Ancient Egyptian cosmetics

A man says this speech when he is pure, clean, dressed in fresh clothes, shod in
white sandals, painted with eye-paint, anointed with the finest oil of myrrh.
 Hygene
• Cleanliness and personal appearance were highly regarded by the ancient
Egyptians.
• The Egyptians thought that an abundance of facial hair was a sign of
uncleanliness and personal neglect. So they had to wash several times a day, be
clean shaven all over, to keep at bay parasites. An exception to this was a man's
thin mustache or goatee.
• Tweezers with blunt or sharp ends were used for removing individual facial
hairs, both for men and woman.

• To repel body odor they rubbed pellets of ground carob into the skin, or placed
little balls of incense and porridge where limbs met.

• Oils was rubbed into the skin to protect it from the hot air.

• They had wash basins and filled them with a natron and salt solution from jugs
with spouts and used sand as a scouring agent. They washed after rising and
both before and after the main meals.
 Make-up
• It was believed that the makeup had magical and even healing powers.
They also believed that the more beautiful you are, the more closer you will be to
the gods. They valued makeup and ritualized them, and all the very first cosmetics
were kept special in jars and packed in makeup boxes.

• Oil was the base of most cosmetic products.

• Most often used were white make-up, black make-up made with carbon, and green
make-up from malachite and other copper based minerals.

• Kohl was applied to the eyes with a small stick. Both upper and lower
eyelids were painted and a line was added extending from the corner
of the eye to the sides of the face, the eye brows were painted black.

• Lip gloss was made of fat and red ochre.

• Red ochre was ground and mixed with water, and applied to the lips and cheeks,
painted on with a brush.

• Most people will have applied the make-up themselves, but for those who could
afford it, there was the professional cosmetician, the zXA.yt, (the face painter).
When presenting oneself before the gods during the Judgment of the Dead one had
best observe certain rules of dress and make-up in order to make the right impression, so
even after death one had to take care of one's looks.
 Other cosmetics
• Henna was used to dye the fingernails yellow and orange.
It was also used to dye hair, and it still is today.

• Egyptians used combs, hairpins, polished copper mirrors, make up holders, tubes of
eye paint, eyeline applicators and other toilet accessories.  The containers they used
were made from alabaster, wood, marble, stone or reed.  Although the Egyptians
manufactured glass, it was reserved primarily for decorative jewellery, not for
objects like mirrors or windows.

• Egyptian perfumes were famous throughout the Mediterranean area. Perfumes

were mostly based on plants (the roots, blossoms or leaves of henna, cinnamon,
turpentine, iris, lilies, roses, bitter almonds etc). were soaked in oil and sometimes
cooked. The essence was extracted by squeezing, and oil was added to produce
liquid perfumes, while creams and salves were the result of adding wax or fat. Many
perfumes had more than a dozen ingredients.
• Eqyptian vax consisted of the boiled and crushed bones of a bird, mixed with fly
dung, oil, sycamore juice, gum, and cucumber; this mixture would be heated and
applied, presumably to be pulled off when cold, with the hair adhering to it.

• Tattooing was known and practiced. Tattoos of gods or other

symbolic symbols were found imprinted on the bodies of many mummies.

• Wigs were worn by both men and women and were made of human
hair, later of date palm fibres, which were curled and their shape
preserved by waxing. They were worn on religious grounds, because
they were fashionable or occasionally as a hair substitute hiding natural
baldness. Often they were perfumed and their style and length were
subject to the changing fashions, men occasionally wearing very long
and women short cropped hair. Hair pieces were also worn at times
to hide deficiencies, even in death.