The History Of Make Up

So let's start to look at the history of make up. From what I believe it takes us back firstly to the ancient Egyptians around 3500 BC. Famous Egyptians like Nefertiti, Nefertari, Clepoatra and the mask of Tutankhamun all have very distinguished.

With so many Hieroglyphics, we can clearly see this evidence. Their make up would have been all the original chalk colours like red, green, blue and black. Perhaps they used other colours to.

For what I hace seen also in various books over the years is the ancient Greeks, Romans, Mayans, Chinese, Japanese would have used make up to. However some of them I wonder may have used it in battle and some I guess still do.

The ancient kingdom of Israel was influenced by cosmetics as recorded in the Old Testament. In 2 Kings 9:30 Jezebel painted her eyelids and accordinbg to the bible it is dated approximately 840 BC.

Another Biblical reference is Esther. This book describes various beauty treatments as well. Another point in the history of make up is the middle ages although, this period of history was not for its use and it was frowned upon by Church leaders. This did not stop women from wearing it though.

Now an interesting piece of information I came across was that women started a new craze in the make up world. If you like we can call it Elizabethan Make Up era. What women did was to have a pale-skinned complexion.

Not very pleasant. I guess this is where the term pale and interesting comes from, also the term "Pale English Rose". A bit dangerous also given the fact of lead poisoning.

Anyway another thing they could do to achieve the look like an English Rose was to drink vinegar and avoiding fresh air. Wow amazing looking back at make up history. It is fascinating and the Elizabethan Make Up to me was just a bit iffy and a tad dangerous, all that for pale skin!

I don't think I would have fancied that and perhaps those ladies had a lot more problems going on with them all for the sake of fashion. Isn't it amazing how history can repeat itself by what women do today all in the name of vanity... or in some cases insanity...he he...

Anyway back in the history of make up and staying with the Middle Ages, the use of make up was frowned upon. For example, in the 1800s, make-up was used primarily by prostitutes and Queen Victoria publicly declared "Make up was improper, vulgar, and acceptable only for use by actors".

Actresses however were allowed to use make up and famous beauties such as Sarah Bernhardt and Lillie Langtry could be powdered as the tem goes. Another interesting piece of information I came across in the history of make up was regarding Adolf Hitler.

He told women that face painting was for clowns and not for the women of the master race. Now women alive in the 19th century liked to be thought of as fragile ladies. They compared themselves to delicate flowers and emphasized their delicacy and femininity.

They aimed always to look pale and interesting. Things really changed by the middle of the 20th century. Make up had become a bit of a virus if you like and was widespread. Women now, world wide used it more freely than ever before.

An area I would like to look at now with my research into the history of make up was this:

How Was it Made?

Well the ancient Romans and Egyptians used cosmetics containing poisonous mercury and often lead. Also later on the cosmetic products available were still either chemically dubious or found in the kitchen in the form of food colorings, berries and beetroot.

With no regulation in the manufacturing process of creating make up it meant that cosmetics had bad side effects on people due to the ingredients. Example of this would be people developing deformities, blindness and even death.

Ingredients like ceruse (white lead) which was used to cover the face during the Renaissance and blindness caused by the mascara Lash Lure during the early 1900s. Cosmetics have been in use for thousands of years.

And thankfully now the manufacturing of make up products is much safer for your skin. So the next period of in the history of make up goes to more modern times where we saw the big cosmetic companies being born.

The largest possibly is L'Oréal, which was founded by Eugene Schueller in 1909 as the French Harmless Hair Colouring Company. Then we saw the rise of Elizabeth Arden during the 1910s in the USA.

I wonder how the ancients would view this now. I guess a lot of women from the middle ages would be jumping up and down now with excitement at being given the freedom to wear make up. I am glad I wasn't alive then as I love make up.

Not that I plaster it on or anything. However even in the modern day history of make up there have been issues with the manufacturing process for example. In the past a lot of animal testing was done and ingredients that were used were having a bad reaction on people's skin.

A lot of people now have a preference for cosmetics that are without any supposedly toxic ingredients, especially those derived from petroleum, sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), and parabens.

Animal experiments have shown that parabens have a weak estrogenic activity, acting as xenoestrogens. Also Synthetic fragrances are widely used in consumer products.

Studies concluded from patch testing done on volunteers that synthetic fragrances are made of many ingredients which cause allergic reactions, so we do have to be careful.

Now in the modern day history of make cosmetics popularity has increased rapidly. Especially in the United States and now in other countries like the UK, cosmetics are used by girls at an increasingly young age.

Although it is spreading to more countries. Many companies have captured the market and because of demand from the consumers we are finding some weird and wonderful products. The history of make up has certainly changed tenfold...

Like flavored lipsticks and glosses, cosmetics packaged in glittery, sparkly packaging. And the biggest thing of all to push the sales is the marketing and advertising using young models and celebrities.

To be honest it is a bad thing in a way with more and more peer pressure on the younger generation and more problems with the self image. Not good as beauty is in the inside, if you are beautiful inside then when people look at you they see you beautiful on the outside.

Make up can be used as a mask to protect the induvidual, a programme I watched recently demonstrated this quite well, young girls can get really depressed if their make up is not perfect.Adults to can be affected this way to.

So we have to be careful with the message we are putting out, as I said I love make up but I can go without out it to, sometimes I can be in the mood to wear it, sometimes just a little, or if I am going somewhere special then I will wear more.

So I hope you have enjoyed my research into the history of make up and when I find out more information I will add it as there is still much to know.

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