page_title: History of cosmetics
section_title: Japan
hierarchical_section_title: History of cosmetics / Across the globe / Japan
caption_attribution_description: The maiko Mamechiho in the Gion district of Kyoto. The style of the lipstick shows that she is still a novice. The green hair accessory features willow for June.
context_page_description: The history of cosmetics spans at least 7,000 years and is present in almost every society on earth. Cosmetic body art is argued to have been the earliest form of a ritual in human culture. The evidence for this comes in the form of utilised red mineral pigments including crayons associated with the emergence of Homo sapiens in Africa.
  Archaeological evidence of cosmetics certainly dates from ancient Egypt and Greece. According to one source, early major developments include the use of castor oil in ancient Egypt as a protective balm and skin creams made of beeswax, olive oil and rosewater described by the Romans. The Ancient Greeks also used cosmetics. Cosmetics are mentioned in the Old Testament—2 Kings 9:30 where Jezebel painted her eyelids—approximately 840 BC—and the book of Esther describes various beauty treatments as well.
  Cosmetics were also used in ancient Rome, although much of Roman literature suggests that it was frowned upon. It is known that some women in ancient Rome invented make up including lead-based formulas, to whiten the skin, and kohl was used to line the eyes.
context_section_description: In Japan, geisha wore lipstick made of crushed safflower petals to paint the eyebrows and edges of the eyes as well as the lips, and sticks of bintsuke wax, a softer version of the sumo wrestlers' hair wax, were used by geisha as a makeup base. Rice powder colors the face and back; rouge contours the eye socket and defines the nose. Ohaguro (black paint) colours the teeth for the ceremony, called Erikae, when maiko (apprentice geisha) graduate and become independent.The geisha would also sometimes use bird droppings to compile a lighter color.
caption: A maiko in the Gion district of Kyoto, Japan, in full make-up. The style of the lipstick indicates that she is still new.
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