The Makeup Coverage
AS YOU HIT the beauty counters this season, we get the lowdown on the makeup must-haves you put on your brows down to your lips before they make their way through your vanity kit, from their humble and (sometimes) outrageous origins to their environment-friendly use when they are past their prime.
Beauty with a Purpose
For ancient people, beauty was more than skin-deep.
• Egyptians in 10,000 B.C. got their eyes made up to ward off evil spirits and protect them from eye infections.
• Spanish prostitutes from the 19th century wore pink makeup to distinguish themselves from the pale-faced, high-class, Victorian women.
• In the 1930s, lipstick-stained lips among teenage girls was considered an act of rebellion.
Clean Slate
After wearing all that makeup the whole day, it’s time to let your skin breathe before you hit the sack. Here are a few tips to strip makeup off your face:
• For eye makeup, use an eye makeup remover. Apply on cotton pad (a square one, preferably) and wipe across your eyebrows, and upper and lower lash lines. Go over the eye area with a clean pad until it's clean.
• Wash your face with a foaming or gel cleanser, rinse off the suds, and pat your face dry with a clean,
dry towel. Choose a cleanser based on your skin type: cleansing oil for dry skin, and light cleansing milk for oily skin. Use a gentle cleanser if you’re not sure about your skin type.
• When washing your face, pay close attention to your hairline and jawline, where oil gets deposited
the most.
• Unless you have super oily skin, skip the toner. Although it helps remove all the remaining traces of makeup from your face, it also removes natural oils, leaving your skin dry.
Smear Campaign
Cosmetics may be acceptable in society today (not to mention a multibillion dollar industry), but it wasn’t always the case. Here are some of the earlier negative connotations of a painted face that certainly give meaning to the term ‘no-makeup look:’
• Ancient Roman ladies believed sex caused lashes to fall out, so they used burnt rose petals, ashes, soot (black powder separated from fuel during combustion), among others, to define their lashes –- and prove their chastity.
• In 1653, England pastor Thomas Hall decried the practice of face painting, saying it was the work of the devil. The condemnation continued in 1770, when the English parliament passed a law warning that women who lured men into marrying them using makeup could be tried as witches.
• Books and magazines in 1940s warned teenage girls that wearing cosmetics could destroy their prospect of a better career. At the time, makeup was still associated with prostitution. Those who didn’t wear lipstick in the 1960s, meanwhile, were suspected of suffering from mental illness and being a lesbian.
Extreme Primping
Animal poo. Blood. Toxic substances. For the first historically recorded vain people of the world, the crazier the beauty regimen, the better.
• For nail polish, ancient Romans mixed sheep fat with blood. They also took baths in mud with crocodile poo.
• Way before vampires became hot in pop culture, Victorian women from the Middle Ages already made the pale look popular by pinching and bleeding themselves to show their moneyed status. And you thought modern skin whiteners were ridiculous.
• In the old days, people didn’t consider the safety of cosmetics they used. Though toxic, lead makeup was in vogue worldwide until the 1800s.
Cosmetics Masters
We owe it to them for helping change the way we beautify ourselves:
• Eugene Rimmel. Launched the first mascara made from petroleum jelly and coal dust
• Max Factor. Invented the lip gloss; Pan-Cake, the first foundation and powder in one which is more natural-looking and lightweight on the skin; No Color, the first clear mascara; and Erase, the first commercially available concealer
• Hazel Bishop. Introduced the No-Smear Lipstick
• Elizabeth Arden. Started to introduce different shades of lipstick
• Maybelline. Launched the Ultra Lash Mascara, a mascara that combined the tube and brush as one
