November 24, 2018 • 28 mins
We're revisiting an episode from 2014 about makeup, which has a rich and lengthy history that spans the globe and crosses cultures. From 10,000 B.C.E. to the 20th century, people have been using cosmetics to enhance their looks -- sometimes with unintended side effects.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello, Hello, Hello, and Happy Saturday. This episode traces the
story of makeup throughout history, including all of the various
elements used to create cosmetics and develop beautiful colors, and
how the production of inexpensive mirrors made people much more
aware of their appearance. So let's jump into the business
of cosmetics. Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class
(00:27):
from how Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson.
So here's a thing that everybody sees all the time
and may or may not think very much about it
is makeup. It's such a common part of our society
(00:47):
that we really don't think about it outside our own
use normally unless that is like your field of interest
or career. But it really has a rich and lengthy
history that spans the globe, acrosses cultures. Uh, it goes
so far back, and it's been in so many sort
of places in terms of where it's trended and what
kind of things have been used. So that's what we're
(01:07):
talking about today. And uh, just to kind of set
it up for you, we're going to jump around a
little bit from location to location, and talk about like
how things developed in each location. So the timeline isn't
going to be strictly followed, although we will start in
the oldest known location of makeup and then kind of
end up in the West in the early half of
the twentieth century where it really became an actual industry.
(01:30):
And so we're covering this very wide swath. So I
feel like I need to, um, you know, just give
everybody a heads up up front that there's probably there's well,
there's definitely stuff that isn't going to get covered. Uh.
And if we miss something that you're fond of or
you know, you want to know more about, or if
it's your favorite thing and you wish we had mentioned it,
that's always a good reason to send us an email. Uh.
(01:52):
And we'll have the contact info at the end of
the episode like we always do. So. Uh. For right now,
climb into your time machine or your tartists if that's
your thing, and we're gonna whisk away first to ancient Egypt.
So as early as ten thousand BC in Egypt, moisturizing
emollians were being used to protect people's skin against the
(02:13):
very dry desert climate, and perfumes were also popular during
this time. They were pretty much used in ceremonial religious events,
and it's interesting because these included ingredients such as peppermint, lily, lavender,
almond oil, camemeal, things that are still popular in cosmetics today.
Later on in Egypt's history, so around four thousand to
(02:36):
thirty BC, that's when we see the first known use
of true makeup. Galena, which is the mineral form of
lead sulfide, and malachite, which is a green hued carbonate
of copper, were used as eye enhancements, and you see
these really often in Egyptian art. These are minerals that
(02:56):
would be ground down and combined with burned almonds. Lead
an ash also ground into a fine powder, and this
created coal eyeliner. So one of the most popular looks
is that green shading would be used on the lower eye,
sort of under the eye, while the charcoal gray and
you know, solid black would be used for the top lid.
(03:17):
And this is creating a look that sometimes it's still
in a stylized version mimic today and called a Cleopatra I,
although she actually falls a little bit later on the
timeline than this. During this time, it also became really
popular for people to carry around small makeup boxes with
them when they went to social events. This was sort
of the first evening clutches. Yeah, and they also sort
(03:38):
of represented a certain class level, like if you are
a very fancy person, you could have your own fancy
makeup box that you carried around with you. Uh. And
both Egyptian women and men used lipstick as well, and
some lip color during this time was made from a
combination of a purplish red dye which was taken from seaweed.
There was also a bit of iodine and bromine man
(04:00):
nite that we're used. But this is one of those
many instances where people suffer for what's fashionable because since
bromine mannite is a toxic plant derivative, this made the
potential price of beauty very very steep, not just for
the wearer but also anyone that the wearer kissed. It
could really cause some very severe illness and even death
(04:21):
with a surprisingly small dose. During Cleopatra's era, which her
reign was from fifty one to thirty BC, lip color
was a really big trend. Ground Carmine Beetles gave her
lip tent this lush red tone, while non royals had
to go with this mixture of watered down clay. Yeah,
(04:41):
you'll sometimes also see accounts that say that she combined carmine, beetles,
and ground ants to create this color that she liked um.
And one of the interesting benefits of these various concoctions
that were being used by the ancient Egyptians for beauty,
specifically for their eyes, was that they also had antibacterial property. These.
In two thousand nine, a team of scientists published a
(05:04):
report in Analytical Chemistry detailing the study that they conducted
using fifty two makeup samples, and these are all samples
that are held by the Louver And this team used
electron microscopy and X ray diffraction to analyze this makeup
and they were able to identify galina, which is mentioned above,
and it was used to make dark tones as well
(05:25):
as uh lighter colored compounds of seracite, lorianite, and phosgenite.
And all of these chemicals are lead based, so the
lead content acted as a toxin to kill bacteria. Specifically,
bacterial infections of the eye were a big problem in
ancient Egypt, so this use of heavy coal around the
(05:45):
eye probably did a good job of warding off a
lot of those infections. We also know from art that
cosmetics were believed to be a form of magic and
ancient Egypt, So the researchers make the case that these
antibacterial formulations on the part of ancient Egyptian chemists were
deliberate and they weren't just this accidental offshoot of the
quest for beauty. Yeah, the initial use may have been,
(06:09):
but they develop it, And there's a passage in their
report that reads quote, one cannot evidently go so far
as to propose that the lauranite was purposely introduced into
the composition of the makeup because of any recognized antibacterial properties.
Yet one can presume that ancient Egyptian chemists recognized empirically
that whenever this white precipitate was present in the makeup paste,
(06:32):
their bearers were enjoying better health, and thus decided to
amplify this empirical protective function by specifically manufacturing lorianite. So
the problem here, which was probably obvious, is that led,
while toxic to bacteria, is also toxic to human beings.
So there was a problem. Yeah. Yeah, So that was
(06:56):
is sort of the legacy of Egypt is that I
think we hear a lot more about sort of the
lead being toxic to people, which it is of course,
but um it also kind of helping them with their
their vision and to prevent ocular problems is less discussed.
So having hit on Egypt, we're now going to pop
over to Asia at around three thousand BC, and this
(07:18):
is where we, to the best of our knowledge, we
first see the use of people coloring their fingernails, which
was happening in China at this time uh and it's
often referred to as the first nail polish, but in
truth this was more of a stained situation. Color pigments
were mixed in with egg, beeswax, gum, arabic, and gelatine
to create these stains, and vibrant or deep colors were
(07:39):
reserved exclusively for royals, whereas other people would have to
go with much paler tones. If we move ahead into
about fifteen hundred BC, in both China and Japan, the
aesthetic of paleness became the pinnacle of beauty, and rice
powder started to be used to create this illusion of
a flawless white complexion, and at this point hannah dies
(08:01):
were also used to stain here as well as facial features,
so it's almost like if you've ever seen someone have
their makeup tattooed, uh, which sometimes women will still get
eyeliner tattoos. This was sort of like the the semi
permanent version because henne will last a much longer time
than if you use coal and we can hop over
to grease. At about the same time as fingernail stains
(08:23):
were becoming popular in China and grease, having white lead
face paint was really all the rage, and they would
add a flush to their cheeks over this white paint
using this compound that was made of crushed mulberries, and
they would crush the mulberries down and then use the
juice as a stain. Fake eyebrows also became really popular,
(08:44):
and they were usually made with the hair of oxen,
which sounds very itchy to me. It does. It also
sounds kind of funny to me, just the idea of uh,
you know, augmented fake eyebrows, since it's not the aesthetic
of the modern world for the most parts, certainly not
the Western modern world. Like the idea of people purposely
giving themselves really heavy eyebrows that strikes me as kind
(09:06):
of um entertaining. So if we move forward a couple
of thousand years in the history of Greece to one
thousand BC E, you'll see that the white complexion was
still very favored at this time, and the white lead
was still used, but chalk was growing in popularity as
an alternative. Lip color also became really popular, and it
(09:28):
was usually made with clay and red iron. Uh. And
now we're gonna once again shift gears and locations, and
we're going to Mesopotamia. So it's not a long journey
at this point, and we're once again going back to
three thousand BC, and this is actually the space between
three thousand and fifteen hundred BC that these things were happening. Uh.
(09:48):
And Mesopotamian ladies at this time had a pretty spectacular
approach to lip color. They would actually grind semi precious
stones to dust and use that dust as a lip
and a face dormant. There was also a lot of
use of spiced perfumes during this time, and coal was
also used to line both the eyes and the eyebrows.
(10:09):
People in Mesopotamia also used hanna as a nail stain uh.
And perfume concoction was actually taken pretty seriously in this
area by the ninth century. I feel like perfume on
its own could be a whole other podcast, So this
won't be completely in depth, but we'll mention it a
couple of times since it is technically a cosmetic as well.
So at this point we have crossed over from BC
(10:32):
to c E at this point or common era UH
and perfumer Yakuba Kindi, who lived from about eight hundred
and three to eight seventy, wrote a book called The
Book of Perfume Chemistry and Distillation, and this described the
uses of many essential oils. UH and even former podcast
subject Avicenna introduced new chemistry concepts around this time that
(10:54):
really changed the distillation of alcohol for both medicinal and
perfume you significantly. So there was some pretty important groundwork
being laid in this area at this time. In the
year one hundred, in Rome, a personal interest of mine,
because this has always been a trouble spot for me,
is when pimple treatment really hit the scene. People in
(11:15):
Rome were using a mixture of barley flour and butter
to apply to blemishes to try to soothe them and
remove the irritation. And this is another location where we
see a fingernail color becoming popular. They used a combination
of animal fat and blood uh and then applied that
to the nails to give a pink to red tint
to the to their fingernails depending on the formulation, like
(11:38):
it would kind of vary on how pale or deep
it was, just by playing with the amounts of blood
in the formula. Over in India between three and four
hundred is when Hannah became really popular as both the
hair dye and in Mendy art. Hannah and Mendy are
both still around as popular cosmetic practices in India today.
(11:58):
Mendy is the like the Hanna artwork on people's skin. Yeah,
and it's often so beautiful, like to see all of
the really intricate designs. So now. Jumping into Europe, while
(12:19):
there is definitely evidence of the use of rouge, coal,
bath oils and perfumes in the Roman Empire at the
start of the Common Era, the fall of the Roman
Empire in the fifth century really marks this sort of
vanishing in cosmetics in Europe for a time, at least
as any sort of common practice. It was probably happening
in pockets or in some of the very you know
(12:40):
sort of upper echelons of society, but it really was
not a common thing for people to wear makeup there
for a bit. That started to change around twelve hundred,
when thanks to the Crusades, perfumes and other cosmetics started
traveling from the Middle East into Europe and were reintroduced
into the culture. And between four and fifteen hundred this
(13:01):
is when we really first start to see cosmetics as
an industry start to heat up. And this was happening
in Italy and France primarily. Other places in Europe we're
using them, but this is where they were mostly being made,
but even so, the concept of perfumes and cosmetics was
really still the privilege of the upper classes. This is
also the period when the art and science of perfume
(13:24):
as we know it today was born in France. Yeah,
we mentioned perfume happening in other places earlier, but this
is really where like what we would call like our
today's sort of perfume production and development. This is really
where the modern versions of perfume started. And between fifteen
hundred and sixteen hundred, you know, we are now into
(13:46):
Elizabethan era, and it's no secret that Queen Elizabeth, the
first popularized red hair in Europe. Uh. She also, as
at the Virgin Queen, was a trend setter when it
came to the use of white lead for creating this
illusion and of youth. Cerus was made from white lead
combined with vinegar, and it caused a number of skin problems.
(14:08):
It caused the skin to become gray and shriveled, and
Queen Elizabeth is said to have developed this pockmarked appearance
to her natural skin, which she just covered with progressively
heavier and heavier layers of cerus. Yeah. So the thing
that was really ruining her skin, she was also using
to cover up that ruination, and it just kind of
kept getting worse and worse. Uh. And it began to
(14:31):
be noticed that this white lead based paint was really
causing a problem with people's skin in their health. And
so while some women opted instead to use egg whites,
they would just use plain egg whites and sort of
glaze their face, uh, to create this illusion of a smoother,
paler complexion. There were plenty of others that just thought
(14:51):
that applying any cosmetics was going to create a health
threat because they believed it compromised circulation. People later figured
out the ceruse was toxic and it was linked to
a number of physical problems, including facial tremors and muscle paralysis, which,
given that it contained so much lead, is not surprising.
The toxic compound was also recognized as being lethal with
(15:14):
cumulative use, and it's possible that it contributed to Queen
Elizabeth's death. Yeah, she was also getting older. I mean,
there were probably a few different factors involved in that,
but it is sometimes mentioned as one of the possible
contributors and in less dangerous beauty doings, though Elizabeth the
First had also used a lip color that was made
(15:37):
I find this so charming from beeswax and crushed flowers.
I'm glad you said that because I feel the exact
same way, Especially it sounds much less horrifying after the ruined,
pockmarked skin from the makeup she had been wearing prior.
So to achieve the Queen's locks and even to get
lighter blonde tones, people used concoctions of sulfur, honey, and
(15:59):
al um. It was sort of a Renaissance version of
sun in if anybody else remembers that product. It would
be applied to the hair and then exposed to the
sun to create lighter and brighter hair. And that's another
thing that you know. I mean, we mentioned sun in
which was very popular in the eighties, is the thing
that people would spray in their hair and it had
(16:19):
hydrogen peroxide and would lighten it. But I also think
of even like breakfast at Tiffany's where she would put
lemon juice on her hair and sit in the sun.
It's the same concept. Yeah, that's been around for a while.
My mom and her sisters who you know, we're growing
up in the in the forties and fifties would talk
about putting lemon juice in their hair and laying out
in the sun. Yeah, don't do that. It's bad for you.
(16:41):
So please see a license stylists the colorists to change
your hair color for the hair, but for the laying
out in the sun. Not again all of it. Uh.
There are a number of potential problems there, especially because
there is a complete asside. But some citrus will really
react poorly with your skin in the sun if it's exposed,
(17:02):
and you can get some really really dangerous and bad problems.
So again we're not saying to try any of these
beauty treatments. Uh. And if you go online. In fact,
there are places where you can find like recipes for
cosmetics that were popular in Queen Elizabeth's era, but they'll
even say please don't make these. This is for historical
use only, not as an instruction manual for you to
(17:23):
create toxins to put on your face. I kind of
do want to make some lipstick out of bees wax
and crush flowers, though I worry it would be woefully
disappointing and then I would be like, why didn't I
just buy something? So h In eighteen hundred, zinc oxide
started to become popular as a face powder, and of
course this is a much safer replacement for the lead
and copper that we're being used prior. And by this
(17:47):
point in the timeline, the use of makeup has permeated
through almost all of the classes and the development of
cosmetics popularity throughout Europe, specifically in Great Britain. UH was
arrested a little bit when Queen Victoria denounced makeup as
completely improper, suitable only for the stage, and it was
makeup's association with prostitutes at this point that led her
(18:09):
to this very vocal stance, and so respectable women did
not paint their faces. Makeup did remain popular in France
during this time, though, even though respectable society in Britain
and the America's did not look upon it favorably at all.
It kind of reminds me of the reality show Frontier
House that was on PBS. Um, they take the makeup
(18:34):
away from all of the women and some of them
are extremely sad about that fact. Uh So, remembering that
France at this time was like, Nope, We're still going
to wear some makeup, it should not surprise you that
the first modern lipstick was actually manufactured in Paris in
eight four. And this came wrapped in silk paper, which
(18:55):
just sounds so luxurious to me. And it was made
from dear tallow which is solid rend fat which sounds
less glamorous, uh, castor oil and bees wax, and just
as had been used in Cleopatra's time, Carmine die gave
this lipstick its red tint. In the late eighteen nineties,
color for the lips and cheeks was offered for the
(19:15):
first time in the Sears Roebuck catalog. Yeah. So at
this point we're not just in Europe but also into
the America's and uh, you know, kind of Western culture
at that point. But before we go on to what
starts to happen next, which is pretty exciting, do you
want to do another word from our sponsor? Sure? So,
(19:43):
to return to the story of makeup, we're gonna jump
over to the early nine hundreds. After Victoria's death, Edwardian
society started to really embrace the idea of makeup and cosmetics,
although often the use of it was still highly denounced,
even by people who were benefiting from them. This was
basically the Edwardian equivalent of denying that you got botox
(20:06):
or had surgical touch ups. Yeah, people would be like, oh,
are you you know using me? Are you wearing a
lip tent? No, this is my natural lip color. It
was was kind of funny. Uh. And this is really
the period when beauty salons became relatively common in the
Western world, although because of this denial, mentality about using
(20:27):
any sort of cosmetics was still pretty common. People also
denied going to see these, you know, two beauty salons.
Patrons would actually often come and go through a back
or a side door so they wouldn't be seen. Uh.
Patronizing these establishments. Industrialization led to several developments that really
(20:47):
sowed the seeds of the cosmetics industry as we know
it today. There was the invention of photography, which meant
that people started having portraits made, you know, not sitting
for a portrait forever from a painter who was going
maybe touched you up as he went, but actual photographs. Um.
It became pretty clear to people that having some makeup
on would make the picture look nicer. And since most
(21:10):
people had to save up for these photography sessions, they
had to really make them count. So people started really
relying on makeup as a way to make sure they
would look their best in the pictures that they were
spending so much money on. Yeah, I mean this was
a time when you would maybe have your picture taken
a few times in your lifetime. Uh, so each of
those pictures had to be the best possible. Uh. And additionally,
(21:33):
this is the time when mirrors became a commonly manufactured item.
So looking glasses have been around since at least six
thousand BC, and they were certainly familiar objects in European
high society and the Renaissance, but the late eighteen hundreds
in early nineteen hundreds was really the first time that
mirrors were inexpensive enough that they crossed all class boundaries.
(21:54):
And so this meant that everyone became more aware of
their day to day appearance. And this meant that every
one grew a little more interested in cosmetics. And then
there were movies. As actors made the transition from the
stage to the screen, uh, their makeup had to adapt.
It quickly became clear that stage makeup did not look
(22:14):
good on film, which, if you've ever warned, stage makeup
is not a surprise. Stage makeup does not look good
anywhere except on stage. It was especially on film. It
was really too heavy and looked very clownish. And uh,
this is where famous names start to appear. Because Max Factor,
who was primarily a wigmaker at this time for film,
(22:37):
developed foundation paints that had a more subtle effect that
he really is often referred to as the inventor of
pancake makeup. And these makeups looked more natural on cinema
screens and he uh you know. This development happened in
nineteen fourteen, and this kicked off his now famous makeup company,
which initially catered exclusively to the acting world. A year later,
(23:01):
in nineteen fifteen, the Maybellene Company was founded by T. L.
Williams to sell an adapted version of his sisters petroleum
jelly and coal dust mascara to the public. This version
of mascara came in a cake form, and eventually mascara
went through a wax phase before becoming the liquid that
most people are more familiar with today. Um however, Maybellen
(23:25):
still makes one of the most highly reviewed mascaras among
the general public and makeup artists. Like, Yeah, that famous
sort of pink and green tube of mascara that Mabel
Line has manufactured for years and years and years. It's
really quite funny. If you ever talked to a makeup artist,
most of them will mention that that's still their favorite. Uh.
(23:45):
Just kind of interesting. It's been around for a hundred years,
not in that form, but the company has. Uh. Also,
in nineteen fifteen, the metal retractable lipstick tube was invented,
So this is when it went from being kind of
a around cake that you would apply to actually being
a thing you could, uh, you know, twist up and
down and toss in your handbag and not be a problem.
(24:06):
It was easy to carry, it was easy to apply
on the go. Although this is also a time when
stencils were marketed to assure that users could get like
that perfect Clara Bo pouch. Uh, those would have been
a little trickier to tuck into a handbag because they
were sort of I'm estimating the sizes, but you know,
I've seen pictures of people where they look like they're
probably about a four by four four inch by four
(24:28):
inch card with this little kind of heart shaped lipstick
stencil cut out of the middle, and you would put
it over your lips and then apply your lipsticks that
it would be the perfect shape. After years of catering
to film stars, Max Factor decided to expand his business
by selling his formulas to the masses. And as the
decadence and the glamour of the flapper girl was on
(24:49):
the rise in the nine twenties, makeup, which is a
term he's said to have coined, made movie star looks
available to everybody, and this really started a landslide of
popular larity. So before mass production, makeup had been a
little bit tedious. You know, people would have to either
figure out ways to kind of concoct their own or
they would buy these sort of bizarre formulations and have
(25:10):
to apply them, and they didn't look very natural, and uh,
it was just there were a lot of barriers to use.
But as it became easily purchased and easily applied, like
you didn't need a lot of special skills, it became
very quickly adopted into the mainstream. On average, the global
beauty market has grown about four point five percent each
(25:31):
year for the last twenty years, with some downward fluctuation
concurrent with economic issues. I think we actually have an
article on the website about the lipstick indicator. Yeah. Uh,
and today the global sales for cosmetics is estimated to
be about a hundred and seventy billion dollars a year,
(25:51):
and that breaks down to about forty billion in the
America's about sixty billion in Europe, about sixty billion in
Australia and Asia combined, and another ten billion in Africa.
The Western world spends the most per person on cosmetics,
but it is really just a shade ahead of Asia
on this. So it's interesting to me. It feels like,
you know, industrialization is kind of what has catapulted us into,
(26:15):
you know, almost this obsession with beauty and looks and uh,
sort of always being super self conscious about what we
look like. Uh, whereas before that maybe a little more relaxed.
I had thought about the role of people having easy
access to mirrors and sort of the perception of what
beauty is and what you should look like and how
(26:35):
much care you should put into your appearance, but it
had never dawned on me that photography played a role. Also, yeah,
I mean it. You know, it's these various things that
kind of fold in on themselves and they kind of
add layers of consciousness to this this idea of beauty
and looks, and it's very easy, sort of I think too,
(26:56):
to see how that eventually develops and becomes a bigger
and bigger thing. And you know, television changing that as well,
and seeing people on TV all the time who are
allegedly air quote normal, looking particularly beautiful, and wanting to
aspire to look the same as them, and how you
could see where we landed today, where this is this
huge industry. So that is of a sort of, you know,
(27:18):
high level, glossy version of kind of how makeup has
developed around the world through the years. I want to
do I would love to go back and do more
on Asia, which we only briefly covered, because there's so
much great stuff there, and I'm sure there are people
with instant image conjuring going on in their head of
like Geisha with their beautiful and very specific makeup rules
uh and some of the theatrical makeups that go on there. Uh.
(27:41):
And perhaps we won't get to that on another episode,
but for today, that's where we're at. Thank you so
much for joining us on this Saturday. If you have
heard an email address or a Facebook you are l
or something similar over the course of today's episode, since
it is from the archive that might be out of
(28:02):
date now, you can email us at history podcast at
how stuff Works dot com, and you can find us
all over social media at missed in History. And you
can subscribe to our show on Apple podcasts, Google podcast,
the I Heart Radio app, and wherever else you listen
to podcasts. For more on this and thousands of other topics,
(28:25):
visit how stuff Works dot com.
Hello, Hello, Hello, and Happy Saturday. This episode traces the
story of makeup throughout history, including all of the various
elements used to create cosmetics and develop beautiful colors, and
how the production of inexpensive mirrors made people much more
aware of their appearance. So let's jump into the business
of cosmetics. Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class
(00:27):
from how Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson.
So here's a thing that everybody sees all the time
and may or may not think very much about it
is makeup. It's such a common part of our society
(00:47):
that we really don't think about it outside our own
use normally unless that is like your field of interest
or career. But it really has a rich and lengthy
history that spans the globe, acrosses cultures. Uh, it goes
so far back, and it's been in so many sort
of places in terms of where it's trended and what
kind of things have been used. So that's what we're
(01:07):
talking about today. And uh, just to kind of set
it up for you, we're going to jump around a
little bit from location to location, and talk about like
how things developed in each location. So the timeline isn't
going to be strictly followed, although we will start in
the oldest known location of makeup and then kind of
end up in the West in the early half of
the twentieth century where it really became an actual industry.
(01:30):
And so we're covering this very wide swath. So I
feel like I need to, um, you know, just give
everybody a heads up up front that there's probably there's well,
there's definitely stuff that isn't going to get covered. Uh.
And if we miss something that you're fond of or
you know, you want to know more about, or if
it's your favorite thing and you wish we had mentioned it,
that's always a good reason to send us an email. Uh.
(01:52):
And we'll have the contact info at the end of
the episode like we always do. So. Uh. For right now,
climb into your time machine or your tartists if that's
your thing, and we're gonna whisk away first to ancient Egypt.
So as early as ten thousand BC in Egypt, moisturizing
emollians were being used to protect people's skin against the
(02:13):
very dry desert climate, and perfumes were also popular during
this time. They were pretty much used in ceremonial religious events,
and it's interesting because these included ingredients such as peppermint, lily, lavender,
almond oil, camemeal, things that are still popular in cosmetics today.
Later on in Egypt's history, so around four thousand to
(02:36):
thirty BC, that's when we see the first known use
of true makeup. Galena, which is the mineral form of
lead sulfide, and malachite, which is a green hued carbonate
of copper, were used as eye enhancements, and you see
these really often in Egyptian art. These are minerals that
(02:56):
would be ground down and combined with burned almonds. Lead
an ash also ground into a fine powder, and this
created coal eyeliner. So one of the most popular looks
is that green shading would be used on the lower eye,
sort of under the eye, while the charcoal gray and
you know, solid black would be used for the top lid.
(03:17):
And this is creating a look that sometimes it's still
in a stylized version mimic today and called a Cleopatra I,
although she actually falls a little bit later on the
timeline than this. During this time, it also became really
popular for people to carry around small makeup boxes with
them when they went to social events. This was sort
of the first evening clutches. Yeah, and they also sort
(03:38):
of represented a certain class level, like if you are
a very fancy person, you could have your own fancy
makeup box that you carried around with you. Uh. And
both Egyptian women and men used lipstick as well, and
some lip color during this time was made from a
combination of a purplish red dye which was taken from seaweed.
There was also a bit of iodine and bromine man
(04:00):
nite that we're used. But this is one of those
many instances where people suffer for what's fashionable because since
bromine mannite is a toxic plant derivative, this made the
potential price of beauty very very steep, not just for
the wearer but also anyone that the wearer kissed. It
could really cause some very severe illness and even death
(04:21):
with a surprisingly small dose. During Cleopatra's era, which her
reign was from fifty one to thirty BC, lip color
was a really big trend. Ground Carmine Beetles gave her
lip tent this lush red tone, while non royals had
to go with this mixture of watered down clay. Yeah,
(04:41):
you'll sometimes also see accounts that say that she combined carmine, beetles,
and ground ants to create this color that she liked um.
And one of the interesting benefits of these various concoctions
that were being used by the ancient Egyptians for beauty,
specifically for their eyes, was that they also had antibacterial property. These.
In two thousand nine, a team of scientists published a
(05:04):
report in Analytical Chemistry detailing the study that they conducted
using fifty two makeup samples, and these are all samples
that are held by the Louver And this team used
electron microscopy and X ray diffraction to analyze this makeup
and they were able to identify galina, which is mentioned above,
and it was used to make dark tones as well
(05:25):
as uh lighter colored compounds of seracite, lorianite, and phosgenite.
And all of these chemicals are lead based, so the
lead content acted as a toxin to kill bacteria. Specifically,
bacterial infections of the eye were a big problem in
ancient Egypt, so this use of heavy coal around the
(05:45):
eye probably did a good job of warding off a
lot of those infections. We also know from art that
cosmetics were believed to be a form of magic and
ancient Egypt, So the researchers make the case that these
antibacterial formulations on the part of ancient Egyptian chemists were
deliberate and they weren't just this accidental offshoot of the
quest for beauty. Yeah, the initial use may have been,
(06:09):
but they develop it, And there's a passage in their
report that reads quote, one cannot evidently go so far
as to propose that the lauranite was purposely introduced into
the composition of the makeup because of any recognized antibacterial properties.
Yet one can presume that ancient Egyptian chemists recognized empirically
that whenever this white precipitate was present in the makeup paste,
(06:32):
their bearers were enjoying better health, and thus decided to
amplify this empirical protective function by specifically manufacturing lorianite. So
the problem here, which was probably obvious, is that led,
while toxic to bacteria, is also toxic to human beings.
So there was a problem. Yeah. Yeah, So that was
(06:56):
is sort of the legacy of Egypt is that I
think we hear a lot more about sort of the
lead being toxic to people, which it is of course,
but um it also kind of helping them with their
their vision and to prevent ocular problems is less discussed.
So having hit on Egypt, we're now going to pop
over to Asia at around three thousand BC, and this
(07:18):
is where we, to the best of our knowledge, we
first see the use of people coloring their fingernails, which
was happening in China at this time uh and it's
often referred to as the first nail polish, but in
truth this was more of a stained situation. Color pigments
were mixed in with egg, beeswax, gum, arabic, and gelatine
to create these stains, and vibrant or deep colors were
(07:39):
reserved exclusively for royals, whereas other people would have to
go with much paler tones. If we move ahead into
about fifteen hundred BC, in both China and Japan, the
aesthetic of paleness became the pinnacle of beauty, and rice
powder started to be used to create this illusion of
a flawless white complexion, and at this point hannah dies
(08:01):
were also used to stain here as well as facial features,
so it's almost like if you've ever seen someone have
their makeup tattooed, uh, which sometimes women will still get
eyeliner tattoos. This was sort of like the the semi
permanent version because henne will last a much longer time
than if you use coal and we can hop over
to grease. At about the same time as fingernail stains
(08:23):
were becoming popular in China and grease, having white lead
face paint was really all the rage, and they would
add a flush to their cheeks over this white paint
using this compound that was made of crushed mulberries, and
they would crush the mulberries down and then use the
juice as a stain. Fake eyebrows also became really popular,
(08:44):
and they were usually made with the hair of oxen,
which sounds very itchy to me. It does. It also
sounds kind of funny to me, just the idea of uh,
you know, augmented fake eyebrows, since it's not the aesthetic
of the modern world for the most parts, certainly not
the Western modern world. Like the idea of people purposely
giving themselves really heavy eyebrows that strikes me as kind
(09:06):
of um entertaining. So if we move forward a couple
of thousand years in the history of Greece to one
thousand BC E, you'll see that the white complexion was
still very favored at this time, and the white lead
was still used, but chalk was growing in popularity as
an alternative. Lip color also became really popular, and it
(09:28):
was usually made with clay and red iron. Uh. And
now we're gonna once again shift gears and locations, and
we're going to Mesopotamia. So it's not a long journey
at this point, and we're once again going back to
three thousand BC, and this is actually the space between
three thousand and fifteen hundred BC that these things were happening. Uh.
(09:48):
And Mesopotamian ladies at this time had a pretty spectacular
approach to lip color. They would actually grind semi precious
stones to dust and use that dust as a lip
and a face dormant. There was also a lot of
use of spiced perfumes during this time, and coal was
also used to line both the eyes and the eyebrows.
(10:09):
People in Mesopotamia also used hanna as a nail stain uh.
And perfume concoction was actually taken pretty seriously in this
area by the ninth century. I feel like perfume on
its own could be a whole other podcast, So this
won't be completely in depth, but we'll mention it a
couple of times since it is technically a cosmetic as well.
So at this point we have crossed over from BC
(10:32):
to c E at this point or common era UH
and perfumer Yakuba Kindi, who lived from about eight hundred
and three to eight seventy, wrote a book called The
Book of Perfume Chemistry and Distillation, and this described the
uses of many essential oils. UH and even former podcast
subject Avicenna introduced new chemistry concepts around this time that
(10:54):
really changed the distillation of alcohol for both medicinal and
perfume you significantly. So there was some pretty important groundwork
being laid in this area at this time. In the
year one hundred, in Rome, a personal interest of mine,
because this has always been a trouble spot for me,
is when pimple treatment really hit the scene. People in
(11:15):
Rome were using a mixture of barley flour and butter
to apply to blemishes to try to soothe them and
remove the irritation. And this is another location where we
see a fingernail color becoming popular. They used a combination
of animal fat and blood uh and then applied that
to the nails to give a pink to red tint
to the to their fingernails depending on the formulation, like
(11:38):
it would kind of vary on how pale or deep
it was, just by playing with the amounts of blood
in the formula. Over in India between three and four
hundred is when Hannah became really popular as both the
hair dye and in Mendy art. Hannah and Mendy are
both still around as popular cosmetic practices in India today.
(11:58):
Mendy is the like the Hanna artwork on people's skin. Yeah,
and it's often so beautiful, like to see all of
the really intricate designs. So now. Jumping into Europe, while
(12:19):
there is definitely evidence of the use of rouge, coal,
bath oils and perfumes in the Roman Empire at the
start of the Common Era, the fall of the Roman
Empire in the fifth century really marks this sort of
vanishing in cosmetics in Europe for a time, at least
as any sort of common practice. It was probably happening
in pockets or in some of the very you know
(12:40):
sort of upper echelons of society, but it really was
not a common thing for people to wear makeup there
for a bit. That started to change around twelve hundred,
when thanks to the Crusades, perfumes and other cosmetics started
traveling from the Middle East into Europe and were reintroduced
into the culture. And between four and fifteen hundred this
(13:01):
is when we really first start to see cosmetics as
an industry start to heat up. And this was happening
in Italy and France primarily. Other places in Europe we're
using them, but this is where they were mostly being made,
but even so, the concept of perfumes and cosmetics was
really still the privilege of the upper classes. This is
also the period when the art and science of perfume
(13:24):
as we know it today was born in France. Yeah,
we mentioned perfume happening in other places earlier, but this
is really where like what we would call like our
today's sort of perfume production and development. This is really
where the modern versions of perfume started. And between fifteen
hundred and sixteen hundred, you know, we are now into
(13:46):
Elizabethan era, and it's no secret that Queen Elizabeth, the
first popularized red hair in Europe. Uh. She also, as
at the Virgin Queen, was a trend setter when it
came to the use of white lead for creating this
illusion and of youth. Cerus was made from white lead
combined with vinegar, and it caused a number of skin problems.
(14:08):
It caused the skin to become gray and shriveled, and
Queen Elizabeth is said to have developed this pockmarked appearance
to her natural skin, which she just covered with progressively
heavier and heavier layers of cerus. Yeah. So the thing
that was really ruining her skin, she was also using
to cover up that ruination, and it just kind of
kept getting worse and worse. Uh. And it began to
(14:31):
be noticed that this white lead based paint was really
causing a problem with people's skin in their health. And
so while some women opted instead to use egg whites,
they would just use plain egg whites and sort of
glaze their face, uh, to create this illusion of a smoother,
paler complexion. There were plenty of others that just thought
(14:51):
that applying any cosmetics was going to create a health
threat because they believed it compromised circulation. People later figured
out the ceruse was toxic and it was linked to
a number of physical problems, including facial tremors and muscle paralysis, which,
given that it contained so much lead, is not surprising.
The toxic compound was also recognized as being lethal with
(15:14):
cumulative use, and it's possible that it contributed to Queen
Elizabeth's death. Yeah, she was also getting older. I mean,
there were probably a few different factors involved in that,
but it is sometimes mentioned as one of the possible
contributors and in less dangerous beauty doings, though Elizabeth the
First had also used a lip color that was made
(15:37):
I find this so charming from beeswax and crushed flowers.
I'm glad you said that because I feel the exact
same way, Especially it sounds much less horrifying after the ruined,
pockmarked skin from the makeup she had been wearing prior.
So to achieve the Queen's locks and even to get
lighter blonde tones, people used concoctions of sulfur, honey, and
(15:59):
al um. It was sort of a Renaissance version of
sun in if anybody else remembers that product. It would
be applied to the hair and then exposed to the
sun to create lighter and brighter hair. And that's another
thing that you know. I mean, we mentioned sun in
which was very popular in the eighties, is the thing
that people would spray in their hair and it had
(16:19):
hydrogen peroxide and would lighten it. But I also think
of even like breakfast at Tiffany's where she would put
lemon juice on her hair and sit in the sun.
It's the same concept. Yeah, that's been around for a while.
My mom and her sisters who you know, we're growing
up in the in the forties and fifties would talk
about putting lemon juice in their hair and laying out
in the sun. Yeah, don't do that. It's bad for you.
(16:41):
So please see a license stylists the colorists to change
your hair color for the hair, but for the laying
out in the sun. Not again all of it. Uh.
There are a number of potential problems there, especially because
there is a complete asside. But some citrus will really
react poorly with your skin in the sun if it's exposed,
(17:02):
and you can get some really really dangerous and bad problems.
So again we're not saying to try any of these
beauty treatments. Uh. And if you go online. In fact,
there are places where you can find like recipes for
cosmetics that were popular in Queen Elizabeth's era, but they'll
even say please don't make these. This is for historical
use only, not as an instruction manual for you to
(17:23):
create toxins to put on your face. I kind of
do want to make some lipstick out of bees wax
and crush flowers, though I worry it would be woefully
disappointing and then I would be like, why didn't I
just buy something? So h In eighteen hundred, zinc oxide
started to become popular as a face powder, and of
course this is a much safer replacement for the lead
and copper that we're being used prior. And by this
(17:47):
point in the timeline, the use of makeup has permeated
through almost all of the classes and the development of
cosmetics popularity throughout Europe, specifically in Great Britain. UH was
arrested a little bit when Queen Victoria denounced makeup as
completely improper, suitable only for the stage, and it was
makeup's association with prostitutes at this point that led her
(18:09):
to this very vocal stance, and so respectable women did
not paint their faces. Makeup did remain popular in France
during this time, though, even though respectable society in Britain
and the America's did not look upon it favorably at all.
It kind of reminds me of the reality show Frontier
House that was on PBS. Um, they take the makeup
(18:34):
away from all of the women and some of them
are extremely sad about that fact. Uh So, remembering that
France at this time was like, Nope, We're still going
to wear some makeup, it should not surprise you that
the first modern lipstick was actually manufactured in Paris in
eight four. And this came wrapped in silk paper, which
(18:55):
just sounds so luxurious to me. And it was made
from dear tallow which is solid rend fat which sounds
less glamorous, uh, castor oil and bees wax, and just
as had been used in Cleopatra's time, Carmine die gave
this lipstick its red tint. In the late eighteen nineties,
color for the lips and cheeks was offered for the
(19:15):
first time in the Sears Roebuck catalog. Yeah. So at
this point we're not just in Europe but also into
the America's and uh, you know, kind of Western culture
at that point. But before we go on to what
starts to happen next, which is pretty exciting, do you
want to do another word from our sponsor? Sure? So,
(19:43):
to return to the story of makeup, we're gonna jump
over to the early nine hundreds. After Victoria's death, Edwardian
society started to really embrace the idea of makeup and cosmetics,
although often the use of it was still highly denounced,
even by people who were benefiting from them. This was
basically the Edwardian equivalent of denying that you got botox
(20:06):
or had surgical touch ups. Yeah, people would be like, oh,
are you you know using me? Are you wearing a
lip tent? No, this is my natural lip color. It
was was kind of funny. Uh. And this is really
the period when beauty salons became relatively common in the
Western world, although because of this denial, mentality about using
(20:27):
any sort of cosmetics was still pretty common. People also
denied going to see these, you know, two beauty salons.
Patrons would actually often come and go through a back
or a side door so they wouldn't be seen. Uh.
Patronizing these establishments. Industrialization led to several developments that really
(20:47):
sowed the seeds of the cosmetics industry as we know
it today. There was the invention of photography, which meant
that people started having portraits made, you know, not sitting
for a portrait forever from a painter who was going
maybe touched you up as he went, but actual photographs. Um.
It became pretty clear to people that having some makeup
on would make the picture look nicer. And since most
(21:10):
people had to save up for these photography sessions, they
had to really make them count. So people started really
relying on makeup as a way to make sure they
would look their best in the pictures that they were
spending so much money on. Yeah, I mean this was
a time when you would maybe have your picture taken
a few times in your lifetime. Uh, so each of
those pictures had to be the best possible. Uh. And additionally,
(21:33):
this is the time when mirrors became a commonly manufactured item.
So looking glasses have been around since at least six
thousand BC, and they were certainly familiar objects in European
high society and the Renaissance, but the late eighteen hundreds
in early nineteen hundreds was really the first time that
mirrors were inexpensive enough that they crossed all class boundaries.
(21:54):
And so this meant that everyone became more aware of
their day to day appearance. And this meant that every
one grew a little more interested in cosmetics. And then
there were movies. As actors made the transition from the
stage to the screen, uh, their makeup had to adapt.
It quickly became clear that stage makeup did not look
(22:14):
good on film, which, if you've ever warned, stage makeup
is not a surprise. Stage makeup does not look good
anywhere except on stage. It was especially on film. It
was really too heavy and looked very clownish. And uh,
this is where famous names start to appear. Because Max Factor,
who was primarily a wigmaker at this time for film,
(22:37):
developed foundation paints that had a more subtle effect that
he really is often referred to as the inventor of
pancake makeup. And these makeups looked more natural on cinema
screens and he uh you know. This development happened in
nineteen fourteen, and this kicked off his now famous makeup company,
which initially catered exclusively to the acting world. A year later,
(23:01):
in nineteen fifteen, the Maybellene Company was founded by T. L.
Williams to sell an adapted version of his sisters petroleum
jelly and coal dust mascara to the public. This version
of mascara came in a cake form, and eventually mascara
went through a wax phase before becoming the liquid that
most people are more familiar with today. Um however, Maybellen
(23:25):
still makes one of the most highly reviewed mascaras among
the general public and makeup artists. Like, Yeah, that famous
sort of pink and green tube of mascara that Mabel
Line has manufactured for years and years and years. It's
really quite funny. If you ever talked to a makeup artist,
most of them will mention that that's still their favorite. Uh.
(23:45):
Just kind of interesting. It's been around for a hundred years,
not in that form, but the company has. Uh. Also,
in nineteen fifteen, the metal retractable lipstick tube was invented,
So this is when it went from being kind of
a around cake that you would apply to actually being
a thing you could, uh, you know, twist up and
down and toss in your handbag and not be a problem.
(24:06):
It was easy to carry, it was easy to apply
on the go. Although this is also a time when
stencils were marketed to assure that users could get like
that perfect Clara Bo pouch. Uh, those would have been
a little trickier to tuck into a handbag because they
were sort of I'm estimating the sizes, but you know,
I've seen pictures of people where they look like they're
probably about a four by four four inch by four
(24:28):
inch card with this little kind of heart shaped lipstick
stencil cut out of the middle, and you would put
it over your lips and then apply your lipsticks that
it would be the perfect shape. After years of catering
to film stars, Max Factor decided to expand his business
by selling his formulas to the masses. And as the
decadence and the glamour of the flapper girl was on
(24:49):
the rise in the nine twenties, makeup, which is a
term he's said to have coined, made movie star looks
available to everybody, and this really started a landslide of
popular larity. So before mass production, makeup had been a
little bit tedious. You know, people would have to either
figure out ways to kind of concoct their own or
they would buy these sort of bizarre formulations and have
(25:10):
to apply them, and they didn't look very natural, and uh,
it was just there were a lot of barriers to use.
But as it became easily purchased and easily applied, like
you didn't need a lot of special skills, it became
very quickly adopted into the mainstream. On average, the global
beauty market has grown about four point five percent each
(25:31):
year for the last twenty years, with some downward fluctuation
concurrent with economic issues. I think we actually have an
article on the website about the lipstick indicator. Yeah. Uh,
and today the global sales for cosmetics is estimated to
be about a hundred and seventy billion dollars a year,
(25:51):
and that breaks down to about forty billion in the
America's about sixty billion in Europe, about sixty billion in
Australia and Asia combined, and another ten billion in Africa.
The Western world spends the most per person on cosmetics,
but it is really just a shade ahead of Asia
on this. So it's interesting to me. It feels like,
you know, industrialization is kind of what has catapulted us into,
(26:15):
you know, almost this obsession with beauty and looks and uh,
sort of always being super self conscious about what we
look like. Uh, whereas before that maybe a little more relaxed.
I had thought about the role of people having easy
access to mirrors and sort of the perception of what
beauty is and what you should look like and how
(26:35):
much care you should put into your appearance, but it
had never dawned on me that photography played a role. Also, yeah,
I mean it. You know, it's these various things that
kind of fold in on themselves and they kind of
add layers of consciousness to this this idea of beauty
and looks, and it's very easy, sort of I think too,
(26:56):
to see how that eventually develops and becomes a bigger
and bigger thing. And you know, television changing that as well,
and seeing people on TV all the time who are
allegedly air quote normal, looking particularly beautiful, and wanting to
aspire to look the same as them, and how you
could see where we landed today, where this is this
huge industry. So that is of a sort of, you know,
(27:18):
high level, glossy version of kind of how makeup has
developed around the world through the years. I want to
do I would love to go back and do more
on Asia, which we only briefly covered, because there's so
much great stuff there, and I'm sure there are people
with instant image conjuring going on in their head of
like Geisha with their beautiful and very specific makeup rules
uh and some of the theatrical makeups that go on there. Uh.
(27:41):
And perhaps we won't get to that on another episode,
but for today, that's where we're at. Thank you so
much for joining us on this Saturday. If you have
heard an email address or a Facebook you are l
or something similar over the course of today's episode, since
it is from the archive that might be out of
(28:02):
date now, you can email us at history podcast at
how stuff Works dot com, and you can find us
all over social media at missed in History. And you
can subscribe to our show on Apple podcasts, Google podcast,
the I Heart Radio app, and wherever else you listen
to podcasts. For more on this and thousands of other topics,
(28:25):
visit how stuff Works dot com.
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