Welcome back, ladies! From pouty lips to piercing eyes, we’re moving onto those pretty peepers. In the spirit of education and empowerment, we’re going to cover who wore eye shadow first, how it progressed and ladies over the years who rocked it best. Settle in because you are on your way to becoming a beauty expert!
As we mentioned in the previous post, we don’t know the exact date when our ancestors started changing their appearance with various methods to appear more attractive. However, the earliest evidence we have on record is from ancient Egypt. Most of us think Cleopatra when ancient Egypt is mentioned and, by default, beautiful eyes thickly outlined in black. Our modern day makeup is typically used to enhance and make us feel like a modern day Queen of the Nile. Though for similar enhancement purposes, this thick black eyeliner also served two purposes: to help shield their eyes from the sun and ward off flies.
This multi-purpose substance, used to make those eyes beautiful while battling against sun and fly, goes by the name kohl. Kohl was a fairly simple mixture for the time of lead, manganese, iron, galena copper and malachite. Not just an eyeliner, kohl also was also used to color eyelashes and eyebrows. The eyebrows had a bit more range, though, when it came to ways to darken them. Some of these unique mixtures included crocodile earth anddonkey liver which were formed into “dye balls.” These lovely creations were packaged in shells or the slightly more exotic sounding alabaster containers. The finely ground powder was mixed with oil or fat and put on with a shaped stick. Green was another favorite made with one of the ingredients from the above mentioned kohl: malachite. Here is something fun to consider: the men of Egypt loved these makeup trends just as much.
Later centuries, like 16th century England, were deeply guided by religion, so eye makeup was not as widely used as it was with those Egyptian beauties. Sure, they had their own methods for enhancement, such as preserving pale skin (a sign of affluence and standing at the time) by bleeding themselves, lead paint or Aqua Toffana, a popular face powder brought to you by arsenic. Solid choices except for that fact they caused hair loss, stomach problems, damaged skin and death.
Straying away from the heavy makeup of the past but still committed to attaining beauty at all cost, women of 18th century Europe chose belladonna to enhance their eyes, providing that luminous, doe-eyed look we all secretly want. Thanks, Lady Gaga. Belladonna translates “beautiful woman.” The appeal is understandable given the name, though the use of it is ridiculous. Here is why. Belladonna, also known as Atropa belladonna, was a refined extract made from its berries and dropped in the eye. You may be thinking, what’s wrong with that? After all, two ingredients derived from belladonna, atropine and scopolamine, are ingredients in some medications and used to dilate your eyes during an exam. The issue with the beauty-driven concoctions they were creating from the extract was that it was pure in form and belladonna, or Atropa belladonna, is a poisonous plant. When consumed, a small quantity of its leaves can be deadly for humans and animals; even touching a few of it’s leaves can irritate your skin. Now drop that poisonous bomb in your eyes, not just once but multiple times a day over the course of years. The result? Eventually permanent blindness, but along the way many of them were lucky enough to experience shaking, increased heart rate and prolonged blurred vision. Ladies, we’re too fabulous for these dangerous shenanigans!
As with our luscious lipsticks of ages past, social acceptance of makeup increased greatly over the centuries and took a major turn in the late 1880s and early 1900s. Recall our friend Guerlain and his first cosmetics shop in 1828; well, another popped up not much longer in London. Selfridges opened their doors to the British public in 1909, boldly selling cosmetics. (No need to travel London. You can still just buy beauty products online through us.)
These brazen sales associates peddling their demon paint (Yeah, we’re still talking about makeup.) became a necessary part of our society once makeup became socially acceptable, thanks to the influence of ballet, theatre and the biggest influencer of all, movie. Moving pictures, see? (Try reading that in an 1920’s gangster voice. It’s fun. Promise.)
Eye makeup along with all other cosmetics evolved quickly with time as the demand grew. We saw the eyes, faces and lips we COULD have and were hooked. Hello, Sophia Loren and Audrey Hepburn! Please come show us the way to eyes that will break hearts, handle business and bring down empires. We’ll also accept eyes that just get us into a five-star restaurant on a Saturday night without a reservation.
Here is an idea. Unfortunately modern women don’t have as much time as the women of days past, which means saving your time for work and play by getting your beauty supplies online. So go ahead, buy your beauty products online right now and be ready for the next night out.
