MAKE ME BLUSH
As hard as it is to imagine for those of us who flush naturally (and embarrassingly!) rouge or blush was one of the original cosmetics.
No one’s sure exactly when or where it started, so, just like lipstick, it probably began with a cavewoman and some berries. The ancient Egyptians and Greeks certainly had sophisticated preparations on their vanity tables, usually either plant-based, with things like berries and alkanet root, or minerals like iron oxide. Some of those minerals still show up in our modern makeup.
While the whole “fair maiden” obsession of the medieval period led to more subtle efforts, a delicate flush was still a sign of good health and marriageability, so women took whatever help they could find. By the Renaissance, thanks to Elizabeth I, makeup was back to cheerful artifice, and a lady wasn’t fully dressed for court without a generous coating of white lead foundation and two little circles of vermilion red on her cheeks.
Things got a bit less rigid from there, but rouge never left the cosmetic kit until the Victorian Era, when the whole box went under the bed because nice ladies didn’t need artificial enhancements. Right, they didn’t.
Makeup just went underground. Once you got sick of pinching your cheeks and biting your lips, it made a whole lot of sense to keep a pot of some “medicinal” or “protective” salve on the vanity. If it happened to be colored with rose petals, or the newly fashionable carmine (derived from bug shells, and still in use!) so much the better.
That little pot of rouge, with few variations, did very nicely for lip and cheek color right into the late 19th century. It was only in the 1910s that lipstick really became a thing, and women began using two separate products.
Blush, whether cream or powder, was part of the makeup kit for Hollywood stars and stage actresses first, but eventually, the idea of a different color on the cheeks and lips became standard. (Until the multi-use sticks brought it back, at least!)
Just like the trends in lipstick, blush went through trends, too.
In the 1970s, women tried for a natural glow with peachy or pink blush…or went wild with disco shimmer at night. By the 1980s, contouring was in, sometimes combined – or confused – with blush, so that women looked like real-life versions of those stark artsy pictures on new-wave albums.
Rosy cheeks weren’t part of the grunge look of the 1990s, and so far, our new century has been all about highlighter and contouring. While a certain Ms. Kardashian may like to take credit for the contouring craze, it’s been a part of stage makeup for centuries, and standard in Hollywood since Max Factor.
Now, some makeup bloggers are starting to suggest that blush may be coming back, as people unmask and the whole face returns to view.
And speaking of those multi-sticks, which have become a favorite among busy women. It’s really just a return to one of the oldest forms of makeup around: back in ancient times, women would grab a beet or alkanet root, and rub it on their lips or cheeks. Instant glow…though I don’t think I’m going out into the garden to try it!
Got a #ThrowbackThursday idea? Drop it in the comments.
No one’s sure exactly when or where it started, so, just like lipstick, it probably began with a cavewoman and some berries. The ancient Egyptians and Greeks certainly had sophisticated preparations on their vanity tables, usually either plant-based, with things like berries and alkanet root, or minerals like iron oxide. Some of those minerals still show up in our modern makeup.
While the whole “fair maiden” obsession of the medieval period led to more subtle efforts, a delicate flush was still a sign of good health and marriageability, so women took whatever help they could find. By the Renaissance, thanks to Elizabeth I, makeup was back to cheerful artifice, and a lady wasn’t fully dressed for court without a generous coating of white lead foundation and two little circles of vermilion red on her cheeks.
Things got a bit less rigid from there, but rouge never left the cosmetic kit until the Victorian Era, when the whole box went under the bed because nice ladies didn’t need artificial enhancements. Right, they didn’t.
Makeup just went underground. Once you got sick of pinching your cheeks and biting your lips, it made a whole lot of sense to keep a pot of some “medicinal” or “protective” salve on the vanity. If it happened to be colored with rose petals, or the newly fashionable carmine (derived from bug shells, and still in use!) so much the better.
That little pot of rouge, with few variations, did very nicely for lip and cheek color right into the late 19th century. It was only in the 1910s that lipstick really became a thing, and women began using two separate products.
Blush, whether cream or powder, was part of the makeup kit for Hollywood stars and stage actresses first, but eventually, the idea of a different color on the cheeks and lips became standard. (Until the multi-use sticks brought it back, at least!)
Just like the trends in lipstick, blush went through trends, too.
In the 1970s, women tried for a natural glow with peachy or pink blush…or went wild with disco shimmer at night. By the 1980s, contouring was in, sometimes combined – or confused – with blush, so that women looked like real-life versions of those stark artsy pictures on new-wave albums.
Rosy cheeks weren’t part of the grunge look of the 1990s, and so far, our new century has been all about highlighter and contouring. While a certain Ms. Kardashian may like to take credit for the contouring craze, it’s been a part of stage makeup for centuries, and standard in Hollywood since Max Factor.
Now, some makeup bloggers are starting to suggest that blush may be coming back, as people unmask and the whole face returns to view.
And speaking of those multi-sticks, which have become a favorite among busy women. It’s really just a return to one of the oldest forms of makeup around: back in ancient times, women would grab a beet or alkanet root, and rub it on their lips or cheeks. Instant glow…though I don’t think I’m going out into the garden to try it!
Got a #ThrowbackThursday idea? Drop it in the comments.
date
newest »
newest »
Cosmetics Give Meaning to the Term: Femme Fatale
Aristocratic Romans incorporated skin-whitening lead compounds into their grooming rituals, and often topped it with red vermilion (a powdered form of the mineral cinnabar a bright scarlet to brick-red form of mercury sulphide) for cheek colour. Both, however, were very toxic.
In mid-17th century Palermo Giulia Tofana peddled a “complexion aid,” called Aqua Tofana, specifically to women in miserable arranged marriages. The product was actually a poison in disguise—and some estimates suggest that over 600 men died from unwittingly ingesting it.
Petroleum jelly can preserve your complexion or take your life as Justin Case, Termination Agent discovers in Chasing the Golem.