50 Fun Facts About Beauty

Which actress told Life magazine in 1952 that what she wore to bed was Chanel No. 5?

Marilyn Monroe gave the reply on her first Life cover. Chanel later built a 2013 advertising campaign around a recording of her talking about the perfume.

Which animal's digestive system produces ambergris, a waxy substance long prized by perfume makers as a fixative?

The sperm whale forms ambergris in its intestines, and lumps are found floating at sea or washed ashore. It makes a scent last much longer, though most perfumers now use a synthetic substitute.

Which toxic metal was the base of Venetian ceruse, a white face paint favoured by 16th-century European aristocrats?

Lead gave the paint its prized whiteness but caused skin damage, hair loss and poisoning. Elizabeth I is often said to have worn it, though historians dispute the evidence.

Which cosmetics brand began after Thomas Lyle Williams watched his sister darken her eyelashes with coal dust?

Maybelline takes its name from that sister, Mabel. Williams copied her trick with a chemistry set and sold the result locally as Lash-Brow-Ine.

Which singer used her own surname for Fenty Beauty, a cosmetics brand praised for its wide range of foundation shades?

Rihanna had trademarked her surname, Fenty, three years before the 2017 launch. Many rival brands soon added more inclusive shades to their own collections.

Which poisonous plant has a species name meaning 'beautiful woman' in Italian, after its Renaissance cosmetic use?

Deadly nightshade is also called belladonna, and drops made from it are said to have widened women's pupils. The drops block the eye muscles that shrink the pupil.

In French, Italian and Spanish, the surname of London perfumer Eugène Rimmel became the word for which cosmetic?

Mascara is still called 'rimmel' in French and Italian and 'rímel' in Spanish. His firm is credited with the first commercial non-toxic version, and it proved so popular that the name stuck.

Carmine, the red colourant found in lipstick and eye shadow, is extracted from the bodies of which creatures?

Female cochineal insects have been used for their red colouring power since about 700 BC. The dye later became a major source of income for the Spanish Crown.

Which dark eye cosmetic have Egyptians of all social classes worn since around 3100 BCE?

Kohl was first worn as protection against eye ailments. Egyptians also believed that darkening the skin around the eyes shielded them from the harsh rays of the sun.

Which tough structural protein makes up human hair and fingernails as well as horns, hooves and feathers?

Keratin also forms the outer layer of skin. The kind in hair has fewer sulphur cross-links than the kind in nails and hooves, which is why hair stays flexible.

The SPF number on a bottle of sunscreen measures protection against which rays, the main cause of sunburn?

UVB protection is all an SPF number rates. Austrian chemist Franz Greiter, credited with introducing the scale, had earlier created Glacier Cream, the start of the Piz Buin brand.

Which hair-care entrepreneur does Guinness World Records list as America's first self-made female millionaire?

Madam C. J. Walker made her fortune selling hair products to Black women. She began after severe dandruff and other scalp ailments cost her much of her own hair.

Which beauty founder launched her first fragrance in 1953 with Youth-Dew, a bath oil that doubled as perfume?

Estée Lauder changed habits with Youth-Dew. Instead of dabbing French perfume behind each ear by the drop, women began pouring it into their bath water by the bottle.

Which door-to-door beauty company grew out of the California Perfume Company, started by a travelling book salesman?

Avon founder David H. McConnell switched from selling books to perfumes in 1886. A business partner living in California suggested the old name because of the state's abundant flowers.

Which skincare staple did Robert Chesebrough develop from rod wax, a residue oil workers rubbed on cuts and burns?

Vaseline began when Chesebrough carried samples of the wax from Pennsylvania's oil fields back to Brooklyn and extracted a usable jelly from them.

Which reddish dye, made from the powdered leaves of a shrub, is used for the bridal body art called mehndi?

Henna has stained skin, hair and fingernails since antiquity. Many South Asian weddings set aside a whole evening, the Mehndi Night, for decorating the bride and groom.

Which protein, the most abundant in mammals, is widely sold in anti-wrinkle skin creams and supplements?

Collagen makes up a quarter to a third of a mammal's protein. It is the scaffolding of cartilage, bones, tendons, ligaments and skin.

Which natural pigment, named from the Greek for 'black', is the primary determinant of human skin colour?

Melanin is made by specialised cells in the skin. People have similar numbers of those cells, but how much pigment each one produces varies from person to person.

Which wrinkle treatment, approved in 2002 for frown lines, is made from a strongly diluted bacterial poison?

Botox uses the same substance that causes botulism, made by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. It is used mostly on wrinkles in the upper third of the face.

Which French cosmetics giant grew from the Safe Hair Dye Company of France, registered by chemist Eugène Schueller?

L'Oréal takes its name from l'Auréale, a hair dye formula Schueller made himself and sold to Parisian hairdressers. Its slogan 'Because I'm worth it' was written for a hair colour advert.

Which cosmetics company started in New York in 1932 with a single product, a new type of nail enamel?

Revlon is named after the Revson brothers, with an L for their chemist partner Charles Lachman. Using pigments instead of dyes let them offer a variety of new shades.

Which cosmetics company rewards its top sellers with a pink Cadillac, a tradition its founder began in Dallas in 1968?

Mary Kay Ash had the first car repainted at the dealership to match a blush shade in a compact she carried. It then served as a mobile advertisement for the business.

Which high-street beauty chain did Anita Roddick open in Brighton in 1976, refusing to test products on animals?

The Body Shop sourced its ingredients directly from producers. It spread quickly after Roddick's partner Gordon suggested growing the business through franchising.

Which Hollywood make-up pioneer's firm made Pan-Cake because Technicolor film showed up the sheen of older products?

Max Factor was recovering from being hit by a delivery van at the time, so Frank Factor took charge of the two years of work. Pan-Cake was made for the screen but suited everyday wear.

Which actress popularised 'The Rachel', a layered shoulder-length haircut that swept hair salons in the 1990s?

Jennifer Aniston wore the cut because her stylist, Chris McMillan, designed it to repair her damaged hair and grow out her bangs. It became one of the decade's most requested styles.

Which towering 1960s hairstyle, created by Chicago salon owner Margaret Vinci Heldt, is also nicknamed the B-52?

The beehive was named by a magazine reporter after Heldt finished her design with a bee-shaped hat pin. The band The B-52's later took their name from the style.

Which nail look did Orly founder Jeff Pink create in the 1970s so film actresses' nails suited every costume change?

The French manicure was born on American film sets. Pink painted white tips over a pink, beige or rose nail, then took the look to the catwalk crowd in Paris.

Which hair-colour brand ran the slogan 'Does she...or doesn't she?', written by copywriter Shirley Polykoff?

Clairol owed the line to Polykoff's future mother-in-law, who asked her son about his girlfriend's true hair colour. Within six years Clairol's sales had increased fourfold.

Which soap brand's Campaign for Real Beauty put photographs of regular women on billboards in place of models?

Dove invited passers-by to vote on captions such as 'Wrinkled or Wonderful', with the tally updated live on the billboard itself. The first ones went up in Germany and the United Kingdom.

Which German skin cream, sold in a blue tin since 1925, takes its name from the Latin for 'snow-white'?

Nivea began as a soap in 1906, and the signature creme followed five years later. The blue tin with its white logo arrived with a relaunch and is still recognisable today.

Which town in the south of France, where tanners began scenting leather gloves, is known as the world's perfume capital?

Grasse turned to scent because its leather smelled bad to the glove-wearing nobility. Local lore credits a tanner named Galimard with the idea of perfuming the gloves.

Retinol, an ingredient used in skincare products to reduce wrinkles, is the alcohol form of which nutrient?

Vitamin A is also needed for eyesight, immune function and healthy skin. Too much is harmful, though: high doses can enlarge the liver and dry out the skin.

Which outermost layer of the skin has no blood supply and takes almost all its oxygen straight from the air?

The epidermis is built from layers of flattened cells that grow up from stem cells at its base. It also regulates how much water the body releases into the atmosphere.

Lanolin, a wax used widely in lip products and skin creams, comes from the coat of which animal?

Sheep bred for their wool secrete it from glands in the skin, which is why it is also called wool grease. The name joins the Latin words for wool and oil.

Pearl essence, which gives some nail polish and eye shadow a shimmer, was traditionally extracted from what?

Fish scales hold crystals of guanine, one of the four main bases of DNA. The same shimmering material has been used to make simulated pearls.

Which hair-care word entered English in the 18th century from a Hindi term meaning to press or knead?

Shampoo at first meant a massage. Dean Mahomed, an Indian traveller and surgeon, brought the practice to Britain and opened a commercial 'shampooing' vapour bath in Brighton.

Argan oil, now common in hair and skin products, comes from a tree whose fruit goats climb to eat in which country?

Morocco eats the oil as well as wearing it: people dip bread in it at breakfast and drizzle it on couscous. Cosmetics makers only took it up widely in the early 2000s.

Which British model, named 'The Face of 1966' by the Daily Express, was known for three layers of false eyelashes?

Twiggy later said she hated what she looked like and thought everyone had gone 'stark raving mad'. Her boyishly short haircut was done in London when she was 16.

Uguisu no fun, a Japanese skin treatment nicknamed the 'Geisha Facial', is made from which unlikely ingredient?

Nightingale droppings were also used in Japan to remove stains from silk kimono. Today they are harvested on farms, where the caged birds are fed organic seeds.

Kraków-born Helena Rubinstein began her beauty empire after emigrating, with little English, to which country?

Australia was her refuge after she declined an arranged marriage. Her business reached Sydney within five years and earned enough to fund a salon in London.

Which branch of study, named from the Ancient Greek for 'hair', deals with the health of the hair and scalp?

Trichology has had its own professional body, the Institute of Trichologists, since 1902. In most places, though, a trichologist's title counts only as para-medical.

Which makeup-removing emulsion of water, beeswax and oil is credited to Galen, a Greek physician of the second century?

Cold cream gets its name from the cooling feeling it leaves on the skin. In France it is still known as cérat de Galien, or 'Galen's Wax'.

Which pageant did a swimwear maker found in 1952 after America's reigning beauty queen refused to pose in its swimsuits?

Miss Universe was created by Pacific Knitting Mills, the California maker of Catalina Swimwear. It had sponsored the older contest until winner Yolande Betbeze turned down the photo shoot.

Hungary water, one of the first alcohol-based perfumes in Europe, was made primarily with which herb?

Rosemary was distilled with brandy in the oldest surviving recipes. Legend says the scent was first made for a Queen of Hungary, which is how it got its name.

Salicylic acid, an anti-acne ingredient in many skincare products, takes its name from the Latin for which tree?

Willow bark was an old remedy: a 1597 herbal said that, burnt to ashes and steeped in vinegar, it takes away corns on the feet and toes.

Which skin classification, devised in 1975 to predict reactions to ultraviolet light, is the basis of emoji skin tones?

The Fitzpatrick scale began with only four categories of white skin, and its two darkest types were added later. Emoji merge the two lightest types into one modifier.

Which freehand hair-colouring technique takes its name from the French word for 'sweeping'?

Balayage is painted free-form onto clean, styled hair. The results are subtle, and so look more natural than highlights made with foils.

In colour-correcting concealer, which tint counteracts red patches caused by pimples, broken veins or rosacea?

Green concealer cancels the colour of a blemish instead of matching the skin. Yellow undertones are used to hide dark circles, and purple tints brighten sallow complexions.

Which shaving brand is named after the salesman who came up with a safety razor that used disposable blades?

Gillette took the idea from his mentor, the inventor of the crown bottle cap, who urged him to make something people would throw away once used. In 1918 the US military began issuing his shaving kits to servicemen.

Which men's grooming brand, sold in buoy-shaped bottles, started out in 1937 with a fragrance for women?

Old Spice began with a scent its founder based on his mother's potpourri. The men's version soon followed, in packaging decorated with drawings of sailing ships.