Gorgeous lashes are a beauty ritual these days, but when you think about it, it’s kind of weird. How on earth did people think of sticking a synthetic eyelash on their real ones? As it turns out, false eyelashes have a long history dating back to ancient Egypt.
The first eye makeup in history: Ancient Egypt
The ancient Egyptians played a big role in the rich history of mascara. Dating back to 3400-30 BC, Egyptians used kohl with crocodile dung(!), water and honey to create the first type of eye makeup.
The Egyptians put koch on their eyes to deepen their eyelashes. Because the eyes were believed to be the windows of the soul, they hid them to ward off all evil spirits and evil energy.
Egyptian men wore mascara, as did Egyptian women. It also had a practical function to protect their eyes from the fierce sun of the Egyptian desert.
Medieval period: dark age for eyelashes (1066 – 1485)
Medieval people were crazy about maintaining facial symmetry. They believed that a high forehead created a more balanced face, and to achieve this, many women plucked their eyebrows and eyelashes to make their forehead appear higher.
The earliest form of colored eyelashes?: Elizabeth I time (1533 – 1603)
Long before redheaded bombshell Jessica Chastain, the Virgin Queen Elizabeth I made red hair so fashionable that the entire country started dying their hair to match.
To emulate the striking beauty of Queen Elizabeth I, women of this era dyed their hair a bright shade of red. In fact, they went one step further – they also dyed their eyelashes and pubic hair red! Talk about dedication.
What the general public in England didn’t know was that, for most of her life, Elizabeth wore wigs, so she could have chosen hair any color she liked, but she chose red. She was so devoted to the shade that she supposedly even dyed her horses’ tails to match.
Home Recipes: Victorian Era (1837-1901)
Victorian women were very formal and elaborate, spending hours dressing and beautifying themselves. Victorian ladies experimented with many different cosmetic recipes. Mascaras and eyeliners were all products they created and mixed in the comfort of their own dressing rooms. Victorian ladies created their own mascara concoctions, mixing ashes and Baseline, but the products never made it to market.
In 1899, there were accounts of women getting eyelashes implanted into their eyelids via needles, according to Racked. And yes, it was a popular procedure, even in capitals like Paris. At that time, the faint of heart tried to glue human hair to their eyelids instead of threading them, but the method was not very successful and the hair often fell out.
The invention of commercial mascara (early 20th century)
In 1917, Eugene Rimmel created the first packaged cosmetic mascara. The history of commercial mascara began with a mixture of petroleum and black carbon powder.
In 1902, inventor Karl Nessler patented a method for weaving artificial eyelashes and eyebrows. In 1903 he was already selling false eyelashes in his salon in London. It is safe to say, that the first form of false eyelashes.
First commercial forgeries (1920-1930)
In the early days of makeup, many women got their makeup ideas from movies. During the 1920s, movies were still silent… no talking parts(!). Actors like Bebe Daniels had to emote through their facial expressions. Long, thick eyelashes drew attention to their expressive eyes.
In 1931, William Mcdonell invented the Kurlash, the first patented device to curl and apply false eyelashes in seconds. Kurlash made applying false eyelashes so easy, it basically created a market for the false eyelash industry. This early model has almost no difference from the shapes and curls of false eyelashes we use these days.
Hollywood glamor created the mega-trend (1940-1950)
By the 1940s, all the major publications and magazines criticized the idea of ”false eyelashes”, reporting that the falsies were tools of torture for women. Especially World war II it used much of the resources and factories of the industrialized world, which left very few resources available for making makeup. False eyelashes would be considered wasteful and unnecessary.
However, the golden age of cinema in the 1950s started the mega-trend of long, full, luscious eyelashes. Naturally, Hollywood starlets in the 1940s and 1950s loved a good false eyelash, with actors such as Rita Hayworth wearing them in photo shoots to make their eyes look bigger and more impressive. The doe eye was the eye of the day in the 1950s. Eyelashes became an important part of this look.
In the 1940s, waterproof mascara was first introduced, and in the 1950s, companies began selling the first all-synthetic plastic false eyelashes. Eyelashes were no longer made of human hair and/or fabric, but durable thin plastic — that’s how some are still made today.
All for longer, bolder lashes (1960s – 1970s)
The popularity of false eyelashes exploded in the 1960s. The makeup aesthetic of the 1960s was more adventurous, innovative and youthful.
One person at the center of this movement, of course, was the model Weak, whose signature look included long lashes that accentuated her already prominent eyes. Women would stack 2 or 3 pairs of eyelashes placed on top of each other to get the thickest eyelashes possible.
Makeup companies quickly jumped on this creative trend and manufactured false eyelashes in all kinds of shapes, sizes and colors, including colored eyelashes and mascara.
Beginning of eyelash extension (1980 – 1990)
In the mid-1980s, semi-permanent eyelash extensions were pioneered in South Korea and Japan as lash wearers looked for a safe solution to make their lashes last longer. There are still debates whether we can call this application eyelash extension or not because the method of applying the eyelashes was to cut a part of the eyelashes and apply to natural eyelashes using an industrial grade adhesive.
21st century and counting…
Continue reading this series next week…!
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