Beauty Secrets from Ages Past: A Brief History of Makeup

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Throughout the ages, women have experimented with beauty treatments to enhance natural features, slow the aging process, and care for the outer body. Beginning in the Ancient era, the Biblical account of Queen Esther's life mentions the elaborate spa-type treatments that young women underwent for an entire 12-month period to prepare themselves for a reception with the King. The first six months involved treatments with oil and myrrh, and the second with perfumes and cosmetics! In Ancient Egypt, aristocrats applied minerals to their faces to provide color and definition of features. Ancient Egyptian women wore foundation to lighten their skin, and used kohl eyeliner to widen the appearances of their eyes. Men in Egypt also applied a powdered pigment made from mixing fat and oil and other substances, to protect their eyes from the sun. Pigments were often made out of malachite, copper ore, or lead ore, with the favorite colors being green powdered malachite and black crushed lead ore or kohl. Meanwhile, Persians believed that henna dyes, used to stain their hair and faces, enabled them to summon the majesty of the earth. The Greeks were also known to paint their faces with white lead and chalk, while the Romans used oil-based perfumes in their baths. The Roman Lucian is noted to have talked about women and cosmetics in his time, referring to their polishing their teeth and eyebrows. The Roman philosopher, Plautus, also wrote, "A woman without paint is like food without salt."

The European Middle Ages followed the Greco-Roman trend of pale faces. Those who were wealthy enough not to have to labor outdoors wanted to show off their affluence by being pale. Fashionable sixth-century women would achieve the look by bleeding themselves. During the Medieval ages, one popular beauty treatment of the day was the taking of long, hot baths. By the mid-1200s, many European towns had public bathhouses. But as forests were depleted, firewood became expensive and the rising costs of heating the water forced most of the bathhouses to close. Some families tried burning coal to heat water, but the fumes proved to be unhealthy. By the mid-1300s, only the wealthiest ladies could afford firewood for hot water in the winter. For those who could not afford to take hot baths, perfume became an easy, quick fix. Perfumes made from the oils of flowers combined with spices were very popular during the Middle Ages as trade between countries improved. In particular, alcohol-based perfumes developed in the Middle East were brought to Europe by the Crusaders in the thirteenth century. During this era, cosmetics also became a popular commodity. Every part of a woman's face would be painted with some type of cosmetic, and many women also sun-bleached their hair. Medieval fashion also prompted young women to pluck their hairline, giving them a higher forehead. Spanish prostitutes wore pink makeup to contrast with high-class women's pale faces, while regal 13th-century Italian women wore pink lipstick to show they could afford synthetic makeup.

During the Renaissance, women strived for pale skin, and used a whitening agent composed of carbonate, hydroxide, and lead oxide to create a porcelain-like face. These agents, cumulatively stored in the body with each use, were responsible for numerous physical problems and resulted in some cases in muscle paralysis. During the time of Louis XIV and Queen Elizabeth I (known for her pale face), the problem became catastrophic and resulted in many early deaths. In Italy, one scheming Signora Toffana created a face powder made from arsenic for wealthy women. Signora instructed her clients to apply the powder to their cheeks when their husbands were around. Six hundred dead husbands (and many wealthy widows) later, Toffana was executed.

In Elizabethan England, cosmetics were seen as a health threat because many thought they would block vapors and energy from circulating properly. Because men's makeup wasn't as obvious as women's (women wore egg whites over their faces to create a glazed look), it was considered even more deceptive than women's. During this time, women also began bleaching their hair with lye. Understandably, this substance caused hair to fall out... so, wigs were introduced. However, women's wigs were often so elaborate that they had to be greased with lard to keep them in place, which attracted lice and other pests! On a more pleasant note, the art of creating new fragrances by blending ingredients was developed in France in the seventeenth century. Natural perfumes were made from ingredients such as flowers, roots, fruits, rinds or barks, or any other natural aromatic substance. Perfume-making was an incredibly laborious process that required enormous amounts of natural ingredients to produce small quantities of fragrance. By the reign of Charles II, the trend in pale faces had been obliterated, after Europe saw the ravages of widespread illness. For sun-fearing people whose pale faces made them appear sickly, heavy makeup supplied the color of a healthy glow. During the French Restoration in the 18th century, red rouge and lipstick were the rage and implied a fun-loving spirit. This stuck in France, but eventually people in other countries became repulsed by excessive makeup use and said the painted French must be unattractive because they had something to hide.

The Victorian era saw a number of advances in cosmetics and beauty products. By the nineteenth century, zinc oxide became widely used as a facial powder, replacing the more deadly mixture of the past. However, Victorians unknowingly continued to use other poisonous substances for eyeshadow (lead and antimony sulfide), lip reddeners (mercuric sulfide), and powder to make one's eyes sparkle (belladonna, or deadly nightshade). At the same time, Queen Victoria's commitment to strict morals and modesty among women created a backlash against cosmetics. During the Victorian era, cosmetics were considered the devil's making, associated with prostitutes and women of questionable morals. When makeup regained acceptance in the late 19th century, it was with natural tones so that the healthy, pink-cheeked look could be achieved without giving in to the moral decadence of full makeup, which was still seen as sinful.

The dawn of the Industrial Age, however, changed everything. By the Edwardian era, cosmetics again became a commercial industry. Anti-perspirants and deodorants first appeared in the 1890s, with aluminum chloride as the active ingredient. Through mass publishing made possible by advances in printing, the cosmetics industry saw a substantial growth at the turn of the century. Magazines kept women informed that exercise, diet, and the proper use of cosmetics and hair products could make them more attractive. World War I also had an unlikely impact on cosmetics. Given the sudden absence of men in American society, women gained more independence in the late 1910s, both socially and financially. This enabled them to acquire a disposable income, which many working class women used to buy colored powders, eye shadows and lipstick. Once American women gained the vote, the newly liberated woman showed how free she was by displaying her right to speak out: red lipstick practically became a social necessity. From the 1930s through the 1950s, the looks of various movie stars whose faces became known through the advent of color cinema defined vogue, from Mary Pickford's baby-doll face to Audrey Hepburn's cat-eyes eyeliner. The 1960s brought a slew of makeup changes, from whited-out lips and Egyptian-style eyeliner to fantasy images like butterflies painted on faces at high-fashion outings. The heavy eyeliner look remained through the late 1970s and 1980s, with wide color ranges entering the wearer's palette. The bright flourescent tones of clothing during the 1980s was only paralleled by the frosted pastel lipsticks and wild eye color popularized by pop rock and punk music stars. Makeup of today's Western world claims to be a melange of past styles with a new emphasis on the natural look. This natural look, strangely enough, has taken centuries of painting faces to achieve!

Cosmetics

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The Marquise de Pompadour applies rouge with a brush, Francois Boucher (French), 1758.

Beginning in the 17^th century and continuing throughout the 18th century, both men and women in England and France wore obvious cosmetics.  Gender differences were less important than class differences – cosmetics marked one as aristocratic and à la mode, and were adopted as well by those who were trying to rise in social status or become fashionable.  Makeup was not intended to look natural – in fact, it was called “paint” — but instead, “…to represent one’s aristocratic identity as declaratively as possible through cosmetic artifice” (Hyde).  Women and men showed their respectability and class through white skin, and heavy makeup was considered more respectable than naturally light skin.

Cosmetics also had practical aims – their use created what was considered an attractive face, and they could hide the effects of age, blemishes, disease, or sun.

Dauphine Marie-Josephe de Saxe wears heavy French court makeup, Liotard (France), 1751.

In France, nearly all aristocratic women wore cosmetics (Louis XV’s dowdy queen Marie Leszcynska was one of the few who did not).  In fact, the painting of the face was a key part of the public toilette, the informal ceremony where an aristocratic woman dressed her face and hair before an elect audience.  French aristocratic women wore thick layers of white paint, large streaks of rouge, and beauty patches (mouches).

However, cosmetics were not limited to the upper echelons.  Any bourgeois with aims of being à la mode would also have worn cosmetics (although perhaps not as heavily).  Cosmetics declined in price and rose in availability over the century, and were even more frequently made at home by the less well to do.  The middle classes tended to prefer tones of pink instead of red, and applied rouge in circular patterns rather than streaks.

In the 1760s, cosmetics were growing in such popularity that coiffeuses (vanity table sets) began to be heavily advertised, and dressing rooms were built facing north for the best light.  By 1781, Frenchwomen used about two million pots of rouge a year.

The Duchess of Argyll wears very naturalistic cosmetics - light rouge, possibly white face makeup - in this portrait by Allan Ramsay, 1760.

A review of portraiture shows that Englishwomen were less likely to wear obviouscosmetics than Frenchwomen in the 1750s-60s (in other words, they were wearing cosmetics but with a more natural look) – but by the 1770s-80s, Englishwomen and Frenchwomen wore nearly identical amounts of cosmetics.  In the 1780s, heavy use of cosmetics declined with the growing trend of a more “natural” look.

The key aspects of the 18th century cosmetic look were a complexion somewhere between white and pale, red cheeks in a large circular shape (particularly for French court wear) or upside down triangle, and red lips.  There were two main cosmetics worn by most women and men:  blanc and rouge.

Shiny white face paint was applied across the entire face and shoulders.  The most popular white makeups used on the face were made of lead, which was popular for its opacity despite knowledge of lead poisoning.  Kitty Fisher, a famous English beauty, died at age 23 (in 1767) from lead poisoning.  Blanc could also be made from bismuth or vinegar.  Veins could be traced with blue pencil to highlight the whiteness of the skin.

Miss Elizabeth Linley wears evident rouge on her cheeks and lips, and may have darkened her eyebrows. Thomas Gainsborough (English), 1775.

Red makeups were made of vermilion (ground from cinnabar and including mercury) or creuse (made by exposing lead plates to the vapor of vinegar); both are toxic.  Vegetable sources for rouge included safflower, wood resin, sandalwood, and brazilwood.  These would be mixed with greases, creams, or vinegars to create a paste.  Court ladies wore rouge on the cheeks in wide swaths from the corner of the eye to the corner of the lips.  Bourgeois and provincial nobility wore neater, circular dabs at the center of the cheek to highlight the eyes and whiteness of the skin.

Lips could be reddened with distilled alcohol or vinegar.  By mid-century, red pomades (some in stick forms) for lips were being sold.  The shades of red seen on lips varied between pink and coral, occasionally veering into burgundy.

Eyes sometimes had a bit of reddish color around them, probably caused by contrast with the white makeup or a reaction to the lead in blanc, but were otherwise left bare. Eyebrows were half moon shaped with tapered ends, and could be darkened with kohl, elderberries, burnt cork, or lampblack (soot from oil lamps).  Court men and women sometimes plucked and painted their eyebrows, or occasionally wore false eyebrows made of mouse fur.

A woman applies beauty patches in this painting by François Boucher (French).

Beauty patches (“mouches”) (made of silk velvet, satin, or taffeta and attached with glue) were part of a formal and/or aristocratic look.  Their height of popularity was in the 17th century, but they still continued to be worn in the 18th century.  They were meant to heighten the contrast with white skin.  There were numerous sizes and shapes, worn in various positions with supposed meanings.  In England, they took on a political meaning, with supporters of Whigs and Tories wearing patches on opposite sides of the face.  Occasionally, patches could be worn together in designs, like trees or birds on the cheek of forehead.

In the 1750s-60s, Frenchwomen generally wore an extremely artificial look, with cosmetics used heavily and obviously.  The face was extremely pale, with rouge applied in large, round circles on the cheeks.  The eyes were left bare, sometimes with darkened brows, and lips were reddish.  In contrast, Englishwomen usually appeared somewhat naturalistic, with cosmetics used sparingly and discreetly.  The face was pale but not extreme, with the option of rouge applied in an upside down triangular shape, from the cheekbones almost to the jawline (similarly to how naturally pale women flush).  Eyes were bare, and lips were reddish.

The Countess de Bavière-Grosberg wears white face makeup, strong lip and cheek rouge, and may have darkened eyebrows, in this portrait by Alexander Roslin, 1780.