Research shows us that general fashion trends follow a 20-year rinse and repeat cycle, but can we say the same for beauty trends?

Modern cosmetics did not start developing until the late Victorian era, and most of the product formats we use today did not come about until the mid-20th century.

For example, the first commercial mascara was released by a perfumer named Eugene Rimmel, but the tube mascara of today did not appear until 1957 from Helena Rubinstein.

We are in an era of unprecedented innovation when it comes to beauty and hygiene products. In the case of mascara, we have recently created tubing mascaras that easily come off with water.

However, the beauty styles we see today are not completely dissimilar from their ancient and medieval counterparts.

Ancient Egyptians were the first major civilization to use cosmetics.

They wore thick kohl liner made of black galena drawn in shapes believed to resemble the protection symbol Wedjat, or the Eye of Horus.

Egypt-O-Mania or Cleo-Mania are phenomena that took place in the 1920s, after King Tutankhamun’s tomb was discovered, and 1960s, after Elizabeth Taylor’s Cleopatra movie was released.

In both decades, we see bold eye makeups with the dark smoky eyes’ of 1920s vamps and the bold eyeliners of 1960s mod.

(Contributed/lovetoknow.com)

Early Victorian hair styles were inspired by the classical or Hellenistic age of Ancient Greece with Queen Victoria popularizing the Apollo loop.

These loose, wavy styles come in and out of fashion almost every century, and you can see them in favor in the 1970s natural looks and 2020s cottage core styles.

Recently, Pat McGrath created a glass, porcelain doll like finish for the models of Maison Margiela’s runways.

Glass-like skin has been on the rise in past years, but it still hearkens back the days of Marie Antoinette.

Thick layers of lead-based, white paint would be caked on to create a porcelain-like finish, but it would be powdered compared to the glossy modern counterpart.

Beauty trends are constantly evolving, but it would be wrong to ignore their ancestral counterparts.

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