A Brief History Of Cosmetics

There is archaeological evidence of cosmetics usage in Ancient Egypt around 4,000 BC. Romans and the Ancient Greeks also used cosmetics. Interestingly, both the Ancient Egyptians and Romans used cosmetics that contained lead and mercury.

In the West, cosmetics use was mostly restricted to the upper classes throughout the medieval period. Cosmetics were also used in what is today the Middle East as well as in Persia. Though Islam has so explicit restriction against the use of cosmetics, the rise of Islam seems to have inspired various restrictions against the use of cosmetics in that part of the world.

Likewise, in various eras cosmetics usage was restricted or disapproved in general. In the 19th century Queen Victoria, for example, officially declared that the wearing of cosmetics was impolite. It was during this era in the western world that cosmetics were first seen as crude, or something that only prostitutes and actors wore.

It wasn’t until right around World War II that



cosmetics achieved wide appeal that was cross-class. During the 1930s and 1940s both lower and upper classes used cosmetics on a regular basis. It was during this period of time that makeup became so popular as to be advertised in magazines and other publications of the day.

In Japan geishas wore cosmetics made of natural resins and plants. These cosmetics were used to paint the lips, eyebrows and eye lid areas. A mixture of white paste and a very soft wax called bintsuke wax was used to paint the face of a geisha the identifying ivory white color.

Today, the cosmetics manufacturing industry is dominated by a very small number of multinational corporations that were each started in the early 20th century. Eugene Shueller founded the L’Oreal makeup company in 1909. Back then the company was named French Harmless Hair Colouring Company and has since split up into Liliane Bettencourt, Nestle and others. L’Oreal is the largest of today’s multinational cosmetics manufacturing companies.

Though small independents like Lip-Ink International try to break into the cosmetics manufacturing industry with unique products, there haven’t been many successful breaches since those of Revlon just prior to World War II and Estee Lauder just after the war. Until then the industry was invented largely by the original trio of Elizabeth Arden, Max Factor and Helena Rubinstein


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