The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-10-18
PAINTING
THE FACE

OF all so-cailed identifying processes
the painting of the skin, or, rather. Of
| the face is one of the Oldest The aa
| thor of the Book of Enoeh attributes 10
it an immemorial age, claiming that the
fallen angel Azaziel, besides teaching
man how to forge swords and breass-
plates. impaired to the daughters 81
the earth the art of decking themselves
4 with Jewels. of dyeing the wool of their
garments and finally of applying paint
to their faces. However doubtful this
assertion may appear, it remains fact
II that the custom of painting the faces
goes back to the remotest anti .9ity.
Il Thus, we read in the second book az
/ Kings (iX, 500 that Jezebel, on learn
ing of Jehu's coming, painted her face
and the prophet jeremiah, in the fourth
chapter of his lamentations, speaking
of the calamities to come upon Judah
has this to say: Though thou clothest
myself with crimson, though thou deck
} est thee with ornaments of gold, though
I thou rendest thy face with painting
in vain shalt thou make thy face fair:
thy lovers will despise thee" etc. Nay.
if we are to believe a great authority
on this subject, one of Jobs daughters
I little paint pot strange surname.
indeed, for patriarchs daughter! All
of which goes to show that painting the
face must have been customary as early
as that period.
Normally the skin is smooth and of .
i fatty gloss. With the Caucasian races
and in particular with healthy in
dividual, its color is usually of vivid
Il pale chamois, varying from the light
reddish yellow, so characteristic of the
i German, Englishman, Scandinavian, to
i the bronze shade of the Latin peoples
From the physicians point of view. the
skin does not leave anything to be de-
sired, if it is smooth. glossy, somewhat
moist, pale, elastic and soft. But the
caprices of fashion do not always re-
/ qure identical conditions; hence the
| employment of various paints intended
! apparently to perpetuate youth. health
| and beauty.
/ -Four thousand years ago the women
of Egypt, to give their eyes a full.
round and large appearance. blackened
their eyebrows, eyelids and eyesockets
with substance still used in the
Orient, and known by it's modern name
of kolh. The Kolh used by Jezebel was
simply antimony.
/ The custom of painting the face was
not unknown to the Greeks The fable
| of Europa's paleness being due 10 the
! circumstance that a nurse had robbed
Juno of her rouge pot and given it to
Agenor's daughter speaks of the great
antiquity of the custom with them.
| Rome received almost all her culture
! from Greece, and it was. no doubt
| Greek women who served as models to
| the simple and chaste Romans when
| the latter began disfiguring their faces
| with paint Rome when falling into
| luxury. excelled in everything the Hell
| lencs and Orientals. And so. too. the
paint which originally had been COM
POSED of but simple ingredients. was
later on, during the reign of the en-
perors, manufactured from the most
precious substances. In Ovids po-
etry are to be found numerous recipes
OF which he claims that they rendered
the skin of the Roman ladies smooth
and soft. 1t would appear that at first
/ a pale complexion was fashionable in
| Rome, for Ovid declares. ''Palleat
omnis amans; hic est color aptus aman-
! IT, (''Every lover should be pale; the
pale complexion is becoming the low
! eT.D What wonder, then, that layers
! of chalk and white lead covered their
| faces, which Martial compared with
! white walls. The Romans also knew
! well the rouge under the name of pur-
| purissum. In later times the paint was
! prepared of the earth of Chios and
! Selanos. which, after being dissolved.
\ was spread upon the face A particular
! kind of rouge, prepared from Syrian
root, was called "fucus," which term
! later on came to signify paint in gen
! erai.
Il a.
| spread all over Europe. In vain did St
| Basilius, st. Jerome, St Chrysostom
and other fathers of the church de-
rounce the heathenish customs-the
fair Christians continued putting pow
/ der upon their faces, rouge upon their
! cheeks, and black upon their eyebrows
Even the lips were not forgotten in the
distribution OF the purpurissum, if we
! are to believe st. Chrysostom who
compares the mouth OF a woman paint
! leg herself with the blood-stained
mouth of a bear. The usage somewhat
subsidized during the Middle Ages, but
| during the Renaissance the taste, or.
rather, the passion of antiquity for
I painting revived with new vigors4the
custom, developed and perfected
| through the experience and technical
| improvements of centuries hourished
| then as never before. Italian women
\ applied powder and rouge not only to
the face, but also on the breast The
Italian fashion was taken up in France,
! Spain, Germany and England. That in
the last named country it flourished in
Shakespeare's time, and even among
the better classes, we may infer from
the satirical ailusion put into the
mouth of Hamlet: Il have heard OF
your paintings, too, we'll enough: God
has given you one face, and you make
yourself another" Needless to say that
this abuse of the cosmetic art is be-
ing practiced today, even by our own
cosy-cheeked women, who certainly do
not require these means in order to BE-
considered the most beautiful speci-
mems of their sex.
Most of the paints in use among the
so-called civilized races are injurious
as they contain poisonous substances,
, such as bismuth which tends to wither
lslraf Ill,