It’s a familiar image from wall paintings and painted statues: Ancient Egyptians with almond-shaped eyes, thickly outlined in dark makeup.
Men and women, kings and queens, and even children wore cosmetics in pharaonic Egypt. They applied eye makeup with the aid of delicate spoons carved in charming shapes—such as the swimming girl with outstretched hands.
Green and black were the most popular colors to enhance the eye. A green pigment (udju) made from malachite, a copper ore mined in the Sinai, was used to touch up the eyebrows and the corners of the eyes. Black makeup (mesdemet), called kohl in modern Egypt, was applied to the rims and lashes of the eye. Kohl was made from a dark gray lead ore known as galena, which is found around Aswan and on the coast of the Red Sea.
Both malachite and galena were ground on a palette and then mixed with water, or with an ointment derived from animal fat, to make a paste that would adhere to the eye. (Even the humblest of New Kingdom [1550–1070 B.C.] graves frequently contained such palettes.) Then, as now, achieving a flattering line required a steady hand: In applying kohl, the polished tip of a wooden, bronze, obsidian or glass stick was moistened, dipped into the pigment and twisted until the tip was uniformly coated; then the stick was placed at the inner corner of the eye and slowly drawn outward over the closed eyelids—leaving a heavy line on both the upper and lower lids.
Eye makeup was not only used to create the feline beauty that seems so quintessentially Egyptian. Heavy black kohl eyeliner helped protect the eyes from the intense glare of Egypt’s sun. (Even today baseball, football and soccer players smear black paint on their upper cheeks to reduce sun glare.) When used as a salve, kohl also has disinfectant and fly-deterrent properties, which may be why it is listed numerous times as a treatment for eye diseases in the 16th-century B.C. Ebers Medical Papyrus.
The act of applying makeup was thought to invoke the protection of the goddess Hathor, who was often associated with sexuality and motherhood. Thus outlining the eye was not only an investment in one’s personal charms, but it was also a fashioning of one’s personal protective amulet, one that couldn’t be easily lost or misplaced.
It’s a familiar image from wall paintings and painted statues: Ancient Egyptians with almond-shaped eyes, thickly outlined in dark makeup.
You have already read your free article for this month. Please join the BAS Library or become an All Access member of BAS to gain full access to this article and so much more.
