their skin, including drinking vinegar and discreetly painting blue lines on the skin to increase the appearance of veins showing through.
20th Century
The salon business began. Initially, customers would sneak in the back door, not wanting others to know they needed help in looking beautiful. However, with the opening of Selfridges in the beginning of the 20th century, cosmetics were being sold on the open market and the industry was established. As the years went on, trends in different makeup looks were coming and going. The industry was flourishing into the multi-billion dollar industry it is today.
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