Makeup: An Ancient Practice
Map and pictures of 11 kohl containers from the Petrie Museum in London. (Image: Source)
Have you ever wondered where our modern-day beauty trends come from? Have you ever wondered why we are so concerned with beautifying ourselves? Is it really all about beauty or is there more to it? Anthropologists believe that makeup was initially worn as a means of protection from the elements or to camouflage and hide from predators or as part of a ritual. Makeup was not just limited to painting the face, the body too was painted. The earliest records of the use of makeup date back to 6000 BCE in Ancient Egypt. Makeup containers were found in the tombs and burial sites of the ancient Egyptians from all social classes, so it seems that makeup was worn by everybody — men, women and even children. What is fascinating is that many of the beauty trends found in Egypt today are similar to the beauty trends found here thousands of years ago. It is, therefore, perhaps more accurate to call them traditions rather than trends. The use of Kohl (black eyeliner) is one of those very traditions that has stayed with us for millennia and is deeply rooted into our visual identity and heritage. Through the act of putting kohl, millions of Egyptian women reach out everyday to the past and bring forth the traditions of our ancestors into the future. Perhaps that is why the ancients left all those kohl containers with their mummified bodies — so that we can find them and keep their traditions alive forever, in a way making them immortal through making kohl immortal.
In her book Face Paint: The Story of Makeup, Lisa Eldridge walks us through the history of makeup beginning with the Egyptians. Below is a very interesting video where she goes to the Fitzwilliam Musuem in Cambridge to make her own kohl using ancient techniques. She even shows us how to apply it as the ancients did.
One of the reasons ancient Egyptians wore makeup was because they believed it brought them closer to the Gods. They saw makeup as a source of personal power and believed having makeup on their eyes protected them from the “evil eye” which is why even children wore kohl. The ancients were very sophisticated chemists blending all sorts of ingredients to prepare cosmetics. They made moisturizers, kohl, lip and cheek rouge, and nail color — all from mixing powders from natural substances such as ground nuts and minerals such as red ochre, green malachite, and galena. They would put these ingredients onto a palette or a dish and blend them with animal fat or vegetable and seed oils to create pastes out of these powders. They would place these products into all sorts of containers. In fact, it wasn’t the makeup itself that distinguished the wealthy from the poor, but rather the containers in which the makeup was stored. Poor peasants used clay pots and sticks to store and apply their makeup, while the wealthy stored theirs in delicately crafted boxes that were bedazzled with jewels and used applicators made out of ivory.
Kohl is perhaps one of the most popular makeup traditions to carry itself forth into the future almost unchanged. Other than its magical qualities, kohl was believed to also have vital medicinal properties. Kohl was known to protect the eyes from the glare of the sun and from dust, insects, bacteria and various eye diseases. Kohl contained ingredients that kept the eyes cool and clean, such as zinc oxide which is a powerful sunblock that is still used in many commercial sunblocks today. Neem oil was also sometimes included for its antibacterial properties.
During the 1910s and 1920s, the discoveries of many impressive Egyptian artworks and artifacts such as the bust of Nefertiti catapulted ancient Egyptian beauty styles into public consciousness. Contemporary Hollywood films such as the 1917 silent film Cleopatra starring Theda Bara (below left) as Cleopatra demonstrate how the kohl cat-eye infiltrated the fashion world and became one of the most iconic looks of all time. We all might be more familiar with the Elizabeth Taylor (below right) 1963 version.
In looking at the past of makeup, one can’t help but wonder what its future might look like. One thing to remember is that the use of makeup was never about beauty alone; it was about health, spirituality and power. Makeup was creative as much as it was functional. Today instead of using kohl to protect our eyes from the sun and dust, we use sunglasses. I wonder how our current interactions with nature and its elements will change how and why we use makeup in the future. One thing I do hope for is that the kohl tradition remains and continues to define our eyes as well as our history.