BENEFITS OF MAKEUP

I personally love anything that has to do with beauty and I love to appreciate beautiful things around me both living things and non-living things. If you have been following my post before a two years hiatus, you know I love beauty pageants, fashion statements etc.

This brings me to my topic today, ‘Benefits of Makeup’.

Have you ever wondered when did human beings especially women start wearing makeup? Who invented makeup/cosmetics? You are not alone, I did too and these made me to ask more questions, do some research, do some readings and I came up with this conclusion and post.

  

Makeups or cosmetics have been used as far back as before 30 BCE in ancient Egypt. A lot of the Egyptian tombs contained makeup canisters and tools. Cleopatra was found with a lipstick that got its hue from ground carmine beetles, while the women used clay mixed with water to colour their lips. Moreover, it was notable that the ancient Egyptians (both men and women) painted kohl (mixture of metal, lead, copper, ash and burnt almonds) all around their eyes. The Egyptians used the circle of kohl around their eyes to send away dangerous spirits and evil eyes and to also deflect the harsh desert sun. 

An ancient Egyptian with kohl around his eyes.

But recently, Tapsoba et al., (2010), have discovered that the kohl eye makeup may have helped the ancient Egyptians to prevent infectious diseases, such as the lead in the kohl must have killed bacteria. Unfortunately the lead might as well killed them because of its toxic effects.

Also, the ancient Greeks and Romans also painted their faces with powders made with stones and ground-up minerals. Then during the middle Ages till the 19 century, makeup became less colourful and pale, as a result women in some cultures used arsenic, lead, mercury, and even leeches to give themselves the pale appearance deemed beautiful.  On the contrary, it was only prostitutes and the lower class women that were brave enough to use colourful makeup on their eyes, lips and cheeks then.

Afterwards, women started using ceruse on their faces, necks and chests. Ceruse is a mixture of lead and vinegar. Likes of Elizabeth I of England were known for their white faces because they obviously made use of ceruse and they had large foreheads that can be attributed to the lead in ceruse which is known to cause their hair to fall out. 

Queen Elizabeth I of England 

Sadly, apart from lead in ceruse causing hair fall out, the women that used it ended up with muscle paralysis or died untimely.

From the beginning of the 20th century till now, there are a lot of inventions of makeup techniques as well as tons of cosmetics have emerged ranging from cosmetic surgery, botox, contouring/highlighting, false lashes, applications/software that help enhance your beauty etc. The modern makeup business is now a  multi-billion dollar industry. 

This is what a makeup looks like in the 21 century. #1 shows  a completely bare face and the other subsequent numbers show the different stages of the makeup process till the her face is perfectly made.
Photo Credit: Mike O'Loughlin

If you ask a lover of makeup the benefits of wearing makeup, they will definitely tell you a lot of them. In my opinions the benefits are:

·         Makeup actually makes you presentable, it is just like wearing your clothes in a particular kind of way that either makes you look decent or frumpy

·         Makeup has a way of making you look flawless and clean even though it doesn’t actually mean you are clean in hygiene sense. It presents this “false perfection” on your face or even your body. Moreover, this false perfection makes you picture perfect because the makeup artist can apply a lot of makeup techniques and/or tricks on your face and chest too. I can boldly say that is why most celebrities look absolutely perfect and flawless. Unfortunately, this perfection on your face or body last until you wash away the makeup

·         I can say make up has a way of boosting confidence for some special events and make you event ready. For example wearing makeup for your wedding as the bride.

·         Makeup can actually be fun and it can aid creativity. There are a lot of makeup artist that use makeup as an art to create a lot beautiful designs on faces and even bodies

·         Make up can make you look young and innocent or matured and old. Like I said earlier makeup can give a person “false perfection” likewise it can give the opposite. Hence, that why makeup artist on movie set use makeup to make a young actor/actress look old so that he/she can fit into character he or she is playing

·         Makeup is required in some job lines because it displays some kind of sophistication. Careers like modelling, all kinds of hostess (television, reality shows, aeroplane), marketer etc.

·         Makeup can help to create a statement  without saying a word like for example the Gothic makeup and  Halloween makeup displays

·         Some people actually derive pleasure in making up because it is their passion.     

My conclusion is wearing makeup is a personal decision but like everything in life MODERATION is the key, so wear your makeup moderately and know your painted face isn’t who you really are.

Reference

Issa Tapsoba, Stéphane Arbault, Philippe Walter, and Christian Amatore. Finding Out Egyptian Gods’ Secret Using Analytical Chemistry: Biomedical Properties of Egyptian Black Makeup Revealed by Amperometry at Single Cells. Analytical Chemistry 2010 82 (2), 457- 460.

 

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