Liz Taylor in “Cleopatra” with an elaborate Egyptian make-up
Impossible not to be fascinated by the elaborate make-up of the women (and men) of Ancient Egypt :the archaeological finds show the use of vivid, bright colors, so vivid and beautiful that they are the envy of the best cosmetic companies today.
In the article below, which I wrote for news.it, you will find basic information on makeup materials, methodologies and trends of the face in the Egyptian civilization .
Liz Taylor in the movie “Cleopatra”
It is not difficult to study Egyptian cosmetics :the numerous pictorial testimonies that have come down to us in fact "speak" in a more than eloquent way, clearly showing us the look, the make-up and hairstyles in vogue thousands of years ago among that population so sensitive and attentive to beauty and body care .
Both men and women made extensive use of cosmetics to make up your face ; although certain aspects have obviously changed over the centuries, make-up of the Egyptians always kept some peculiar characteristics intact, such as the use of bright colors, the defined eye contour, perfect skin.
In the earliest history, malachite, was mainly used for makeup or a copper carbonate with an intense green color, and galena, that is, a lead sulfide that produced a dark and intense color; these basic elements were mixed with water, resins and fats and then applied to the eyes with the help of wooden sticks (you can see some very beautiful ones in the Egyptian Museum of Turin as well as, of course, in the one of Cairo ).
The trick was to outline the eyelid in a rather marked way, extending it to the outer corners.
In more recent times, around the beginning of the Middle Kingdom , black bistro makeup became fashionable, also performed with the use of galena (toxic, just like malachite).
Red ocher completed the refined make-up:spread in powder on the cheeks it gave them a beautiful and healthy reddish color, mixed with oils, fats and resins, it became a lipstick for the lips (Article taken from:www.notizie.it).