Lydia, of the Will and Lydia Rees mystery series, does not wear cosmetics of any kind. Although the Colonial periods both men and women boasting fine white wigs and patches, the Federalist culture viewed women who wore ‘paint’ as loose. Lydia, as a former Shaker, would be even more reluctant to wear any kind of cosmetic.

Throughout human history, however, people have worn various forms of paint for adornment. Even war paint is adornment of a sort, although used to strike terror in onlookers instead of awe at their beauty.

I thought of this as I researched my next series, a historical murder mystery set in Bronze Age Crete.

Cosmetics were commonly used in the Ancient World: Egypt, the Middle Ages, and Asia. In Egypt and Mesopotamia, we know from hieroglyphics, murals, frescos and more, they were used by both men and women and all classes. Kohl was the most commonly used cosmetic. Although kohl was the major cosmetic in Crete, in Egypt eye paint was also important. Especially green eye paint. That was made of malachite a copper carbonate pigment. Kohl was made from galena, a dark gray ore and crushed charcoal. Both the malachite and the galena were crushed and missed with gum or water to make a paste. Cosmetics were so important cosmetic palettes were found buried in gold with the deceased’s grave goods.

Kohl was used for lining the eyes, like modern eyeliner. It offered health benefits in the form of protection from disease, bugs and sun rays. Red ochre clay was ground up and mixed with water to create a paste to paint on the lips and cheeks.

This was a lot less dangerous than the white lead women used to paint their faces in Elizabethan times. Lead is toxic so these women were gradually poisoning themselves. (Medieval women also plucked the front hair on their heads also to give themselves a high forehead.

The ban on cosmetics for “virtuous” women continued through the eighteen hundreds but returned as a fashion imperative during the nineteen twenties when so many other changes happened. Women have worn cosmetics, especially lipstick, since. (Lipstick, BTW, used to be made with the blood of small cochineal beetles to give that scarlet shade.)

I wear eyebrow pencil to darken my pale eyebrows, mascara for my blond lashes and eyeshadow, continuing the history of eye paint since the Bronze Age.