Makeup Over Six Thousand Years

Face makeup has been around for thousands of years and can be traced to 4th Century Egypt and may well have been around before that.

The ancient Greeks and later the Romans used face makeup and this was more so for the men than women. The ingredients used would not be allowed today as it included lead and mercury as well as other harmful ingredients.

Throughout the Mediterranean countries it is impossible not to see the evil eye on boats and entrances to houses in huge numbers. This is the eye that is supposed to ward off evil spirits and can be traced back to the eye makeup of the Egyptians. It seems they considered that heavy black makeup around their eyes would keep evil away.

Surprisingly makeup was used very little in western culture during the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. It was only the movies that influenced the use of makeup in Europe and the United States from the nineteen twenties onward.

The actors in early cinema had to be heavily made up because poor lighting back then made the actors look like ghosts without it. Actresses were expected to wear makeup even when off the stage and fans began copying the look.