Fascinating History of Mascara

The history of mascara can be traced back to BC 400. In BC400, mascara had already been used by Egyptian women to enhance their attractiveness. From the wall paintings and statues, you can notice that ancient Egyptian loved to reshape their eye contour with heavy eye line and mascara. Of course, there was no instant mascara at the ancient time, they used the burnt almond (grey color) as their mascara. On top of the burnt almond, they added honey and crocodile stool to prevent the meltdown of color.

In BC 100, long and black eyelashes were regarded as the sign of chastity by the ancient Romans. They believed that the falling out of eyelashes is caused by over sexuality. To prove chastity, women mixed the burnt rose petals, date pits, soot and stibium and applied to their eyelashes as mascara.

In AC 900, a beauty school had been established by a writer called Ziryab in Persia. He taught women on how to use mascara and how to extract the natural cosmetic from soot and stibium.

In 1500, mascara became very popular, but the use of mascara was criticized by the churches at that time. During that period of time, women loved the Simonetta Vespucci style of makeup. Mascara at that time was made of crushed walnut shells and was the hottest thing among all women despite the obstruction from churches.

During the Victorian era in 1850, every woman was enthusiastic about makeup and cosmetics. One of the main drives of this flow of enthusiasm was the painters from Pre-Rapahelite Brotherhood as they loved to draw women with long eyelashes. But, there was no significant improvement of mascara production technology and mascaras were still made from ashes and erberry.

In 1917, a spice merchant from France, Eugene Rimmel launched the first mascara in the market. The main ingredients were Vaseline and soot. This brand becomes the Rimmel London nowadays with Kate Moss as the spokesperson.

There were tragedies caused by the use of mascara in 1933. Several women were dead and blinded after the use of Lash Lure mascara. Due to these tragedies, safety rules and regulations on foods, medicines and cosmetics were imposed by the FDA.

Today, all mascaras and small brushes come together in a long tube. They were separated pieces before the launch of a combined one by Maybelline in 1960. Maybelline’s mild, safe and waterproof mascara quickly became the hottest product in the world.

In 1988, Max Factor launched the first colorless mascara which was so hot among the nude fans.

In this 21st century, mascara is very different from those in the old days in terms of functions. There are many incredible functions of mascara like volumizing, lengthening, curling and even eyelashes growing and nourishing. It is really amazing to have a look at the fascinating development of women’s precious mascaras.

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