Ancient Egypt, one of the most fascinating civilisations to ever have existed. The beautiful artwork and statues that are still found standing today or in museums are utterly amazing. The woman of ancient Egypt are depicted with beautiful faces and hair and are known to have toke pride in their appearance. I have done a bit of research for this post and found out that ancient Egyptian woman may just be the inventors of hair extensions!
More on hair extensions and wigs later on in the post… lets start with the obvious one first! EYELINER! what in the world are male and females depicted with all that eyeliner on their eyes on artwork/statues even on the sarcophagus. What are they doing that for ?
Egyptians mostly used galena (more commonly known as kohl) and malachite powder (a green mineral) for eye makeup. Galena was a black paint that shielded eyes from the sun, while malachite powder made the eyes appear larger and protected those who wore it. Both were applied using ivory, wood, or sticks made of metal.
Kohl was found to repel insects and flies and also protect the eyes from the sun, which is handy if you live in ancient Egypt. So looking pretty wasn’t the only purpose of ancient Egyptian makeup! Also the makeup was worn by men and woman and even children from rich and poor backgrounds although the richer had more makeup available to them and also finer boxes and tools to apply it with. Apparently some richer ladies had bejewelled boxes and applicator sticks just for their beauty routine.
Mascara was also used in ancient Egypt applied with ivory or bone made from kohl mixed with honey, water and animal fats to create a paste that would make the lashes darker and more defined.
Skin exfoliation was big in ancient Egypt with ladies using ground coffee powder to rub on their skin and also dead sea salts, it is said Cleopatra would travel to the dead sea just for her skincare routine.
Big brows were a trend back then just like lamination brows now only ancient Egypt was way ahead of their time. They would use burnt ground up almonds as an eyebrow pencil to fill up the brows and darken them. Almonds contain vitamin e which is fantastic for hair growth, so you basically have an all natural eyebrow pencil that is also great for your eyebrows! genius.
Ancient soap. Yes the Egyptians were BIG on personal hygiene and washing was very important part of the self care routine. Apparently they would use natural clays to wash mixed with olive oil so they were cleansed and nourished at the same time. Wow we need to go back to this in 2020 !
Body art was often painted on with henna!
