Did you know that wearing eye liner can actually make you healthier. Well, it could if  you had lived in ancient Egypt.

Love for lead

Scientists have long known that ancient Egyptians used lead based compounds in their cosmetics but they weren’t aware of the long term health risks associated with lead poisoning (such as brain damage and miscarriages.)  But now, according to ScienceNow, new research hints that their love of lead may have actually prevented some eye diseases.

The article describes how chemists working at the Louvre Museum in Paris found a synthetic lead salt in the museum’s collection of Egyptian cosmetic artifacts.  This salt is not found in nature which means that ancient Egyptians had to make it. But why? The answer might lie in ancient manuscripts that say they used lead salts to treat both eye ailments and certain skin conditions.

With further research, the researchers found that similar lead compounds could trigger skin cells to release hydrogen peroxide, nitric oxide, and other compounds that help the body’s immune system. You can read the entire article to understand how scientists are interpreting these results, but there does seem to be a reasonable hypothesis that the Egyptians could have used lead eye makeup to treat or prevent disease.

How, you ask, could such an ancient culture have known about such advanced medical technology? The Right Brain would tell you it’s because they were visited by space aliens. But that’s what you get for watching Fringe.

Mid Brain says:

Sarah Bellum and I have been having fun with old beauty ads, like the one showing that Adam and Eve wore too much makeup. Here’s another one we found amusing. Yes, we know it was the 1970s.  And, yes, we know that “hip” and “mod” reigned supreme…

In most beauty ads, the hair style takes center stage. “Make me look beautiful like the goddess in the ad” is what you’re supposed to say to yourself as you flip through Cosmo.

But this ad seems to call to you in a droning, zombie like tone:

If this were a James Bond villainess her name would be something catchy, like “Blue Bonnet Plague.” Unfortunately, it’s just an actual ad for a hair dryer. Go figure.

Mid Brain’s memorial musings:

Happy Memorial Day to all the Beauty Brains community in the United States! We hope you’re enjoying the long weekend and all the cookouts and parades. We also hope you haven’t forgotten the real meaning behind this national holiday.

Holiday history

Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day because it was designated as a day to decorate the graves of the U.S. men and women who died in the American Civil War. It is celebrated at the end of May because that is close to the day of reunification of the North and South.  After World War I the holiday was expanded to include American casualties of any war or military action. That historical tidbit started me thinking: what kind of beauty care formulas were women using back in the at the time of the Civil War?

Civil War Era Cosmetics

According to the link above, women at the time of the Civil War generally looked down on wearing “face paints” but moisturizing creams and lotions were widely used.  There were probably simple beeswax/borax emulsions. Because lily white skin on faces and hands was the desired fashion, bleaching lotions were also widely used.  Hand lotions where essential items for women who tended to the cleaning and washing, because the lye soap commonly used at the time was very harsh on skin.

Hair treatments were popular grooming aids and primarily consisted of various oils. (Remember this was before the modern age of silicones and quaternary ammonium conditioners.)   Long before there were flat irons there were hot combs that were used with sweet oils to straighten curly hair. Some women used homemade herbal rinses to soften and brighten their hair since the soaps that were avaiable back then were so harsh. And just to show you that somethings never change, even back in the 1860’s there were bogus hair growth products on the market.

Perfumes were very popular during this period and were considered an essential part of getting dressed.  Floral notes like Lavender, Rose, Orange Blossom and Gardenia were among the favorites. Some of the brands sold during the Civil War, like Florida Water and Bay Rum, can still be found today.

Without an antiperspirant stick, women resorted to applying powder under their clothes to stay dry and cool. Some even used foundation powder on their face to even out their complexion and whiten their skin.

Red powders were applied to the cheeks as blush, but only by the “bad girls” of the time. Of course the look was much different than Smashbox O-Glow Blush because the red color was applied to the cheekbone in a little circle just beneath the outside corner of the eye.  Some might even be applied to just to the center of the lips because full lips were not in fashion.

The Beauty Brains bottom line

It’s fun to think about what beauty products were like in times past. Did you ever think about asking your grandma or great-grandma about beauty products she used at your age?  If you have any good stories, leave a comment for the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

Mid Brain muses

Sometimes it feels like there’s just too many choices in the world of modern cosmetics. Apparently this isn’t as recent a phenomena as one might think. We found this 1950s hair net ad in the The Beauty Brains library of old magazines. Read the fine print and you’ll see that selecting a hair net isn’t as simple as it seems.

Nylon hair net nonsense

So you want to buy a hair net? No problem. Just let me ask you a few questions first. What’s your bobbed size?… Would you prefer small mesh?… What about style, French?… Color black, I presume?… How do you like your elastic, visible or invisible? Apparently, selecting a hair net in the 1950s required you to make more choices than ordering a coffee at Starbucks today. And I’m not sure it’s gotten much better in the last 50 years.

What do YOU think? Has choosing the right beauty care product become a baffling process? Leave a comment and share your thoughts with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.