SKINCARE
Pure white skin, a demarcation of the leisure class, was the most important feature of Roman beauty. Native Roman women weren’t naturally fair-skinned and spent their time outside with oils on their faces, requiring whitening makeup to fit their model of beauty.
Women would often prepare their faces with beauty masks prior to applying makeup. One recipe called for the application of sweat from sheep's wool to the face before bedtime, emitting a stench often criticized by men. Other ingredients included juice, seeds, horns, excrement, honey, plants, placenta, marrow, vinegar, bile, animal urine, sulfur, vinegar, eggs, myrrh, incense, frankincense, ground oyster shells, onions with poultry fat, white lead and barley with vetch. Bathing in asses’ milk was an expensive treatment that worked like a chemical peel and was used by wealthy women such as Cleopatra VII and Poppaea Sabina.
After their baths, they would then apply face whitener, such as chalk powder, white marl, crocodile dung and white lead. The Roman recognition that lead was poisonous underscored their point of view on how important white skin was. Other ingredients used in whiteners included beeswax, olive oil, rosewater, saffron, animal fat, tin oxide, starch, rocket, cucumber, anise, mushrooms, honey, rose leaves, poppies, myrrh, frankincense, almond oil, rosewater, lily root, water parsnip and eggs.
The Romans disliked wrinkles, freckles, sunspots, skin flakes and blemishes. To soften wrinkles, they used swans’ fat, asses’ milk, gum Arabic and bean-meal. Sores and freckles were treated with the ashes of snails.[7] The Romans pasted soft leather patches of alum directly over blemishes to pretend that they were beauty marks.
HAIR
With the exception of on her head, hair was considered be unattractive on a Roman woman. Consequently, women removed hair by either shaving, plucking, stripping using a resin paste or scraping with a pumice stone. Older women faced ridicule for their depilation because it was viewed primarily as preparation for sex.
ROUGE
Although Romans esteemed pale faces, a light pink on the cheeks was considered to be attractive, signifying good health. Sources of rouge included Tyrian vermillion, rose and poppy petals, fucus, red chalk, alkanet, and crocodile dung. Red ochre, a more expensive blush, was imported from Belgium and ground against a stone into powder. Despite a widespread knowledge that cinnabar and red lead were and are poisonous, they were both still used extensively. Cheap alternatives included mulberry juice and wine dregs.
EYES
The ideal eyes were large with long eyelashes.
Kohl was the main ingredient in eye makeup, and was composed of ashes or soot and antimony, with saffron usually added to improve the smell. Kohl was applied using a rounded stick, made of ivory, glass, bone, or wood, that would be dipped in either oil or water first, before being used to apply the kohl. The use of kohl as makeup came from the east. In addition to kohl, charred rose petals and date stones could be used to darken the eyes.
Colored eye shadow was also applied by women to accentuate their eyes. Green eye shadow came from poisonous malachite, while blue came from azurite.
The Romans preferred dark eyebrows that almost met in the center. This effect was achieved by darkening their eyebrows with antimony or soot and then extending them inward. Plucking began in the first century BCE to tidy their overall look.
Lips, Nails & Teeth
Although evidence for the usage of lipstick appears in earlier civilizations, no such evidence has materialized to indicate that the Romans ever colored their lips. The only evidence for painting nails comes from a red dye they imported that was produced from an Indian insect. Generally only the wealthy cut their nails, as they used barbers to clip their nails short, following the contemporary practice for good hygiene.
Although oral hygiene was nowhere near today’s standards, white teeth were prized by the Romans, and so false teeth, made from bone, ivory and paste, were popular items. The Romans also sweetened their breath with pumice powder and baking soda.
PERFUME
Perfumes were very popular in Ancient Rome. They came in liquid, solid and sticky forms and were often created with flowers or herbs and oil. Perfumes were rubbed on or poured onto the user and were often believed to be helpful against different ailments, such as fever and indigestion. Different scents were appropriate for different occasions, as well as for men and women. Deodorants made from alum, iris and rose petals were common.
CONTAINERS & MIRRORS
Makeup usually came in tablet or cake form, sold at marketplaces. Wealthy women bought expensive makeup that came in elaborate containers made from gold, wood, glass or bone. Kohl came in compartmentalized tubes that could store more than one color of eye makeup. Gladiator sweat and fats of the animals fighting in the arena were sold in souvenir pots outside of the games to improve complexion.
Mirrors in Ancient Rome were mostly hand mirrors made from polished metal, or mercury behind glass. Spending too much time in front of a mirror was thought to denote that a woman was weak in character.
PROSTITUTES & COSMETICS
Cosmetics, and especially their overuse, were commonly associated with prostitutes, both being regarded as immoral and seductive. The Latin word lenocinium actually meant both “prostitution” and “makeup”. Due to their low income, prostitutes tended to use cheaper cosmetics, which emitted rather foul odors. This, combined with the strong, exotic scents used to cover up the stench, made brothels smell especially rank. The procuress of a brothel often used the promise of beauty to entice girls to enter the profession. As prostitutes aged, with their income dependent on their appearance, they opted for more copious amounts of makeup. Courtesans often received cosmetics and perfumes as gifts or partial payment.
Masculine use of Cosmetics
Men are also known to have used cosmetics in Roman times, although it was frowned upon by society. Men seen carrying mirrors were viewed as effeminate, while those using face-whitening makeup were thought to be immoral because they were expected to be tanned from working outside. Two of the more acceptable practices were the light use of certain perfumes and moderate hair removal. A man removing too much hair was viewed as effeminate, while removing too little made him seem unrefined. The Romans found it especially inappropriate for an emperor to be vain, as was apparently the case with the Emperor Otho. The Emperor Elagabalus removed all of his body hair and often donned makeup, which caused the Romans much grief.
Ancient Rome: Plastic Surgery and Roman Baths:
By the first century B.C., Romans were also practicing advanced plastic surgery procedures, perhaps prompted by the very public Roman baths. In a culture that praised the beauty of the naked body in both art and poetry, Romans viewed any abnormality, particularly the genitalia, with suspicion or even amusement. Consequently, one of the most popular plastic surgery procedures appeared to be circumcision removal, which is described in a rather detached way by Cornelius Celsus’s text De re medicina during the reign of Tiberius (A.D. 14-37). Celsus even describes a “breast reduction” surgery on an obese man whose breasts were “unsightly” and “shameful.”
Roman surgeons would also remove scars--particularly those on the back, which were marks of shame because they suggested that a man had turned his back in battle or, worse, he had been whipped like a slave. The poet Martial (A.D. 40-104) suggests that some slaves during his time had their brands removed by surgeons, but he gives no details of the procedures. Surgeons would often operate on gladiators who had noses and ears chopped off and on foreigners who would try to fit into Roman society.
