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Fantasy Guide to Make-Up and Cosmetics

If I am to be completely honest with you all, I know nothing about make-up. Those little brushes and endless sponges mean nothing to me except the fact that they are really soft and sometimes shiny. I don't wear makeup so you can imagine how useless I am at modern make-up.

However, history is my jam and I know about what make-up they use centuries ago. So never fear @theflyingravenbird I got you.

Ingredients and Applications

Make-up and cosmetics of the past were usually sourced from natural ingredients. The more difficult the ingredients were the more expensive the cosmetic was. Natural dies such as red ochre and berries were used to stain lips or colour powder to use as blusher to add colour to the lips. For examples:

Geishas of Japan are probably the most recognizable make-up wearers in the world. Historically and in some more traditional okiyas, the geishas painted their faces with rice powder to give them that unbroken, white complexion. A popular recipe for their crimson lipsticks involved extracting pigment from crushed safflower petals.

Henna paste made from the eponymous plant can be used as hair dye and to trace designs on the feet and hands.

Kohl is a black powder that is famous for its popularity in Egyptian Cultures and even the Persian Empire. Kohl lines the eyes like modern eyeliners and is found when one grounds stibnite. Kohl actually had the luck of preventing eye infections which no doubt helped in the climate of Egypt and beyond.

The Phoenicians used powdered metals of gold, silver and other metals to dust their faces. This is reputably thought to denote their wealthy status.

Rouge or blusher has had numerous recipes throughout history. The Ancient Egyptians made rouge from red ochre and animal fat. The Romans made their rouge from lead and cinnabar, which sounds about as bad for you as you think it does. The Ancient Greeks made it from pressed mulberries or other fruits such as beet and strawberries. The Ancient Chinese made rouge from extracts of coloured flowers.

Ancient Chinese cultures used a mixture of gumarabic, gelatin, beeswax, and eggs to stain their nails. The colors were often used to denote social class. Gold and silver was worn by royalty or black and red. The lower classes were not prohibited to wear bright colours.

Lipstick has also a few recipes. Egyptians used pounded carmine, a kind of insect, to smear on their lips. Other ancient civilizations used red ochre. Vermilion (though toxic) was also used, along with crushed flowers with red pigment mixed with beeswax during the Elizabethan period.

During the late Elizabeth and then again in the Baroque period, women and some men began to paint their faces with white powder. The layer of white lead and vinegar, or ceruse was popular for tears despite the hair loss and death it caused.

Make Up Tools

Powderpuffs: the powderpuff was a pad of soft material meant to apply powder to one's face. They were made of feathers, cotton or sheep's fleece.

Brushes: Brushes have been been around for ever. They have been found in some of the earliest Egyptian tombs. The brushes were often made from animal hair with wooden or more expensive handles.

Pots of pigment, scents and ointments: Some early tombs excavated from ancient civilizations have included what amounts to a palette (thank you lil sis for that word). The pigments in the pots would be very expensive. Ointments and balms have also been found. Perfumes were very popular in antiquity and made a recurrence in Europe after the Crusades (which helped since some of the make up smelled awful).

Make Up and Social standing

Though make up is rather popular now, it had a rather uncertain rise to popularity.

Most Ancient civilizations wore some kind of cosmetic. The overuse of cosmetics in ancient times was frowned on as prostitutes and actors often wore dramatic make up however the elite often smeared themselves with powders to make them paler and redden their cheeks.

In the Middle Ages, makeup had a dual reputation. The Church frowned on it because it was again popular with prostitutes and actors but it was a common consensus that if the woman was scarred from smallpox or some other disease she was excused from being labelled as vain.

In the late Elizabethan period, theatres were getting more popular and as was makeup. Actors began wearing make up more frequently as did the elite. Elizabeth I herself was infamous for her milk-white skin. Make up became more sociably acceptable among the rich and noble at this point.

The 1700s probably saw the height of make up madness. Both women and men of the elite powdered themselves with white lead paint. They rouged their cheeks to high pigment and stuck small dots of felt to cover blemishes. The commons began to poke fun at the elite's strange obsession with looking like they've lost all their blood. Dandies and painted noblewomen were often poked fun at by pamphlets and satirical cartoons.

The Victorians frowned on make up, thinking it garish and common. Queen Victoria herself denounced make up as uncouth which lead the elite to abandon it in droves. However, most women prized a clear complexion so there was a lot of secret make-up-ing going on.

During the Edwardian period and the 1920s, make up began to get more popular. Older more respectable women began trying makeup to fresh their complexion. The younger generations began to experiment with makeup leading to the infamous smokey eye look.

Apollonia Saintclair 712 - 20170212 Le masque de la Méduse

“I just hope my death makes more cents than my life.”

Joker (2019) 

“Hay personas que nos gustan y mucho. Pero no por el hecho de que nos gusten vamos a pensar en ellos como próximos amantes o incluso hablar de noviazgo. ¿Por qué añadirle una etiqueta al futuro que desconocemos? Un socio, un amigo, un compañero… un algo. Puede que quizás en una semana como en dos meses… se convierta en otra cosa, tampoco voy a negarlo; pero puede también que se diluya, llevándose tras de sí, toda esa atracción primera, convertida en un mero número de teléfono y una chela a medias. Simplemente nos gustan. Y sí, existen personas que me gustan, y mucho. No pienso en acostarme con ellas o prometerles un amor eterno. No, de momento. Tampoco confirmo ni desmiento que en un azar termine compartiendo unas sábanas y un grito mudo de placer contra una pared. No me aventuro a descifrar los porvenires. Me conformo con conocerles, evadirme, jugar y cortejarles. Vivirlos. Aprender de ellos. Conocer nuevas fórmulas, nuevos guiños y alguna que otra anécdota. Y me gustan. Me gustan mucho. Y me gustas. Me gustas mucho. Así que apresúrate, sígueme el juego y actúa como si me conocieras. No rompas esa magia. Olvídate de las esperas.”

Hay que buscarse un amante...

“Amante es:

"Lo que nos apasiona”. Lo que ocupa nuestro pensamiento antes de dormir y es también quien a veces, no nos deja hacerlo. Nuestro amante es lo que nos vuelve distraídos frente al entorno. Lo que nos deja saber que la vida tiene motivación y sentido.A veces a nuestro amante lo encontramos en nuestra pareja, en otros casos en alguien que no es nuestra pareja. También solemos hallarlo en la investigación científica, en la literatura, en la música, en la política, en el deporte, en el trabajo cuando es vocacional, en la necesidad de trascender espiritualmente, en la amistad, en la buena mesa, en el estudio, o en el obsesivo placer de un hobby…En fin, es “alguien” o “algo” que nos pone de “novio con la vida” y nos aparta del triste destino de durar…“

vía (Nietzche para los pobres)

Ordo Virtutum - Marta Dettlaff

Illustrations by Moomin creator, Tove Jansson for a 1966 Swedish edition of ALICE IN WONDERLAND.