Evidence is provided showing that make up was first used by prehistoric people in reconstructions and pictures,books on anthropology in The Natural History museum London also in cave drawings,they show that they are the earliest works of art by human beings.
Make up was also used by the egyptians around 31 000bc,they left a lot of useful material in records of their culture,it is also well known that egyptians shaved their heads and wore wigs made from the hair of animals,humans and vegetable fibres.
They wore a lot of make up and were probably the first to use black kohl which is still used today,vegetable dyes,ned clay and white lead were used for both men and women,their hair was usually black,but they sometimes dyed the wigs in bright shades of blue,green and red the eyeshadow often matched the wig.
The Greek civilisation around 250bc offered the idea of the perfect face which is still used today,a painted marble head dating from 350bc was found in a Greek temple,which shws a fashionable lady in those days,the eyebrows were black upper eyelids are a reddish brown and dark gren is used to emphasise the eye sockets.
The Romans have a statue of a roman beauty dating from the firsr century AD which shows her heavily darkened eyebrows,in the fourth century St Ambrose called women harlots for painting their faces,the fashionable colours for hair were blonde and red.
The middle ages span from 400 to 1500AD,were midieval women also used white lead to achieve a aple complextion,as the fashion for pale skin and red lips continued throughout europe.A fourteenth century sculpted Madonna from spain shows plucked painted eyebrows,roughed lips,cheeks and black lined eyes.
The renaissance is the name given to that period which denoted the revival of arts,literature and decoration to succeed the gothic.
Queen Elizabeth I had red hair which became fashionable,she also had heavy cosmetics according to writers the older she got, the more make up she put on.
