Beauty Products Across History

With all the billions of dollars spent per year globally on skin care products, sometimes we may catch ourselves questioning, “How did it get to this point? When did it become the par for me to get up every morning and before I even go out the door have to paint my face from top to bottom? Surely a woman way back in the past did not simply 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 culmination of things from ages past.

Who remembers the Egyptians? That was over four millenia ago. Good hygeine and looks were extremely meaningful to the Egyptians. Egyptians had the belief that the appearance was in direct connection with the health of the spirit. They attempted to constantly look and smell pleasant. And with a civilization who values their appearance, societies are assuredly going to have humans who are going to attempt to stand out. But the Egyptians, being the innovative people they were, used cosmetics for reasons that were even more intelligent than just trying to look great.

Mesdemet was the most original type of eye shadow- a substance made of copper with lead ore. The dark colors they thought would avert evil eyes from their own. It was also an efficient disinfectant and bug deterrent. Kohl was a dark combination that was also put on around the eyes in an oval shape. Kohl was a mixture of lead, ash, ochre, copper, and burnt almonds. A mixture 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 substance known as henna.

As civilizations began to interact with each other more often, the art of make-up was adopted by the Greeks from the Egyptians. Greek women would color themselves a pale color with a base that had lead in it. This ended up being fatal more than once. As the Romans began to adopt the cosmetics practice, the pursuit of beauty became less about functionability and turned into much more unusual routes. They would adorn their nails with a mixture of sheeps blood and cooked body fat. An ancient Roman man once said, A woman without paint is like food without salt.

Long after the Egyptian empire crumbled, the fashion norm across the world was a white complexion. A tanned, dehydrated face was associated with being a plebeian who labored outdoors all day along with her husband. The upper class women obviously did not have to do physical work like that so they were able to stay out of the sun and had white faces.

Success was often measured by a person's light skin tone. A person did not have to labor if they had enough wealth. So it was very important for some people to have a light complexion. To achieve this look, women (and men too) would use a mixture of hydroxide, lead oxide, and carbonate in a powder form to paint their faces and bodies. Unfortunately, this lead to a sometimes deadly side effect, lead poisoning.To remedy this problem, chemists in the nineteenth century finally invented 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 death. It was so effective that it is still practiced today by cosmetics manufacturers.

Exttravagant and exotic parties were hosted by urban women with throw away money in the Edwardian era of England. As hostesses of the party, it was important for them to be the best looking woman at the gathering, so it was crucially important for them to look the youngest they possibly could. Women in the past who lived these excessive lifestyles did not have good diets, would not work out, and breathed in the heavily polluted air that the cities of the past produced. Women would rely on products like anti-aging creams and face creams to help hide their imperfections. They would also travel to the beauty salon. It was a little different back then than it is today. Women would sneak into the back of the salons and cover their faces as they entered. One of the most famous of these discreet beauty houses was the House of Cyclax, that would sell creams and rouges to ladies. Mrs. Henning, who was the owner, sold and created many products for her frenzied customers who did not want anybody to know that they were getting old.

The modern day woman is the benefactor of years of trial and error with a practically never ending 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. Cosmetic products sell all year and even in times of financial hardship. Therefore ladies, give thanks to your ancestors and their concern for their personal looks for your own that you have nowadays. They probably didn't want to put on their face some mornings either.

Michael Usry is the author of the online instructional articles "Beauty and Health in Plain English" and a top affiliate of skin care one of the premier women's health websites.