History Lesson in Women’s Makeup Through the Ages [VIDEO]

Well, all I can say is . . . girls, we've come a long way! I'm talking about cosmetics. Most of us girls will wear some type of make up even if it's just a little.

I found this video of women's makeup through the ages. It's pretty interesting, but also kinda creepy at the same time. I'm happy to not live in a time where the "uni-brow" was popular. Can you imagine? Oh, and how about the era where it was popular to have such pale skin that you would paint vains on your chest? Yikes!

I do love the 60s era though. I love the big hair and false eyelashes.

Nowadays it's nothing to look for hypoallergenic makeup, but back in the days of Queen Elizabeth I, not so much. According to makeupthroughtheages blog:

During the Elizabethan era, Queen Elizabeth I set the standard for beauty for women. Her pale white skin, red cheeks, and red lips were the envy of her subjects. To obtain this pale look, they used ceruse. It was a lead-based powder that also contained hydroxide and carbonate . Whenever a new layer of ceruse was needed, women would paint their faces without removing the first layer. This resulted in layers of makeup being on a woman's face.

 

Unfortunately, the lead did have side-effects. It often turned the woman's skin gray. Doctors at the time urged women to use other makeup that used tin ash or alum. Another common base for makeup at the time was talc, boiled white egg or other white products. They also used uncooked egg whites as a glaze for their skin.

 

To get the red lips and red cheeks, they used vermilion. To get the appearance of doll like eyes, they used belladonna drops. This dilated the eyes and was very harmful because their eyes weren't able to block out the amount of light that they're naturally supposed to. Eye shadow was made from ground up mother of pearl.

 

Wow, lead based makeup and drops to dilate your eyes? Yeah, pretty creepy!

Like I said, girls, we've come a very, very, VERY long way. At least for the time being.