If you are a typical woman living in today’s society, you have probably worn makeup, including eye shadow, eyeliner and blush. When you go outside, you may like to wear perfume, or sunscreen on hot days in summer. After a day of stressful work, you may like to soak yourself in a hot tub with your favorite bath oil, or exfoliate your skin with scrubs followed by a massage with body oil. When do you think we women started doing these things? Actually, women already did all of these activities 6000 years ago, in ancient Egypt.
Around 4000 BC, ancient Egyptians first developed cosmetics. What materials did women use for beauty in this era? In order to protect their skin from Egypt’s hot and dry climate, the Egyptians applied oil to their skin, such as olive oil, caster oil, sweet almond oil and palm oil. These oils are still used as cosmetic ingredients today. These body oils were scented with plants including myrrh, cinnamon, quince and galbanum. Fragrance was so important to them and citizens were commanded to wear perfume at least once a week. They rubbed their bodies with clay to exfoliate skin, and applied yellow ochre for a gold sheen, just like we use body bronzer. For face, they applied red ochre to their cheeks and lined their eyes with kohl. For eye shadows, green, blue and violet colorants were used made by malachite, galena manganese and iron however these materials are toxic and we don’t use them anymore. They also painted their nails with henna.
Ancient Egypt had an advanced civilization, and I have to say it’s amazing that they already developed these similar ideas about grooming and appearance for today’s women. I’m sure that women will still wear eyeliner and perfume in a spaceship even after 6000 years from now.
