History of Makeup (part 2)

Romans between 1 - 100 A.D. used  Makeup in different variations.
Khol was still used to darken eyebrows and as eyeliner and mascara.
Chalk and white lead was used to lighten complexions in Greco-Roman society. Some form of Rouge was worn on the cheeks.

The world's oldest cosmetic face cream, complete with the finger marks of its last user 2,000 years ago, has been found by archaeologists excavating a Roman temple on the banks of London's River Thames.
Measuring 6 cm by 5 cm, the tightly sealed, cylindrical tin can opened to reveal a pungent-smelling white cream.
"It seems to be very much like an ointment, and it's got finger marks in the lid ... whoever used it last has applied it to something with their fingers and used the lid as a dish to take the ointment out," museum curator Liz Barham said as she opened the box.
The superbly made canister, now on display at the museum, was made almost entirely of tin, a precious metal at that time. Perhaps a beauty treatment for a fashionable Roman lady or even a face paint used in temple ritual, the cream is currently undergoing scientific analysis.
"We don't yet know whether the cream was medicinal, cosmetic or entirely ritualistic. We're lucky in London to have a marshy site where the contents of this completely sealed box must have been preserved very quickly - the metal is hardly corroded at all," said Nansi Rosenberg, a senior archaeological consultant on the project.

Cosmetics have been used since ancient times. However, they fell into disuse in most of Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. It was not until the return of the men from the crusades that Europe saw the return of beauty and hygiene aids it had long forgotten. The concept of cosmetics as "face paint" did not really begin to resurface in Northern Europe until the 14th century. Even then, cosmetics were not commonly used outside of the bawdy trades. One excellent source of information for beauty instruction in the 16th century is a conversation manual commonly referred to as "A dialogue of the faire perfectioning of ladies." It is written as a discussion between two kinswomen, Raffaella and Margaret. The downside to the use of face whitening substances is described well by the two kinswomen, Margaret and Rafaella. The toxicity of most of the whitening lotions is clearly evident in this recipe from Raffaella, which is apparently meant for a common person. "...One takes pure silver and quicksilver and, when they are ground in the mortar, one adds ceruse and burnt rock alum, and then for a day they are ground together again and afterwards moistened with mastic until all is liquid; then all is boiled in rain water and, the boiling done, one casts some sublimate upon the mortar; this is done three times and the water cast on the fourth time is kept together with the body of the lye. And this is used oftentimes among ladies who have no great means to spend." Vermillion is red crystalline mercuric sulphide. The pigment was applied by mixing it with gum arabic, egg whites, and the milk of green figs. Other reds that were used were derived from red ocher, madder, cochineal, brasil wood that had been steeped in water and applied with fish glue, and red sandalwood. One feature that was important to the beauty ideal in Elizabethan England was large, luminous eyes. It has been suggested that kohl, which was commonly used in the Middle East and Asia, was employed to emphasize the eyes. It has also been suggested that during the later 16th century, belladonna, or deadly nightshade, began to be used to enlarge the pupil and make the eyes more luminous.

 The first record of this skin-whitener was found in 1521. By the time of Elizabeth's reign it was well-established as an essential item for the fashionable woman. Naturally, spreading lead upon one's skin caused a variety of skin problems; some authors of the time warned against it, describing how it made the skin "grey and shriveled" and suggested other popular mixtures such as paste of alum and tin ash, sulfur and a variety of foundations made using boiled egg white, talc and other white materials as a base. Egg white, uncooked, could also be used to "glaze" the complexion, creating a smooth shell and helping to hide wrinkles. One Elizabethan satirist commented that an artist needed no box of paints to work, but merely a fashionably painted lady standing nearby to use for pigments. Lettice's features also approximate the 16th century standard of beauty: a small, rosy mouth, a straight and narrow nose and wide-set bright eyes under narrow arched brows. Women would use drops of belladonna in their eyes to achieve that bright sparkle and outline them with kohl (powdered antimony) to enhance their size or make them appear more wide set. Plucked eyebrows were de rigeur for a court lady, as was a high brow. A high hairline had been for centuries a sign of the aristocracy. Women would pluck their brow hair back an inch, or even more, to create a fashionably high forehead.

 The earliest mention of the adoption of patching by the ladies of England, occurs in Bulwer's Artificial Changeling (1653). Our ladies, he complains, have lately entertained a vain custom of spotting their faces, out of an affectation of a mole, to set off their beauty, such as Venus had; and it is well if one black patch will serve to make their faces remarkable, for some fill their visages full of them, varied into all manner of shapes. The beauties of the court of Louis Quinze thought they had made a notable discovery, when they gummed pieces of black taffeta on their cheeks to heighten the brilliancy of their complexions; but the fops of Elizabethan England had long before anticipated them, by decorating their faces with black stars, crescents, and lozenges:

'To draw an arrant fop from top to toe, Whose very looks at first clash shew him so; Give him a mean, proud garb, a dapper grace, A pert dull grin, a black patch cross his face.'

And the fashion prevailed through succeeding reigns, for Glapthorne writes in 1640: If it be a lover's part you are to act, take a black spot or two; twill make your face more amorous, and appear more gracious in your mistress's eyes.


In Japan at about 1700 the trend of the Geisha errupted into a very popular culture. And their Makeup changed quite a bit.
The traditional makeup of an apprentice geisha features a thick white base with red lipstick and red and black accents around the eyes and eyebrows. Originally, the white base mask was made with lead, but after the discovery that it poisoned the skin and caused terrible skin and back problems for the older geisha towards the end of the Meiji Era, it was replaced with rice powder.
The application of makeup is hard to perfect and is a time-consuming process. Makeup is applied before dressing to avoid dirtying the kimono. First, a wax or oil substance called bintsuke-abura is applied to the skin. Next, white powder is mixed with water into a paste and applied with a bamboo brush starting from the neck and working upwards. The white makeup covers the face, neck, and chest, with two or three unwhitened areas (forming a W or V shape, usually a traditional W shape) left on the nape, to accentuate this traditionally erotic area, and a line of bare skin around the hairline, which creates the illusion of a mask.
After the foundation layer is applied, a sponge is patted all over the face, throat, chest, the nape and neck to remove excess moisture and to blend the foundation. Next the eyes and eyebrows are drawn in. Traditionally, charcoal was used, but today, modern cosmetics are used. The eyebrows and edges of the eyes are colored black with a thin charcoal; a maiko also applies red around her eyes.
The lips are filled in using a small brush. The color comes in a small stick, which is melted in water. Crystallized sugar is then added to give the lips lustre. Rarely will a geisha color in both lips fully in the Western style, as white creates optical illusions and colouring the lips fully would make them appear overly large. The lower lip is colored in partially and the upper lip left white for maiko in her first year, after which the upper lip is also colored. Newly full-fledged geisha will color in only the top lip fully. Most geisha wear the top lip colored in fully or stylized, and the bottom lip in a curved stripe that does not follow the shape of the lip. Geisha round the bottom lips to create the illusion of a flower bud.
Maiko who are in their last stage of training sometimes colour their teeth black for a brief period. This practice used to be common among married women in Japan and, earlier, at the imperial court, but survives only in some districts. It is done partly because uncoloured teeth seem very yellow in contrast to white face makeup; colouring the teeth black means that they seem to "disappear" in the darkness of the open mouth. This illusion is of course more pronounced at a distance.
For the first three years, a maiko wears this heavy makeup almost constantly. During her initiation, the maiko is helped with her makeup either by her onee-san, or "older sister" (an experienced geisha who is her mentor), or by the okaa-san, or "mother" of her geisha house. After this, she applies the makeup herself.
After a maiko has been working for three years, she changes her make-up to a more subdued style. The reason for this is that she has now become mature, and the simpler style shows her own natural beauty. For formal occasions, the mature geisha will still apply white make-up. For geisha over thirty, the heavy white make-up is only worn during those special dances that require it.

 In the beginning of the last century, girls still used Japanese makeup under the name "the Chinese clay" which was prepared on the basis of lead. It was good, except for the fact that when the geisha with the greatest work washed the face from lead muck, her skin sadly drooped and screwed up the face. Now exists the special Japanese makeup for geishas which do not render harm to skin.


 By the 18th century, cosmetics and perfumes had become so popular that the English Parliament passed a law declaring that any woman who "shall impose upon, seduce and betray into matrimony any of His Majesty's subjects by virtue of scents, paints, cosmetic washes, artificial teeth, false hair, iron stays, hoops, high-heeled shoes, or bolstered hips, shall incur the penalty against witchcraft, and the marriage . . . shall be null and void."

to find all these informations i read up in some books, wikipedia  and xtimeline.com