Our Relationship with Cosmetics
Through the ages, both men and women have used cosmetics to enhance their beauty, remove odours from their bodies, soften their skin and protect their health.
Make-up has played an enduring role in our history and culture. Archaeologists have found pigments used to adorn bodies in prehistoric times.
Five thousand years ago, Egyptians of the 1st dynasty applied green, and later black, eyeliner. They believed their carefully formulated preparations would protect their eyes from both the sun and infection.
The Greeks were known to paint their faces, and the Romans used oil-based perfumes in baths and fountains—they even applied them to their weapons.
At the height of the Roman Empire, traders brought highly prized cosmetics to Rome from the east. Lucian spoken of women polishing their teeth and eyebrows with cosmetics.
India’s Kama Sutra emphasises women’s duty to be attractive. It encourages them to learn the art of colouring their body, hair, nails, teeth and clothes.
Modern Europeans and their cosmetics
In Europe, in the late 17th century, Eau de Cologne enjoyed sweeping popularity. In France, the courtesans of Louis XIV coloured their faces with saffron and flower pollen.
From the Renaissance until the 19th century, dry perfumes were popular for use in powder form on the face, clothes and wigs.
Europeans in the 18th century used cosmetics to make their faces white. They went to great lengths to appear almost unnatural, even using blue colouring to highlight their veins.
After a somewhat austere period when cosmetics fell out of favour, innovative products began to gain popularity once more at the end of the 19th century, thanks to the birth of advertising coupled with technical progress.
The influence of Hollywood
In the first half of the 20th century, the cinema played a very big part in the growth of the cosmetics industry. Theda Bara, an early actress, caused a sensation when she appeared on the screen heavily adorned by Helena Rubinstein cosmetics.
Rubinstein developed mascara and the concept of coloured powder. She borrowed the idea of colour-shaded eyes from the French stage and accentuated mouths by reddening them.
Max Factor, a Hollywood make-up artist, contributed to the cosmetics industry with a wide variety of products, including ‘pancake’ make-up which was solid.
Hollywood also influenced the perception that tanned rather than white skin is most attractive and, after Coco Chanel was seen with a tan on the Duke of Westminster’s yacht in the 1920s, the idea of a suntan became popular. Self-tanning products appeared on the American market as early as 1929.
The birth of mass marketing
Between the World Wars, women turned again to beauty products, encouraged by flawless models featured in luxury fashion magazines.
Skin tanning aids were marketed more heavily in the 1950s, following on the development of “leg make-up” during World War II in response to the shortage of stockings.
In the 1950s and 60s, television brought advertisements for cosmetics and hair products into people’s homes.
In the past 20 years, innovation in the cosmetics industry has enabled a diverse range of products to be produced to protect and moisturise the skin, helping consumers achieve a natural-looking beauty and raising levels of personal hygiene.
Today’s innovative cosmetics industry
Innovation continues to be at the heart of the fast-paced cosmetics industry as exciting products are placed on the market in response to new and emerging trends in fashion, hair styling and changing lifestyles. Many brands are marrying science with nature by using natural ingredients and some manufacturers are now offering organic ranges. The industry is also directing its quest for innovation to finding environmentally friendly ways to source, manufacture, package and market products. It is clear that innovation continues to drive the cosmetics industry in its quest to provide safe and innovative products for the billions of people who use them every day of their lives.