Fashion History and Makeup Series: Aztec Makeup

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The Aztecs were a population in central Mexico and dominated parts of Mesoamerica in centuries 14, 15, and 16. Like all the other cultures, makeup was used to improve people's beauty. 

Although women had a natural brown complexion, they would paint their face yellow because it was more fashionable. Yellow earth or a substance made from crushed insects was used to achieve that color. They also used axin which was a yellow ointment made from boiled wings of certain (timbre tree flies) flies as a lipbalm to protect against skin dryness.

Courtesans had their own style and Sahagun describes them as having yellow faces, colored with bitumen or yellow ochre. They wore their hair short (the length was to their noses) and they dyed it with indigo to make it shiny. Also they stained their teeth with a substance made from cochineal insects because it was seen as a beautiful feature on a a woman. However, concubines were the only women allowed to wear makeup because it was seen as indecent by the rest of the people. When it came to hair, most women wore their hair long and straight. 

The common women of Tenochtitlan were more reluctant when it came to makeup; there’s a part in the Chronicles that contains the instructions a father gives to his daughter concerning her appearance. He tells her never to paint her face, because makeup is used by shameless women. However, she should always wash herself and her clothes to be loved by her husband. 

The mouth was seen as indecent and drawing attention to it was only a practice done by prostitutes and concubines, so lipstick was out of the question for most women. 

The Aztec idea of masculine beauty is also described by Sahagun: “slender like a reed; long and thin like a stout cane; well-built; not of overfed body, not corpulent, and neither very small nor exceedingly tall. ”  

Face hair was not pleasant and mothers were careful to apply hot cloths on their sons faces and plucked their hair with tweezers.

As I mentioned earlier, cleaning was an important part of their culture and unlike Europeans who preferred to use perfumes for their body odor, they took baths every day. However, floral perfumes were used and some women even wore flowers around their necks for their pleasant smell. 

Fashion History and Makeup Series: Ancient Greece Makeup

Ancient Greece had its own idea of beauty and there were fashion trends respected by women and men in those times.

It seems there was a problem with makeup in ancient Greece and many thought that women were a bit too interested in it. The poet Eubulus described how women were wearing so much makeup it was hard for them to go out in the sun because the sweat would smear it off.

Makeup was a practice only for those who were wealthy and what most women tried to achieve was a pale face. The rich women tried to stay indoors more, other women were using makeup to achieve a lighter complexion. White lead was mixed with water and applied on their face, neck, shoulders and arms to create a smooth pale skin. Red lipstick was also in fashion and it was made from seaweed or crushed mulberries. They also used dark eye shadow and eyeliner made from soot. Red cheeks were not forgotten either and most women even draw red designs on their cheeks for a more interesting look.

They also used dark powder for their eyebrows and it seems that connected eyebrows were very fashionable back then. A natural face mask they used was made from olive oil and honey, which moisturized and gave a great glow to their face.

Perfume was also very important in Ancient Greece and it also brought the attention of Egypt. People from Egypt were appalled by the fact that Greeks were using perfume for more sexual reasons, to become more desirable while they mostly used it for medicinal and religious purposes. Kyphi was one of the reasons of this dispute because Greeks seemed to use it as an aphrodisiac while Egyptians considered it sacred.

Philosophers like Socrates were not very fond of makeup or perfumes, believing that the former would conceal the smell of slaves making it hard for people to recognize them.

Fashion History and Makeup Series: Makeup in Mesopotamia

Ancient Sumerian Makeup was very similar to ancient Egyptian makeup. Historians have found great evidence indicating that people in Mesopotamia were very interested in body care. It seems that they even used perfume, made from soaked plants with water and oil, used for both cosmetic and medicinal purposes. Historians also found that they were using makeup; makeup was held in sea shells and a lot of them have been discovered in tombs, containing red, while, yellow, blue, green, and black pigments. 

Just like in the Ancient Egypt, kohl was used as an eye protection against bacteria and red eye, which was very common back then. It seems that khol was “a paste originally made from charred frankincense resin and later from powdered antimony (stibium) or lead compounds”.

Khol was worn as a mascara or eyeliner, and for lipstick, women used red henna. During excavations at Ur, Dr. Kenneth Graham found lipsalves in a tomb and they are believed to have been used by Queen Shub-ad. People also painted their faces with white lead and vermilion. For skin they used pumice stone powdered manganese oxide and turquoise to line their eyes.

What’s interesting about people in Mesopotamia is the fact that, besides being the inventors of makeup, they also used jewels to decorate their face and their eyes, by crushing them.

Hairstyles were also very important and it seems that their hair style changed very often.  For example, in the Early Dynastic Period, men would shave their hair and women wore their hair long, but in Akkadian Period some men also wore wavy hair. In other periods, curls or face hair were "trendy" and the kings were always the trendsetters.

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Fashion History and Makeup Series: Makeup In Ancient Egypt

Beauty was always a priced trait and even in antiquity women did everything they could to improve their appearance and be more desirable.

The first archeological evidence of makeup dates from 4000 BC and it comes from Ancient Egypt. 

Glass kohl tube in the form of a palm column
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An interesting thing about ancient Egypt was the fact that cosmetics were used by both men and women and makeup was not only something that enhanced people’s beauty, but also a therapeutical practice. 

The black eye makeup was made from carbon, lead sulphide (galena) or manganese oxide, green makeup was made from malachite and copper based minerals and red makeup was obtained from red ochre and mixed with water or animal fat. Eye makeup palettes were even found in tombs and they seemed very essential in people’s journey after death.  

They also had henna, which was used for fingernail as some sort of nail polish.

Makeup was not only used by rich people, everybody had access to some kohl and other makeup colors. What’s interesting about that period is the fact that there were professional face painters, like makeup artists today.

Eye makeup

Black steatite statuette of a girl holding a kohl pot
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Kohl was used as an eye liner and mascara; it was made from galena and other ingredients. The kohl makeup kit contained a vessel which had a small applicator and it was made of different materials like bone, bronze, glass, etc. The stick had two sides: one used for mixing and the other for applying makeup. It was either mixed with water or scented oil.

It is still used in the Middle East, North Africa and India by women and even men and children. It is supposed to protect people of evil eye, eye diseases, and sun damage. Scientists found out that lead is efficient in killing bacteria around the eyes. However, there’s a lot of brain damage involved when it comes to lead. 

Lipstick

Lipstick was made from red ochre and animal fat but there were also lipsticks made from a combination of focus-algin , iodine, and some bromine mannite (which were very harmful). The shimmery lipsticks were made from fish scales and other types of red pigments were obtained from crushed insects like beetles and ants (Cleopatra is known to have used this combination).  

Skin Care

When it came to skin care, Ancient Egypt had a lot of creams and lotions made of beeswax, vegetable oils and resin. They also had scrub and some medical papyruses have recipes for scrub. Soap was made by mixing vegetable oil or animal fat with alkaline salts. They also used a lot of honey, whole milk (Cleopatra is famous for taking milk baths) and myrrh for fragrance.