14 February 2012

, , ,

Makeup of the Ancient Egyptians - Healing and Hurting

Egypte louvre 223 femme
Image via Wikipedia
What do most Americans look for in their cosmetics products these days? Do they put more weight on look rather than taking good care of their skin? The cosmetics industry is one that always tried to tell the mainstream masses (of mostly women these days) that their "fates depend on the way they look."

The ancient Egyptians took that to a whole other level, and incorporated the ancient Egyptian gods into the whole idea of wearing makeup.

 Secrets of the Ancient Egyptian Makeup

We've all heard of lead poisoning by now. They stopped putting it in pencils and pens, and it has been well documented about how lead can get into your blood stream and act as a deadly poison – something we haven’t always been aware of.

The Ancient Egyptians however had no idea about this, and they used lead based makeup to create beautiful illuminations of the face. Little did they know however, that they would soon be suffering for the way they chose to look.

Putting lead on the face has a lot of different side effects, according to Dr. Joel Schlessinger, who said that exposure to such high levels of lead in makeup applied to the face would eventually lead to irritability, insomnia and mental decrease. In other words, the ancient Egyptians definitely weren't using all natural organic cosmetics.

All this being said, the makeup did actually have some advantages for the Ancient Egyptians. You see, back when the Nile use to flood, the people living in Egypt used to get bad infections in the eyes and in the facial area. The lead makeup would actually prevent this from happening and save them from certain infections during certain time periods of the year.

It was for this reason that the ancient Egyptians correlated the makeup, which was made up of things like lead, copper, and malachite, with the gods. They felt that it had magical healing powers (it was just science) and on top of that - it kept the sun and bugs out of their eyes!

The makeup was made up of two different things:
  • The dark gray or black lead ore found in Aswan
  • The green copper ore, or green malachite, found in Sinai
Obviously these two things are considered extremely hazardous and shouldn't be worn today! Always be safe and check the ingredients your makeup uses on a daily basis to prevent any irritation of the skin. Try using organic solutions whenever possible.


About today's Guest Writer:
This article was written by Jacob Jones. Jacob is a professional writer and in his spare time he likes to write about things that are SEO ratled - however he will touch on other subjects occasionally.

Enhanced by Zemanta

You Might Also Like