I'm back with history, although this is the last part. I noticed that quite a few people liked this series, so if you have any other requests, feel free to let me know.
▸ Ancient Egypt
Those Egyptians, huh? As I've mentioned in the history of eyeshadow, they used to use kohl to colour their eyes, eyelashes and eyebrows for all sorts of reasons. Both men and women wore kohl to protect their eyes and the soul from evil spirits. Babylonian, Greek and Roman empires started using kohl under the influence of Egypt.
▸ Europe
In Europe kohl was used merely as a cosmetic, but they stopped using it after the fall of Roman Empire. However, it continued being used in the Middle East for religious reasons.
▸ Victorian Era
Makeup, and cosmetics in general, was considered inappropriate and vulgar until the Victorian Era. Suddenly, in Victorian Era, people's opinion changed and women in Western culture started using makeup regularly. In an attempt to make eyelashes appear longer, women applied a heated mixture of ash or lapmblack and elderberry juice.
▸ Modern Mascara
The mascara we know today started developing in the 19th century. Chemist Eugene Rimmel created a non-toxic cosmetic using petroleum jelly; the word rimmel is still translated as mascara in Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Turkish, Greek and Persian language.
Around the same time, in 1913 all the way in America, Thomas Williams created something very similar to Rimmel's invention and named it after his sister - Maybel. A few years later, he starteda mail-order business, and named the developed company Maybelline.
As this mascara was incredibly messy, the one developed very soon was a much better choice. It was still messy, but it had a brush which was rubbed against a cake made from soap and black dye.
In 1957, Helena Rubinstein created a mascara much better that the previous ones. After seeing how popular mascara was in Paris, Americans wanted new products. With this opportunity, Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden both created new and improved mascara and it finally became big in America. Rubinsteins' formula was a lotion based cream packaged into a tube with a solid brush. It was still messy but closer to the mascara we use today. Soon after that, grooved rod was invented, and after that a brush easier to use which led to even more popularity.
In 2005, Procter and Gamble created a wand with bristles made from thermoplastic rather than nylon. The first mascara made with this wand was Max Factor's Lash Perfection.
That's all folks, hope you enjoyed this series and don't forget to let me know if you're interested in the history of anything else! Thanks for reading, talk to you tomorrow.
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