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4000 BCE
Mascara in 4000 BC
Ancient Egyptians famously love kohl liner and mascara as both eye protectants and adornments. Since almost any ashes can make a good pigment base, they use tons of different recipes—everything from burning almonds to using lead. Less modern, however, were the substances used to keep the color on their lashes: crocodile poop and honey. -
Period: 340 to
Mascara
Mascara is such an integral part of our beauty routines that we just accept it as a salient thing. But over its more than 6,000 year-long history, mascara has gone through some pretty big changes. -
Feb 9, 1500
In 1500
Despite disapprobation from the Church, sneaky Renaissance women like famed beauty Simonetta Vespucci (as painted here by Botticelli) use makeup. The favored mascara product is crushed walnut shells, which are applied to dye lashes darker. -
Mascara
Victorian women are really into their makeup, and with painters from the Pre-Rapahelite Brotherhood celebrating lovelies with impossibly long lashes, mascara formulations once again abound. Recipes include everything from a blend of ashes and elderberries to lampblack, which is the sticky soot from oil lamps. -
Mascara
Eugene Rimmel (yes, that Rimmel) sells the first mass-market mascara, which is made from petroleum jelly and coal dust. Unlike modern tube mascaras, the original Rimmel came in a cake form that women would scrape with their mascara brushes.
