The history of skincare is fascinating. Taking care of our skin is as old as humanity. People always wanted to look their best and protect their skin from various exterior aggressions such as sunlight, especially in warmer regions.
So, how did skincare start? Here is everything you need to know!
How did skincare start?
Historians believed prehistoric people used the same paint on the wall of the caves and their faces, both to stand out in their tribes or to look more threatening went they went to war. It can be seen as the first makeup, but it is not exactly skincare as those paint most likely did not have any other benefices than coloring the skin.
So, how did skincare start?
Egyptians and their SPF-like mix
Ancient Egypt is famous for many reasons, from Pharaons to hieroglyphs. Ancient Egypt is also where skincare started. Egyptians were very self-conscious and always wanted to look their best. Some even got nose jobs!
How did skincare start?
In 3000 BC, wealthy Egyptians were more obsessed with their appearance than today’s beauty gurus and could spend several hours every day looking to achieve their best look. Egyptian cosmetics had two main purposes: looking good and protecting the skin from the sun.
If you were a rich woman at the time in Egypt, you would probably use crushed semi-precious stones or metal as eye-shadow to let your eyes catch all the light. Your eyeliner would be made of lead, almond, animal fat, copper, and soot. Were those safe? Actually, no. The use of lead on the skin probably leads many women to a slow and painful death for the sake of beauty…
The Egyptian beauty rituals inspired Ancient Greeks and Romans. Both of those civilizations were very into skincare. They moisturized their skin with honey, they used oil and sand as a natural sunscreen. It is logical as those people living in regions where it was very hot and sunny and they wanted to avoid burning their skin. Being light-skinned was also a beauty and wealth criterion as it meant you were not working outside in the fields.
Contrary to popular belief, being hairless is not a recent trend. At the time, rich people had slaves called Cosmetae, their job was to pull every single hair from the back, legs, chest, arms, and face. In the Middle East at the time of King Salomon, women used to use honey-based wax to get rid of body hairs.
They also had luxuriant spa experiences with specific rituals for all the parts of the body. They used fragranced oil to have radiant skin.
When the skincare was toxic: the use of lead in cosmetics
Nowadays many people are concerned about skincare causing cancer. In the past, people used many toxic ingredients because they were not aware of the danger. The best example is lead.
How did skincare start? Well, not so good if you want radiant skin without dying in awful pain!
Lead is a heavy metal. If today its toxicity is well-known, in the past it was used in various skincare, makeup, paint… In 2009, researchers found that even very little level of lead exposure could cause mental health issues. The effects of lead exposure are endless.
In the past, in China, then Europe, having an extremely white face was a beauty standard and lead was used in the white powder people put on their faces every day.
Later, acne treatment containing lead was sold. If it first worked, the people using it ended up severely ill.
Hopefully at the beginning of the XXth century people started to mind about what they put on their skin and the FDA was founded in 1906 in the USA to ensure the products sold were safe to use.