What was Roman makeup made of?

[Doc]

I am doing a talk at my college about ancient technology and chemistry. One topic that would be interesting is how makeup was made or what was used for makeup.

Any help would be appreciated

[Epictetus]

Ovid should be of help. His Face Cosmetics has instructions on how to make and use cosmetics. It isn’t very long, but it is packed with information.

Besides the above, also in his The Art of Love, (III, lines 200+) he mentions:
powder
powdery ash
saffron
oil of wool (prepared from the sweat and dirt in the wool of a sheep in Attica, according to the editors of Loeb :? )
marrow of hind (deer)

Pliny lists:
bear fat
lamp-black (28.46)
ants’ eggs
squashed flies hock: (30.46)

Tertullian (De Cultu Feminarum1.2, 2.5) and Petronius (126) say soot.

Juvenal (2.93) also mentions soot.

Ovid seems to be a bit disgusted sometimes with the whole thing. In The Remedies for Love (355) he says that cosmetics could smell so bad that “not only once has my stomach grown queasy at them.” In The Art of Love (3, 212) he talks about the layer of makeup being so heavy that “by its weight it glides and falls into your warm bosom.” Somewhere else (I forgot to write down where :oops: ) he talks about body heat making juices drip from a woman's face and onto her chest.

[M. Demetrius]

Sally Pointer's The Artifice of Beauty has some recipes for making various kinds of cosmetics. Some of the things the Romans used are not considered safe for use today, but in many cases, she lists viable (and safe) alternatives to lead oxide based things, for example. My wife makes some of them, and they are very effective at temporarily coloring skin.

[Doc]

Thanks all for the replies and sources. That really helps me.

David, I will look into that book as well. It is interesting that they can still be used.

[Julilla]

I'm a bit late to the discussion, but allow me to praise Sally Pointer's book. I used some of her "recipes" and was spurred on to find as much in Dioscorides and Galen as I could on the subject. If you're interested in doing likewise, this site has many books of Dioscorides' "De Materia Medica" online.

I have worked on various formulae for scent, and recreated Galen's "cold creme" which is largely made from olive oil, rose water and beeswax. It takes some doing to ensure that the beeswax doesn't firm up too quickly, but it's a wonderful and economical face creme.

Bonam Fortunam!

[Doc]

Thanks for the reply. I will get this book shortly and see what I can come up with.