THO 115: Intro to Make Up for Theater and Film

Why did Egyptians wear so much makeup? Were the Vikings really unwashed barbarians? How did the fashionable Elizabethan deal with bathing, lice, and excessive facial hair? What happened underneath all that hairpowder and scented pomade in the 18th century? How did young women find out about the latest beauty products in the past? This fascinating and unique book traces the way in which we have adorned, perfumed, and presented ourselves from the earliest prehistoric evidence right through to the dawn of the multi-million dollar cosmetics industry. We discover what the perfumes found in Tutankhamen's tomb would have smelt like, what made the medieval woman so synonymous with "the lily and the rose," and where the most fashionable place was for a woman to buy perfume in the 18th century. In the 16th and 17th century the devil reputedly carried a looking glass, and the most expensive cosmetics could kill. A century later, Beau Brummel recommended the scent of freshly aired linen as an appropriate perfume for a gentleman, and Napoleon himself doused himself in quantities of cologne. This richly illustrated book also includes a wide selection of modernized recipes for those wishing to experience some of the cosmetics or perfumes used by our ancestors.

Morag Martin's history of the cosmetic industry in France examines the evolution of popular tastes and standards of beauty during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. As the French citizenry rebelled against the excesses of the aristocracy, there was a parallel shift in consumer beauty practices. Powdered wigs, alabaster white skin, and rouged cheeks disappeared in favor of a more natural and simple style. Selling Beauty challenges expectations about past fashions and offers a unique look into consumer culture and business practices. Martin introduces readers to the social and economic world of cosmetic production and consumption, recounts criticisms against the use of cosmetics from a variety of voices, and examines how producers and retailers responded to quickly evolving fashions. Martin shows that the survival of the industry depended on its ability to find customers among the emerging working and middle classes. But the newfound popularity of cosmetics raised serious questions. Critics--from radical philosophes to medical professionals--complained that the use of cosmetics was a threat to social morals and questioned the healthfulness of products that contained arsenic, mercury, and lead. Cosmetic producers embraced these withering criticisms, though, skillfully addressing these concerns in their marketing campaigns, reassuring consumers of the moral and physical safety of their products. Rather than disappearing along with the Old Regime, the commerce of cosmetics, reimagined and redefined, flourished in the early 19th century, as political ideals and Enlightenment philosophies radically altered popular sentiment.