50 Fun Facts About Makeup

The word cosmetics comes from a Greek word meaning what?

Kosmos gave us both cosmetics and cosmos, since both are about arrangement.

Which two ancient civilisations are cited as the earliest known users of cosmetics?

Sumerians crushed gemstones to decorate their lips and eyes; Egyptians lined their eyes with kohl.

The Egyptian eye cosmetic kohl was traditionally made with which lead compound?

Wearers believed the dark rim protected against the evil eye and the glare of the desert sun.

As early as 10,000 BC, Egyptians and Mesopotamians wore eyeliner partly for what practical reason?

The winged 'cat eye' returned to fashion after Tutankhamun's tomb was opened in 1922.

Around 200 BC, what did ancient Greek women apply to lighten their skin?

Lead-based whiteners persisted for nearly two thousand years, culminating in the deadly Venetian ceruse.

Venetian ceruse, the prized 16th-century skin whitener, was made from water, vinegar and what?

The Tudor queen is thought to have used it heavily, and chronic lead poisoning may have contributed to her death.

Which queen is most associated with the fashion for bright red lips and a stark white face?

Cleopatra's lip colour is often said to have come from crushed insects; carmine from cochineal was indeed used for red.

Which 19th-century monarch publicly declared makeup improper and vulgar, fit only for actors?

Famous actresses such as Sarah Bernhardt and Lillie Langtry wore it anyway, and by 1910 it was fashionable again.

Which Parisian house created the first commercial lipstick in the 1880s?

It was wrapped in silk paper and applied with a brush; the metal tube arrived in 1915 and the swivel tube in 1923.

Who patented the first swivel-up lipstick tube in 1923?

Maurice Levy's 1915 metal cylinder had already made mass production possible.

Which chemist created the first long-lasting 'kissproof' lipstick, No-Smear, in the late 1940s?

She formed Hazel Bishop Inc. in 1950; wartime work in science had opened the door for women chemists.

The word mascara is closely related to the Portuguese word máscara, meaning what?

A related Catalan word means soot or a black smear.

In which languages does the name Rimmel still literally mean 'mascara'?

Chemist Eugène Rimmel built the early product on newly invented petroleum jelly.

Maybelline takes its name from whom?

He saw Mabel darkening her lashes with Vaseline and coal dust and named his 1915 eye beautifier after her.

Which cosmetics giant has owned Maybelline since 1996?

The brand, founded in Chicago in 1915, moved its headquarters to New York that same year.

Who in 1957 turned mascara from a hard cake into a lotion-based cream?

Before that, users rubbed a dampened brush against a cake of soap and black dye.

The Kraków-born founder who launched Crème Valaze started her cosmetics empire in which country?

Born in Kraków, she worked as a waitress in a Melbourne tearoom before an admirer funded the cream.

Which cosmetics rival did the Kraków-born Crème Valaze magnate feud with for her entire life?

Both built salon empires in 1910s New York, and their rivalry became a play, Lip Service, and a Broadway musical.

The stable of the founder of the Red Door salons won which race in 1947 with Jet Pilot?

Born Florence Nightingale Graham in Canada, she named the farm after her spa.

What was Estée Lauder's first fragrance, launched in 1953 as a bath oil that doubled as perfume?

She founded her company in 1946 and was the only woman on Time's 1998 list of the century's 20 most influential business geniuses.

In which year did Max Factor emigrate from the Russian Empire, later moving his makeup business to Los Angeles?

He fled rising anti-Jewish persecution and found a market in the young film industry.

What was Max Factor's Pan-Cake, patented in 1937?

It became the standard makeup for Technicolor films and one of the most successful cosmetic launches ever.

What device did Max Factor build to test his lipstick's resistance to fading?

He also invented a Beauty Calibrator to measure faces and created signature shades for stars like Jean Harlow.

Which company bought Max Factor from Revlon in 1991 for $1.5 billion?

Coty later bought it, with other beauty brands, from P&G in 2015 for $12 billion.

Revlon was founded in New York in 1932 with a single product. What was it?

Chemist Charles Lachman contributed the 'L' in the name; the firm used pigments instead of dyes to create new shades.

Where does the 'L' in Revlon come from?

Brothers Charles and Joseph Revson founded the firm with Lachman in the depths of the Depression.

In what year did Revlon file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy?

It emerged in May 2023.

Which French chemist founded the company that became L'Oréal in 1909 with a hair dye?

L'Oréal is now the world's largest cosmetics company, and Nestlé has held a stake since 1974.

Which company ranked as the world's largest cosmetics maker in 2024?

It is headquartered in Clichy near Paris and owns Maybelline, Lancôme and Garnier among others.

MAC Cosmetics was founded in 1984 in which city?

Frank Toskan and Frank Angelo made it for models first; Estée Lauder took 51 percent in 1994 and full control by 1998.

Which lipstick is one of MAC's most popular products, alongside Studio Fix Fluid?

MAC has been headquartered in New York since becoming an Estée Lauder subsidiary.

The retailer Sephora is named after which biblical figure?

Founded in Limoges in 1969, it was bought by LVMH in 1997 and pioneered letting shoppers test products in store.

Why did the couturier Gabrielle Chanel choose the number 5 for her 1921 perfume?

Perfumer Ernest Beaux compounded the formula, and Andy Warhol later immortalised the bottle in silk-screen.

Rihanna's Fenty Beauty, launched in September 2017, was developed with which luxury conglomerate?

It came through LVMH's Kendo incubator, which also makes products for Sephora and made Marc Jacobs Beauty.

Kylie Cosmetics began by selling what product on November 30, 2015?

Coty bought 51 percent for $600 million in 2019, then Forbes reported the company had been overvalued.

Rouge is French for what?

Ancient Egyptian pictographs show both men and women wearing lip and cheek rouge, made from fat and red ochre.

During China's Zhou dynasty around 600 BC, which nail colours were reserved for the royal house?

Ming-era polish was made from beeswax, egg white, gelatin, vegetable dye and gum arabic.

Which polymer is the most common film-former in modern nail polish?

San Francisco once publicised salons avoiding the 'toxic trio' of dibutyl phthalate, toluene and formaldehyde.

Which designer is credited with inventing the suntan as a fashion statement in the 1920s?

Dozens of fake-tan products followed to give men and women the 'sun-kissed' look.

Which US law of 1938 gave the FDA authority over makeup safety?

It followed cases such as Lash Lure, a mascara that blinded users; US cosmetics still do not need FDA pre-approval.

Which 1866 discovery helped make face powder safe?

Non-toxic ingredients plus mass advertising by firms like Rimmel, Guerlain and Pond's brought cosmetics to the broad public.

Which figures are cited as developing the US cosmetics market in the 1910s?

Revlon joined them just before World War II and Estée Lauder just after.

Which industry had the most influential impact on cosmetics in the 1920s?

Stars like Theda Bara drove demand, and many of today's makeup manufacturers were founded in the 1920s and 1930s.

Which company is credited with introducing the 'lady saleswoman' to the cosmetics trade?

Door-to-door selling by women became a staple of the post-war beauty business.

What is the vermilion powder that married Indian women traditionally apply in the hair parting?

Alongside kajal for the eyes and mehndi body art, it is one of India's oldest surviving cosmetic customs.

Geisha traditionally made their lipstick from the crushed petals of which flower?

The same pigment lined their eyebrows and eye edges, over a base of bintsuke wax and rice powder.

The modern Japanese cosmetics industry is dated from which 1868 event?

New ingredients and technologies quickly produced skin-care and dermatology products for the market.

Which new ingredient, also the key constituent of Crisco, made 1920s eyebrow pencils far better?

The pencil became hugely popular alongside the flapper look of dark eyes, red lips and red nails.

Helena Rubinstein created mascara for which silent-film star, drawing on her kohl experiments?

The screen's original 'vamp' had a substantial effect on the whole makeup industry.

At which ceremony do maiko have their teeth painted black with ohaguro as they become full geisha?

Ohaguro, literally 'black teeth', was once a widespread Japanese custom before being dropped in the Meiji era.