Hello there, makeup fans, makeup lukewarm enjoyers, and everyone else! People have worn makeup since the dawn of time – both women and men. Nowadays the makeup industry is booming, and millions of people spend tons of money on makeup products every day. How much do you think you know about makeup? Take the quiz and show us what is your makeup IQ!
The history of makeup is long and interesting. The first use of cosmetics is usually traced back to ancient Egypt. Ancient Egyptians would use kohl, a mixture of metal, lead, copper, ash, and burnt almonds, around their eyes. The circles of kohl were meant to ward off the evil eye and dangerous spirits and were also handy in deflecting the harsh desert sun. Modern scientists discovered that the lead in kohl would kill the bacteria (though it could kill people as well over time).
Egyptian women liked to use green coloring under their eyes, and clay mixed with water to color their lips. The famous Cleopatra used lipstick that got its hue from ground carmine beetles.
Thousands of years later, Persians were using henna dyes to stain both their faces and hair. Through this point and beyond kohl was still used as a darkening agent as it was fashionable to darken particularly the eyelashes. The ancient Greeks and Romans also painted their faces with powders made of ground-up minerals and stones.
During the Middle Ages and up until the end of the 19th century, pale skin was in. Only prostitutes or lower-class women would use color on their lips, cheeks, or eyes. During the 1600s, wealthy women began to wear face powder. While this helped them achieve their desired look, the powder proved to be deadly to some as it was made with arsenic. Dark hair and eyebrows were in high demand, so both men and women wore a bandage around their forehead at night, dripped with vinegar and cat’s droppings, to darken natural hair and supposedly prevent a receding hairline.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, skin lightening creams and bleaching potions became popular. Though it wasn’t known at the time, these products were lethal, and few people that used them survived. Flour was used to powder and mattify. Colorful makeup wasn’t in much demand, especially after Queen Victoria disapproved of it, calling it vulgar and improper. Any product used needed to appear “natural”. Some women secretly stained their lips and cheeks with pigments from petals or berries or used ashes to darken eyebrows and eyelashes. Women worked to attain the era’s ideal feminine identity; a “natural” and demure woman with a pale complexion, rosy lips and cheeks, and bright eyes.
In the early 1900s, the first pressed powders were created, alongside a mirror and puff. This was soon followed by pressed blush, both made easier to use on the go. During the 1920s the first eyelash curler was invented. Movie stars began to use more parts of makeup including blush, henna to outline the eyes, and lip gloss. Their use of these products significantly increased their popularity amongst the general population.
In 1914, Max Factor, who provided wigs to Hollywood studios, developed a greasepaint foundation that wouldn’t cake or crack. The greasepaint became wildly popular with movie stars both onscreen and off it. This was Factor’s first hit in the cosmetic industry. Factor was the one who popularized the word “makeup”. In the 1920s, he began marketing his makeup to the public, claiming that with his products they could look like their favorite movie stars. “Painted” women could now also identify as respectable women, even as they wore dramatic mascara, eyeliner, dusky eyeshadow, and lipstick like the stars of the screen.
In 1915 Thomas Lyle Williams founded the Maybelline Company. Williams noticed his sister Mabel applying a mixture of Vaseline and coal dust to her eyelashes to give them a darker, fuller look. Williams distilled the formula into cake form and eventually found great success in selling it to the public.
A few years earlier, in 1915, T.L. Williams started the Maybelline Company. Williams’ sister, Mabel, had what he thought was an ingenious way to make her lashes look striking — she mixed petroleum jelly and coal dust. Williams distilled the formula into cake form and eventually found great success in selling it to the public. He called his product Maybelline in honor of his sister.
Did you know how nail polish came about? Henry Ford used black lacquer paint on his cars because it dried faster. Other companies started competing with him and formulating fast-drying lacquer paints in different colors. These quick-drying lacquers were co-opted by other businesses, including cosmetics companies. Charles Revson, the co-founder of Revlon, was the one who popularized nail polish in the United States. In the 1950s, Revson led some advertising campaigns for matching nail polishes and lipsticks that are still praised to this day.
Are you ready to find out what is your makeup IQ? Put on some lipstick, powder your nose and get down to the questions!