Ancient Egypt: The Early Beginnings of Makeup (Makeup, But in 3000BC)

It surrounds us every day. For some, it’s something their mother keeps kept away and out of sight. For others, it’s on their face near constantly.

Now, perhaps that wasn’t the best introduction to the topic of makeup, but we have to be real here, makeup is a huge industry that’s hard to ignore. A Jeffree Star x Shane Dawson palette just came out and although I’ve never really watched any of their videos I definitely can tell it’s a big deal to some people.

So, makeup. For us teenagers, we practically grew up around it. And so did your parents, and your grandparents-actually makeup has been around for a long time.

Makeup use began in Ancient Egypt (which, in my opinion, is one of the most interesting ancient civilizations. They have a god named Nut.) They were also years ahead of us in terms of not being a bigoted civilization and allowed men to wear makeup without judgment.

Makeup was very important to the Ancient Egyptians. They were a very hygienic ancient society. They knew to wash and laundry. They knew how to use mint to make their breath smell fresh, and they took care of their faces and hair with oils and creams.

A picture depicting a common way to apply kohl

Actually, the first use for makeup stemmed from the fats and oils used to protect Egyptian’s from the harsh sunlight and heat. The kohl they lined around their eyes had many practical uses, such as repelling flies, protecting eyes from the sun, and staved out eye infections.

They also believed it gave them the protection of Ra and Horus, who was the sun god and the god of the sky respectively.

Ancient Egyptians had many other techniques to satisfy their vanity needs. Women would stain their cheeks with rogue(a mix of fat and red ochre) for blush. They would color their fingernails with henna. Both sexes utilized perfumes composed of oil, myrrh, and cinnamon.

A painting depicting Ancient Egyptians donning perfume wax cones

Perhaps in the most interesting thing I found while researching Ancient Egyptian beauty products was that of ‘fragrance cones’. Fragrance cones, which were made of scented wax, were placed on the head and melted throughout the day to release the smell.

(Also, if you don’t like normal waxing, look into sugar waxing! It was used by the Ancient Egyptians and it’s a practice still in use today. Its only products are water, lemon, and sugar. Check it out here!)

Now, on a more modern note, how is ancient Egyptian beauty techniques still relevant today?

Ancient Egyptian culture is still alive and well thousands of years later, thriving in places we don’t even know! A typical upper-class Egyptian woman had a daily routine of exfoliating, sugaring, putting oils on her face to soften her skin and even applying nicely smelling incense pellets to her armpits.

Some Ancient Egyptian cosmetic tools

This can be seen today through almost everyone’s basic routines-whether you just simply wash your face and wear deodorant, or have a whole face routine and a preference complicated makeup looks, it can all almost always be traced back to the Ancient Egyptians.