Ancient Egyptian Cosmetics

wooden statuette with heavy eye makeup, 12th Dynasty

The Art of Adornment is as old as humanity~ I've never seen this recipe for kohl- I've seen "galena" referenced, which is black lead sulphide. Lead sulphide is insoluble so it is not as poisonous as other lead salts and as far as I know there was no recorded danger to the eyes.

The recipe in this tome is fascinating, the wing of a bat and the body of a chameleon, burnt to cinder?


Souuini in his Travels in Egypt, says,

Queen Nofretiri worshipping, 19th Dynasty

'' There is no part of the world where the women pay a more rigid attention to cleanliness, than in Oriental countries. The frequent use of the bath, of perfumes, and of everything tending to soften and beautify the skin, and to preserve all their charms, employs their constant attention. Nothing, in short, is neglected,- and the most minute details succeed each other with scrupulous exactness. So much care is not thrown away; nowhere are the women more uniformly beautiful, nowhere do they possess more the talent of assisting nature, nowhere, in a word, are they better skilled or more practiced in the art of arresting or repairing the ravages of time, an art which has its principles and a great variety of recipes."


As it may interest some to know the composition of the farfamed Oriental cosmetics, I transcribe here a few recipes which were obtained from an Arabian perfumer, and can be vouched for as authentic.

Nefertiti, 18th Dynasty, 1352-1336 BC.

The kohl, which has been in use for darkening the eyelids since the time of the ancient Egyptians, is made as follows: — They remove the inside of a lemon, fill the skin with plumbago and burnt copper, and place it over the fire until it becomes carbonized; then they pound it in a mortar with coral, sandalwood, pearls, ambergris, the wing of a bat, and a part of the body of a chameleon, the whole having been previously burnt to a cinder and moistened with rosewater while hot.

A complexion powder, called batikha, which is used in all the harems for whitening the skin, is made in the following manner: They pound in a mortar some cowrie shells, borax, rice, white marble, crystal, tomata, lemons, eggs, and heibas, — a bitter seed gathered in Egypt; mix them with the meal of beans, chickpeas and lentils, and place the whole inside a melon, mixing with it its pulp and seeds; it is then exposed to the sun until its complete dessication, after which it is reduced to a fine powder.


The preparation of a dye used for the hair and beard is no less curious. It is composed of gall nuts, fried in oil and rolled in salt, to which are added cloves, burnt copper, minium, aromatic herbs, pomegranate flowers, gum arabic, litharge, and henna. The whole of these ingredients are pulverized and diluted in the oil used for frying the nuts. This gives it a jet black color, but those who wish to impart a golden tint to their hair, employ simply henna for that purpose.

Nefertiti

To conclude the list of Oriental cosmetics I will mention an almond paste, called hemsia, which is used as a substitute for soap; a tooth powder, named souek, made from the bark of the walnut tree, pastilles of musk and amber paste, kourss, for burning and also for forming chaplets of beads, which the fair odalisques roll for hours in their hands, thus combining a religious duty with a pleasant pastime; a depilatory called '' termentina," which is nothing more than turpentine thickened into a paste; and last though not least, the celebrated schnouda, a perfectly white cream, composed of jasmin pomade and benzoin, by means of which a very natural, but transient bloom is imparted to the cheeks. The coloring principle of this sympathetic blush is known to chemists under the name of Alloxan, and was discovered by Liebig.


source: "A romance of perfume lands", 1875, by Frank Sanford Clifford

mummy mask, 18th Dynasty

prostitute painting her lips, 19th Dynasty, c. 1295-1186 BC.

sketch on papyrus, 20th Dynasty


image sources: "Egyptian Art", by J. R. Harris, 1966, and "Sacred Luxuries"', by Lisa Manniche, 1999