Makeup has been used by women for thousands of years. Ancient Egyptians rocked eyeliner, 18th century French women made sure that their blush was on point and if Instagram was around 5,000 years ago it would have been full of photos of Ancient Chinese women wearing silver and gold nail polish.
However women in ancient time paid a pretty high price for all things makeup and beauty.
Here are a few beauty practices from back in the day that'll fascinate you.
Eye makeup
When it comes to lead or heavy metal poisoning for the sake of beauty, it's hard to beat the Egyptians. Both men and women wore Kohl and copper ore to colour their eyes. It was believed to not only make the eyes look bigger, but also double as protection against the evil eye.
Red lips
If you wanted a luscious red pout back before Mac products were on shelves, you had a couple of options. You could act like an Egyptian, Cleopatra for that matter, and crush up some ants, add in some beetle blood and beeswax and be set for a hot night out.
Wig maintenance
Wigs stayed in fashion for some time and by the 18th century it was the bigger (and more elaborate) the better.
The royal courts were notorious for having the most ornate and sculpted wigs (think Marie Antoinette) and to sculpt these upper class, mile-high wigs they used lard to hold the hair sculptures firmly in place.
Terrifyingly, the lard attracted lice and other vermin. Sometimes a cage was even set over the woman's head at night to keep the rats at bay.
Red hair at any cost
During the reign of the great Queen Elizabeth, women of England were determined to mimic the Queen's royal red hair colour and stopped at nothing to achieve it. Of course they didn't possesses the hair dying technology of today as they resorted to concoctions of lead, quicklime, sulfur and water to dye their hair and wigs. This particular blend commonly caused nausea, headaches and regular nosebleeds. That's a high price to pay for some ginger hair!