QUESTION: How did they make Egyptian makeup?
- amborc1
- Jan 17, 2016
- 3 min read
Movie that inspired question:
Cleopatra
Egypt. That one word alone floods the mind with images of beautiful women, statues, gods and pyramids in the middle of lush green fields resting along the river Nile. This movie is so beautifully shot and her story is so complex, there are 100s of articles and questions you could ask. Those issues might be tackled a different day, today we ask about that gorgeous makeup that seem to appear on every woman and man of royal blood.
And that's where we begin, men and women both enjoyed the beauty of cosmetics and perfumes. The higher the status, the more makeup was worn.
Now Egyptian makeup is very elaborate and can be traced back to 4000 B.C. The preferred colors for the eyes were black and green. The black eye makeup was called kohl. Kohl is a mixture of soot and galena, which is a blue-grey natural mineral form of sulfate. The green eye makeup was made using malachite, which is a carbonite mineral and has a very vibrant green color. They crushed the stone in order to be able to mix it and turn it into makeup. It was imported from the Sinai desert. Henna and kohl are both still actively used in some parts of the world. They have been modified due to the health issues associated with lead and other heavy metals, but they are still an important part of life and tradition.
Extra Tidbit: Lead salts were added to the black eyeliner to ward off bacterial infection.
The eye makeup was stored in beautiful containers called kohl pots.
Moving on from the eyes we have the luscious lips and cheeks to cover. For that we are gonna talk about rouge. They used rouge to stain their cheeks and lips. They created this by using ochre. Ochre came in various colors and to create rouge they used red ochre which is a pigment made from naturally tinted clay. What they would do is mine the clay, wash it to separate the ochre from all the other bits and let it dry in the sun. The longer it dried (often to the point of becoming burnt) the more enhanced the color became.
The Ancient Egyptians also used nail polish and colored their hair. They achieved this by using henna. They would take the leaves from the henna shrub and dry them out. Then they would ground the leaves to a sift. From there it could easily be turned into a paste by adding some water. The henna shrub was also considered a healing plant so it was used to cool and cleanse the skin. It was an important part of the Egyptian lifestyle as the color and condition of nails were an indication of social status. Prior to mummification, the fingers the toes of the pharaohs were stained, in fact the earliest traces of henna were found on the nails of mummified pharaohs.
Ancient Egyptians used makeup for more than aesthetics. The kohl was used to shield the eye from the sun. Galena had disinfectant qualities and was used as a deterrent to flies. Physicians would prescribe it to help against eye diseases such as ocular infection. It wasn't just the eye makeup that was used as protection. The makeup in general was very lead heavy and it had anti-bacterial properties that helped prevent all kinds of infections. How awesome is that!
They also used the makeup for religious and traditional purposes. Mothers would put the kohl on their newborns eyes for they believed it would protect the child from curses as well as strengthen the eye. Malachite was used to evoke Horus, the God of the Sky and Sun.
There's so many books on Ancient Egypt I'm not even going to begin to list them. The culture, history and legacy is so amazing, it's really worth it to go to your local library and book store and give this subject a gander. It's a fantastic rabbit hole to go down.
For more information on the makeup:
Link to movie:
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