The woman restoring ancient Chinese makeup

From Global Times:

By examining references in ancient books, Wang Yifan, a 29-year-old woman from Northeast China's Liaoning Province, has recovered 39 types of cosmetics and makeup tools from China's different dynasties including a powder used by Wu Zetian, China's only female emperor, during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and bath beans, a type of facial cleanser used by the Empress Dowager Cixi in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

Currently, Wang's recovered cosmetics cannot be sold, they are just for display as they still need further refinement.

read more here @ Global Times

3,000 years of beauty enhancement in China

Chinese women have been attentive to their physical appearance since the ancient times. As is common with trends related to people's personal appearance, they come and go, only to regenerate and take on new forms when the circumstances are right.

Cosmetics have been used by people all around the world to accentuate their physical features for millennia. In China, this practice of face adornment gradually spread from the ruling class to the general population.

According to historical accounts, women in China were complementing their looks with lipstick, nail polish and perfumes as far back as two or three thousand years ago. During the imperial times, upper class women and traditional yiji entertainers, similar to Japan’s geishas, were the main trendsetters.

Read More Here @ GB Times

Mummy Shows Ancient Egyptians Bleached Their Skin

Mummy Shows Ancient Egyptians Bleached Their Skin

Photo credit: Profesor Reverte Coma

Evidence that the ancient Egyptians plastered on killer cosmetics to whiten their skin has been found in a 3,500-year-old mummy head. Belonging to an anonymous woman age 20-25, the head shows tiny nodules under the cheeks and at the back of the neck that point to a possible skin disorder called exogenous ochronosis. "Such dermatosis is caused by the extensive use of skin bleaching cosmetics," ‎Despina Moissidou, an anthropologist at Nation Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, told Discovery News.

More Beauty Secrets From The Past

Article from the Daily Mail:

Women and vanity have always gone hand in hand. Indeed, archaeologists have been known to find the remains of bodies clutching make-up, beauty tools in graves and detailed beauty manuals from bygone times. While they may not have had vampire facials, cellulite cream and contouring kits at their disposal, the women of ancient history had some fascinating methods for beautifying themselves.

Read on for some of the beauty secrets from some notable women of history.

History - Elizabeth Arden

From the Guardian:

Skincare, cosmetics and fragrance brand Elizabeth Arden is one of the oldest around. Starting in New York in 1910 with a salon on New York's Fifth Avenue, Miss Elizabeth Arden grew her company at an impressive rate and became one of the wealthiest women in the world. Now, over 100 years after its conception, Elizabeth Arden products are sold in more than a hundred countries and, at the last count, the company was estimated to be worth $1.3bn.

In 1912, Arden participated in the suffrage movement and played her part by supplying red lipstick to the suffragettes. The striking shade became part of standard rally uniform and something of a symbol of female emancipation. Later, the brand not only survived the depression but actually blossomed. In the 1930s, the company employed more than a thousand people and grossed more than $4m a year.

A History of Lipstick

From The Vine:

For thousands of years the mouth has been considered the most sensual part of the face. And whether we know it or not, whether we'll admit to it or not, we women have relished in exploiting the mouth's powers by decorating and enhancing our lips. It'd be careless to view lipstick as merely seductive, however. Depending on the colour, and the shape of the lip line, lipstick is also a symbol of power, of sophistication, of rebellion, of courage, of optimism and more.

Trotula di Ruggiero – The First Beauty Blogger

From Colin's Beauty Pages:

The first person to write on the science of beauty was an eleventh century Italian woman called Trotula di Ruggiero (often called just Trotula of Salerno – a bit easier to spell and remember). She worked in Salerno in one of the earliest medical schools. She is most famous as the first person to write about women’s medical problems in De Passionibus Mulierum Curandarum. But her De Ornatu Mulierum (about women’s cosmetics) is just as interesting.

Salerno at the time must have been a fascinating place to operate in. The medical school consciously drew on the traditions of the Arabs, the Jews and the Greeks as well as the local knowledge of herbal beauty treatments. It was also a place where women seem to have played a major role in developing knowledge. The local produce and the sophisticated Mediterranean trade routes also provided a rich variety of raw materials.

Girls Force Fed For Marriage

This story made news yesterday, although this following article is over a year old, it is still quite relevant today:

From the Guardian:

Fears are growing for the fate of thousands of young girls in rural Mauritania, where campaigners say the cruel practice of force-feeding young girls for marriage is making a significant comeback since a military junta took over the West African country.

Aminetou Mint Ely, a women's rights campaigner, said girls as young as five were still being subjected to the tradition of leblouh every year. The practice sees them tortured into swallowing gargantuan amounts of food and liquid - and consuming their vomit if they reject it.

"In Mauritania, a woman's size indicates the amount of space she occupies in her husband's heart," said Mint Ely, head of the Association of Women Heads of Households. ''We have gone backwards. We had a Ministry of Women's Affairs. We had achieved a parliamentary quota of 20% of seats. We had female diplomats and governors. The military have set us back by decades, sending us back to our traditional roles. We no longer even have a ministry to talk to." Mauritania has suffered a series of coups since independence from France in 1960. The latest, in August last year, saw General Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz seize power after the elected president tried to sack him.

Tanzania: High Cost of Beauty

From This Day:

THE zeal to look beautiful and a colonial mentality that white skin is superior is fast driving Tanzanian women into their graves as they risk their lives by using skin lightening creams that in the end turn lethal.

The problem is not only confined to Tanzania as selling of whitening creams is a lucrative business in Africa worth millions of US dollars a year. In some countries that allow the use of these lethal substances, shelves in pharmacies are stacked high with lotions, creams and soaps all promising to make women whiter and supposedly more beautiful.

But, in countries like Tanzania, where the use and importation of skin lightening creams is banned, the business is thriving as these dangerous creams are smuggled into the country while dealers on the other hand are discrete.

So many women in Tanzania are regretting the days they laid hands on these creams as instead of attracting men, they are now scaring them away as they look like monsters with a lot of scratch marks and black dots on their skin after getting burnt by the creams. Some of them have been unlucky and had to pay the price the rest of their lives as they contracted skin cancers.

Plus Size Models: A Huge Plus!

From WSET:

A model in Glamour Magazine has caught the public's eye. She's only in a small photo on page 194, but it's an image, that has many celebrating. The image is in an article about body consciousness.The cover of Glamour's September issue includes flat belly secrets and a gorgeous Jessica Simpson, but it’s what’s deep in the magazine that that has people talking.On page 194 there is a picture of a 20-year-old plus-sized model with a belly roll. When asked if she's beautiful, many people said yes. "I like the picture actually. It shows real world people and not just models that you don't see everyday."

Maybe they should have been Down Under for the latest fashion shoot - plus size models looking more beautiful than the scrawny ones. Its only when we women start raging against the unrealistic portrayal of women on the fashion catwalk that "real" models may get their chance.

Boys: the new girls

A rather cheeky article from Nick Curtis of the Evening Standard:
"Confirmation that male beautification is on the rise came with the sighting this weekend of Prince Harry's nail varnish. We'd already grown acclimatised to footballers like David Beckham and comedians such as David Walliams plucking and painting like billy-ho. We'd become blasé about film stars and TV presenters, such as High School Musical's Zac Efron and Alex Zane, slapping on the slap. Thanks to Eddie Izzard we've even adjusted to the idea of a butch, bearded, heterosexual man in full maquillage.

But this was a strapping, martial male royal - a war veteran and a roister-doister of the first order - with the cuticles of his left hand varnished a fetching pink. The rest of us are clearly going to have to raise our cosmetic game."

Dame MAC

For those with an interest in the new faces launching cosmetics this year - here's one for you.

Dame Edna Everage, Australia'a most iconic woman, has been named the new face of US cosmetics giant MAC.

Yes possums! it is most certainly true.

You can read all about it at: The Age and News.com


Links:
The Official Dame Edna website
Wikipedia: Dame Edna

Yummy Mummy Syndrome

From the Sydney Morning Herald:
"The yummy mummy phenomenon inspires passionate responses, from lust and admiration to approbation and contempt. But does it help or hinder women?

It is now more acceptable for women to invest more time in themselves. Martyrdom is not as chic as it used to be. It's OK to take time out for a manicure, a spa treatment, shopping or an exercise class. All of this means that women do not necessarily lose their former selves upon having children - motherhood is no longer only about being devoted to your family.

But reports of "pregorexia" - striving to stay thin during pregnancy - remind us of the dark underbelly of these positive changes. And pregorexia is not the only alarming trend surrounding the yummy mummy phenomenon. "Mummy makeover" is the term used to denote the set of radical cosmetic surgical procedures that women increasingly undergo post-birth. Some mothers claim to find a mummy makeover liberating but both pregorexia and the mummy makeover aim to eradicate the maternal body."

Bad Hair Day

I know it's a silly question - but have you ever had a bad hair day. One when all you want to do is just cut the whole lot off. I have and, to be honest, frequently do. And, just for something different, today was one of those days.

I have really long hair - but its mutant hair - it literally has a life of its own. Its thick, curly (or straight as it pleases), and frizzes out by two inches when there is rain in the air. You know the look - like you've just had electric shock treatment!.

I grew up with Shirley Temple blonde curls which changed into wavey orange / chestnut and eventually blonde then brunette. One summer it went nearly black. And no, I have had no treatments, colouring, bleaching, straightening, curling, perming, or any other type of hair treatment / conditioning whatsoever. In fact I haven't been to a Salon since I was 14yo - when I asked for two inches off my long hair and came out looking like a recruit for the army! I kid you not.

Anyway, the mutation that calls itself my hair is at the present quite long (I can sit on it) and slightly wavey - and slightly light brunette. And frizzy as rain is in the air. I have been really vain about the length of my hair, growing up as I did with constantly short hair (courtesy of the home haircut by Mum). But today I just really had enough.

So, I proceeded with the "comb over", put the hair in a pony tail (attached to my brow / forehead) and reached for the nearest pair of scissors and cut off three inches (7.5cm). Most of which, I might add was really just split ends. Upon consulting the dust bin, I decided to cut off another three inches - so in total, 6 inches (15cm or half a ruler!).

It was strangley cathartic! And quite liberating. And as I sit here relating this to you, I feel quite pleased with myself. And besides, I've got another week to go before I return to work and I seriously doubt that anyone will really notice!

Safe New Year to you all!