TheHistoryOf.net

Get more than two American women in the same room and the conversation will quickly turn to speculation about the best anti-aging skin products.  This is not surprising.  Archeologists have discovered cosmetics in Egyptian pyramids, and even the Bible tells the story of how Queen Esther used skin care items to make herself beautiful for her night with the king.

Are we really a vain society? Do we really have a more-than-normal pride in our appearance? To answer that, you’d have to define normal. There’s nothing wrong with being vain, as long as we don’t get carried away with it. We just want to look good – to look our best. And people have been working hard at looking their best for centuries. And that’s why cosmetics has such a long history. We’d like to take you through the history of cosmetics here; and let’s just see how similar we are to people living in 10,000 BC.

The history of smiles is, of course, as long as the history of man. Before speech, there was always that international universal language – the smile. Everybody knows what a smile means. Everybody knows how important a smile is. And everybody knows that if we don’t brush our teeth, our smile won’t be so attractive. But teeth and smiles haven’t always been as bright as they are today. Way back then, people didn’t have the means that we have today to keep their teeth white. They used some pretty crude methods of teeth whitening. So let’s look back at the history of teeth whitening and find out how people did keep their teeth white.

In keeping with people’s desire to look the best, smell the best, feel the best – be the best – perfume has played an important role throughout history. Most of us don’t think of how long perfume’s been around – we just know that we like to apply the fragrance we love, to make ourselves feel attractive. Well, if you look at the history of perfume, you’ll see that its original purpose wasn’t quite the same. And we’re going to do just that right now.