Beauty Secrets Of Ancient Egypt

Song of Songs, Chapter 4:1 (by Solomon to an Egyptian lady)

"How beautiful you are, my beloved, how beautiful! Your eyes behind your veil are like doves. Your hair falls in waves, like a flock of goats frisking down the slopes of Gilead."

True.

Ancient Egypt was known for its magnificent beauty, exotic perfumes, beautiful clothes, flamboyant style and vivacious hairstyles. They used soaps, creams, and oils for skin care. Aromatic perfumes and dramatic hairstyles to fight eerie heat. They unearthed the art and importance of birth controls and spas. Read on, to explore the beauty secrets of incredible beauties of ancient Egypt like Cleopatra, Nefertiti, and many others.

Skin Care:

Egyptians are known for good hygiene, or rather they followed the adage, " Cleanliness is next to godliness". They made a cleansing paste with water combined with Natron, which is a compound that occurs naturally in sodium bicarbonate and sodium carbonate. After bath they oiled their skin with frankincense and myrrh, probably for the fact that they lived in hot and arid climates.

Egyptians preferred balanos oil from the fruit of thorny tree, Balanites Aegyptiaca, Behen oil from the nuts of Moringa or Horseradish tree and Almond oil for cosmetic use and fragrance. These oils proved beneficial for complexion, pleasing aroma and dry and aging skin.

Fenugreek seeds or Hilbeh (in Arabic) was used as skin softener, in cosmetics and in soothing facial masks. A tea made from these seeds could help in increasing mother's milk. Egyptians believed that it could even stimulate breast growth.

They started using soaps way back in 1500 BC, made from animal oil, vegetable oil and salt.

Queens like Cleopatra liked to bathe in milk as its rich lactic acid exfoliated and rejuvenated their skin.

Aloe Vera was the other most important factor that Egyptian queens treasured and used for smoothening skin, healing wounds and minor burns.

Hair Care and Hair Styles:

Human hair was of great importance in ancient Egypt. They disgusted the sight of facial and body hair and used all kinds of methods to get rid of it. They removed individual facial hair with tweezers, which had blunt or sharp ends. But, on the contrary the hair on the head was most liked and used as a mode of expression of self-art. They had learnt the art to dye it, braid it, shave it, and cut it. They even used wigs of countless designs.

For Egyptians, wigs made of human hair or wool were the desired form of ornament that would protect their scalp from Sun's heat, head lice and would help keeping their head cool. They wore new wigs every day. Curly wigs were worn only on special occasions. Men's wigs were more complex than women and were lesser in size.

Women used extensions to fill thinning hair. They were carefully weaved and knotted to the real hair with the use of beeswax and resin

Egyptians used henna for their most favored reddish hair colour. They mostly used it to colour their gray hair. It was even used to colour their nail or rather it was an ancient way of manicure.

Clothes and Make up:

Wealthy men and women wore long pleated see - through robes. They wore the most transparent clothes with gold jewelry. All the clothes were made of linen, from a plant called flax. They kept their clothes spotlessly clean.

Eye makeup was a daily requirement for both men and women. Eyes were rimmed, eyebrows were painted and lashes were darkened with a black powder made from sulfide of lead called galena, which is popularly known as kohl today.

In the old kingdom, Egyptians outlined their eye in an almond or feline shape in green or black colour. The green colour was originally made from an oxide of copper called malachite. It was only during the new kingdom that this colour was replaced by kohl. Other than cosmetic they had a medicinal reason to use galena. It was believed that it offered eye protection from intense Sun's rays. It is still used in Egypt and it is an important accessory for the Eastern dancers.

The face paint and lipsticks used by them were made of red ochre mixed with fat or gum resin. Cleansing creams were a mixture of chalk and oil.

Birth control:

Ancient Egyptian upper class women knew the importance of birth control and used various substances for this purpose, in the early years of about 1850 BC. They put crocodile dung pessaries, various gums and a mixture of honey and sodium carbonate in their vaginas to block and even kill sperms.

Spas:

Legend has it that Egypt's beauty Cleopatra, believed in the healing powers of the Dead Sea. She then traveled from Egypt to Dead Sea, to build a Spa. It may not be wrong to say then, that she pioneered the Spa industry. The Dead Sea water contains 35 percent of minerals per liter of water, which helps cure skin problems like eczema and psoriasis. It naturally contains clay and minerals, which absorb into the skin directly.

Egypt the world of treasured secrets had much more than the present equipment to look beautiful and trendy. No wonder that their clothes, ornaments, cosmetics, oils, perfumes, spas are wondered and are still used.