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Cosmetics: Magic for the Face Then and Now
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12787 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
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3 / 1987 |
2,157 Words |
| Author
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Judy Wade
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Makeup has not always been used to create a charming face. In early days, it was used in creating frightening faces for religious rituals or to repel incomprehensible terrors.
As long ago as 5,000 B.C., Egyptians smeared their bodies with grease and oil from the castor plant, tattooed their faces and bodies, and wore eye makeup. By 3,500 B.C., they had developed cosmetics for sun protection. Wall paintings show young children with garish eye makeup that evidently was used as a sunscreen. In Egyptian village remains, archaeologists have discovered eye paint ground from green malachite, along with ointments and perfumes, used for trade.
Dead dignitaries were honored with gifts of eye paint, memorialized in the tomb of Khum-Hotep paintings. Mummies still bear traces of the face makeup they were adorned with. Black antimony powder was used to emphasize the eyebrows, and the typical Egyptian "Wings," extending from the eyes to the sides of the face, were executed in a type of kohl derived from lead ore.
Early Romans relied on Egypt for the cosmetics they were unable to produce, inspiring a lively trade between the two countries. Through this trade Cleopatra became renowned to the Romans, as they learned of her custom of wearing black galena (lead sulfide) on her lids and brows, and bright blues and greens on her eyelids.
The importance of cosmetics in bygone times is demonstrated in a British Museum exhibit of an upper-class Egyptian lady's makeup case dated around 1,300 B.C. It contains many contemporary looking utensils and special slippers as well as cushions to support the lady's elbows while she applied her makeup. There are eye pencils made of wood and ivory, and a liquid ointment that served as both cosmetic and sunscreen for the eyes. She used a bronze mixing dish to develop her own colors. Other pots probably held face creams that contained animal fat scented with perfumed resin.
A 5,000-year-old lipstick was found by archaeologists at Ur on the Euphrates. They also discovered what was probably the first nonsurgical face-lift technique. Ancient Egyptian women smeared egg white on their faces and left it to dry - a technique still recommended by cosmeticians today because of its ability to tighten pores temporarily.
By around 300 B.C., during the reign of the Ptolemies, the Egyptians were using the natural ores of their country to produce pigments for purple and blue eye shadow. They used ocher for their cheeks and carmine on their mouths.
The Japanese were also using cosmetics in early times. Tomb sculptures of the third century A.D. show figures with highly cosmeticized faces. The early Greeks, too, used makeup, although the housewife was not a prime consumer. It was the courtesans who touched up their eyebrows and eyelids with brushes dipped in incense black and black kohl. They tinted their cheeks with puperissium, a root plant that they softened in vinegar, and whitened and smoothed skin blemishes with ceruse, a white lead that endured for centuries and is now considered to be the culprit that ravaged many pretty complexions.
While the Romans were ruining their faces with makeup, the East Indians were refining
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