Many ladies dusted their faces with flour to get that wonderful, pale look. In Africa, warriors painted their bodies for war. Even in North America, the Indians were using animal fats to create body paints to protect themselves from insects. Today, manufacturers use more than 5,000 ingredients in making cosmetics. While early ones were made of ground minerals, metals, and plants, today they include alcohol, dyes, oils, talc, and waxes.
Cosmetics comes from the Greek word kosmos , which means adornment.