The first humans used materials from plants, minerals or animals to make dyes, which they used to paint or draw the body, as well as make aromatic substances or perfumes. But is it really known when cosmetics emerged?
According to archaeological research several of these were composed of iron or magnesium oxides and fats. Red minerals combined with animal fat, may have been used to protect the body from the sun's rays, which could be considered as the first known sunscreen .
The word "cosmetics" associated with beauty
It comes from the Greek word "kosmetés", which means "that adorns". Historians agree that Egypt was the birthplace of cosmetics and, therefore, the beautification and care of the body was essential for the Egyptians. Nefertiti used cleansing creams made with oils mixed with limestone powder, also used a cream to remove wrinkles , made with wax, vegetable oils and incense and makeup the eyes with fine green malachite ink.
The Mayan blue
The Mayans were one of the most advanced pre-Columbian American societies. His great knowledge about astronomy continues to amaze the current scientists. They were also experts in chemistry. The Mayan ruins have drawings in which a type of unique blue that has been called the " Mayan blue " is still preserved . It is a pigment whose chemical composition was discovered by the Mexican scientist Constantino Reyes Valerio . The Mayans elaborated it with clays, especially paligorskite, combined and heated to more than one hundred degrees Celsius with an indigo or indigo dye of vegetable origin.
Renaissance Europe
In England, at the court of Elizabeth I, during the Renaissance, treatments for rose-water hair, sage for whitening teeth, geranium petals for red lips, hair baths became very famous. Wine and masks of honey and egg white to smooth out wrinkles . They also used somewhat dangerous products such as mercury sublimate to remove stains , mercury sulfide lipstick, lead sulphide for hair dye, and white lead to cleanse the neck and face.
Cosmetics was originally associated with religious practices and later with beautification and hygiene. One of the most important challenges that modern cosmetics has is to manufacture products that are not polluting and that also protect the skin from the dangers of ultraviolet radiation .