Cosmetics

Cosmetics are products used to temporarily modify the body surface for decorative or transformative purposes, normally in determined social situations or by members of specific groups. In contemporary consumer societies, cosmetics are mass-produced and mass-distributed goods applied especially by women to embellish their body and enhance their attractiveness. They include skin-care creams, lotions, perfumes, hair colors, deodorants, and makeup items such as powders, blush, lipsticks, eye shadow, mascara, eye liners, nail polish, and concealers.

The temporary beautifying of the body through dyes, ornaments, or perfumes, and permanent modifications through piercing, tattooing, or scarification are practices performed in all cultures. More particularly, cosmetic modification has been known since the distant past: archaeological evidence is found from prehistoric times, in ancient Egypt, Greek, and Roman societies, where men and women used elaborate moisturizing creams and oils to counteract the dryness and aging of the skin, pigments for adorning their eyes, but also cosmetics containing poisonous mercury and lead-based makeup to lighten their faces. In Western as well as in non-Western stratified [Page 368]societies, makeup has been used to distinguish classes and occupations, like other body appearance modifications. In medieval Europe, for example, the use of cosmetics was restricted to the upper classes, and for centuries, Japanese geishas have used white powder to lighten their skin.

Throughout its long history, cosmetics and particularly face painting have stood up to strong opposition. From the early fathers of the church, such as Tertullian, to Elizabethan Puritans, and intellectuals such as Thomas More and Arthur Schopenhauer, adversaries of cosmetics lined up a battery of arguments rooted in the idea that they were women's disgraceful affectation. Some arguments were theoretical, and viewed cosmetics as the trappings of the art of dissimulation considered as “typically feminine,” or the incentives for a luxurious lifestyle. Other arguments were more practical, pointing out that spending hours in front of a mirror subtracted time from the household or distracted women from pleasing their husbands. During the nineteenth century, the use of makeup was practiced primarily by actors and prostitutes, and moralists or political authorities publicly declared it improper and vulgar. Thus, for an American or English woman at that time, being a lady meant forswearing visible cosmetics, since the painted face was a sign of deception, of an inauthentic or immoral self. In the nascent consumer culture, the cult of sentimentality and sincerity still advocated moral cosmetics, like soaps, exercise, and temperance, and idealized the natural face. Underlying this discourse there was often an effort to confirm the fixity and naturalness of social hierarchies by assuring that external manifestations corresponded to the inner self.

New relationships between cosmetics and female identity were established by the beginning of twentieth century. The middle classes were busily engaged in purchasing goods, sustained by the growing belief that individuality was a purchasable style. In the increasingly consumer context, the use of cosmetics, like of other commodities, gradually became the salient marker of new social identities. A commercial culture of “you-tooism” democratized beauty, suggesting that it could be achieved by all women, if only they used the correct products. At first, face powders were the most popular; then rouge, lipstick, and eyebrow pencils were added to the list of acceptable beauty products.

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