ancient Chinese make up
Chinese favoured beautiful, petite women with pale skin, bright eyes and white teeth. Make up back then, by today's standards, would be alarming. The typical look was bushy, sprawling eye brows, long slanted eyes, thick pouting lips, an expansive coating of rouge on the cheeks and dainty flowers painted on the forehead. Especially in the Tang Dynasty there were seven steps to applying cosmetics. First they applied the powder base then they applied colour to their face, eyebrow darkening came next, then they applied 'forehead gold' or 'floral gold', then they painted the dimples, decorated the cheeks and, lastly, applied lip colour.
The Ancient Chinese began to stain their nails with gum, gelatin, beeswax and egg. This was an early form of nail polish. The colours used represented social class: Chou Dynasty royals wore gold and silver with subsequent royals wearing black or red. Lower class were forbidden to colour their nails with bright colours. Women used rice powder to make their faces white and Henna dyes to stain their hair.
Women glued gold, silver, jewel and jade flakes to the forehead, around the eyes and cheeks. Materials used to stick to the cheeks were extensive including dragon fly wings, bird feathers and fish scales. Legend has it that Princess Shouyand woke up with a plum flower printed on her forehead and cheeks. It stayed with her for three days. Her maids began drawing flowers on their faces too and it became fashionable to have flowers drawn on the face.
In the Tang Dynasty women scraped off their eyebrows and drew them on instead using dai, a black pigment. In Ancient China lip gloss was made of vermillion minerals and animal grease. Ancient Chinese liked cherry-like small lips.
The Ancient Chinese began to stain their nails with gum, gelatin, beeswax and egg. This was an early form of nail polish. The colours used represented social class: Chou Dynasty royals wore gold and silver with subsequent royals wearing black or red. Lower class were forbidden to colour their nails with bright colours. Women used rice powder to make their faces white and Henna dyes to stain their hair.
Women glued gold, silver, jewel and jade flakes to the forehead, around the eyes and cheeks. Materials used to stick to the cheeks were extensive including dragon fly wings, bird feathers and fish scales. Legend has it that Princess Shouyand woke up with a plum flower printed on her forehead and cheeks. It stayed with her for three days. Her maids began drawing flowers on their faces too and it became fashionable to have flowers drawn on the face.
In the Tang Dynasty women scraped off their eyebrows and drew them on instead using dai, a black pigment. In Ancient China lip gloss was made of vermillion minerals and animal grease. Ancient Chinese liked cherry-like small lips.
Different lip designs from different Dynasties.