The history of makeup is fascinating and perhaps it can help us understand why it is still so important and why we keep using it. Ancient civilizations such as the Egyptians or the Chinese have a history with the use of minerals as makeup for men and women, makeup is even mentioned in the Bible as well.
Actually, makeup, in addition to beautifying us, has deeper meanings for some cultures. In some regions of Africa, for example, they use clay with dried plants and flowers to color their faces and convey messages; it is also a form of language and symbolism.
The main pioneering civilizations that used natural materials to make themselves beautiful are the Egyptian and Chinese. While the Egyptians were the inventors of eyeliner, Chinese royalty in the Zhou Dynasty used gelatin, beeswax, or egg white to paint their nails gold and silver. This practice continued for a long time, even the colors to be used on the nails defined the social class of the population, since the lower classes were forbidden to use bright or shiny colors.
Egypt and the eyeliner
During the Cleopatra era, the Egyptian royalty used bright lipstick made from carmine beetles, while the poorer citizens used clay mixed with water to color their lips. Makeup wasn’t just for women but also for men, they both wore kohl eyeliner, however, it wasn’t about vanity, it was meant to protect them against the evil eye and other spiritual dangers.
Egyptian beautification could have originated from rituals that honored gods and goddesses, unknowingly, the eyeliner also had a sunglasses effect by deflecting the sun and the lead in the kohl also killed off bacteria and prevented infections.
China and the blossom petal on the forehead
There’s a story in Chinese culture that influenced makeup trends of this civilization. It is said that Princess Shouyang fell asleep under a plum tree and a blossom petal fell and stained her forehead, enhancing her beauty; when she passed away she was worshiped as the goddess of the plum blossom.
This legend is the origin of the meihua zhuang or plum blossom, where women would decorate their foreheads with petals or paint flowers using sorghum powder, gold powder, and jade. This makeup gained popularity among courtly women during the Southern Dynasty from 420 to 589 CE.
Greeks and Romans with the pale skin
They would ground up stones to create the first-ever face powders to make the skin as pale as possible and this ‘trend’ continued until the end of the 19th century. However, it wasn’t the healthiest thing to do. In the 16th century, women would bleed themselves to achieve pale skin.
Japan and Geisha makeup
The famous Geisha, traditional Japanese female entertainers trained in traditional Japanese performing arts styles, first appeared in 1751 and used to wear lipstick made of crushed safflower petals and to paint their eyebrows and the edges of their eyes as well.
Europe
Since being pale was a trend, Spanish sex workers would wear pink makeup to contrast their pale skin and in the 13th century, Italian women wore red lipstick to show they were upper class.
Queen Victoria
The history of makeup continued to evolve and would explain trends that we still use today, however, there was a moment in history when Queen Victoria publicly stated that makeup was vulgar and improper due to its connection with the lower-class or sex workers.
This moment was full of strict codes of dress among upper-class women meant that only lower-class or sex workers used makeup to clour their eyes, lips and cheeks; despite this, the upper-class was in more danger because of the lead-and-vinegar mixture that made up the ceruse face powders caused hair loss, muscle paralysis, and even death.
20th Century
Over the years, the evolution of make-up began to become a risk for those who wore it. For example, in the early 1900′s, face enameling became a very risky trend, because it involved applying actual paint to the face. The trend became popular among the rich to look paler, this was dangerous due to the main ingredient often being arsenic.
Suddenly, the demand for commercially made and sold makeup as we know emerged mainly because the appearance of one revolutionizing invention: the camera. The affordability of mirrors and the emergence of the starlet were also important in the development of makeup.
We could say that the cinema influenced the makeup evolution because although it was already used on theatrical stages, bringing it to the cinema was more complicated because stage makeup was too thick and didn’t transfer very well to film, so new innovations were needed.
It was in 1914 when Max Factor, a London-based cosmetics company, created a semi-liquid version taking the original greasepaint formula that could be stored in jars. Maybelline appeared in 1917 with a mascara made of petroleum jelly and coal dust that founder Thomas Williams invented for his sister Maybel.
From here many brands began to emerge and compete with each other and makeup became an industry that started to monetize too much until it became what we know today.
Today, the trend is to have a more natural approach to makeup, but it doesn’t mean that products and techniques stop evolving.