Cosmetics, first used in ancient Rome for ritual purposes,An Ancient Roman Make-up Lesson The History Channel. Retrieved 2009-10-29. were part of daily life. Some fashionable cosmetics, such as those imported from Germany, Gaul and China, were so expensive that the Lex Oppia tried to limit their use in 189 BCE.Stewart, Susan. Cosmetics & Perfumes in the Roman World. Gloucestershire: Tempus, 2007, pp. 123-136. These "designer brands" spawned cheap knock-offs that were sold to poorer women.Ancient cosmetics brought to life BBC News. Retrieved 2009-10-29. Working-class women could afford the cheaper varieties, but may not have had the time (or slaves) to apply the makeupCowell, F.R. Everyday Life in Ancient Rome. London: Batsford, 1961, pp. 63-66. as the use of makeup was a time-consuming affair because cosmetics needed to be reapplied several times a day due to weather conditions and poor composition.Stewart, Susan. Cosmetics & Perfumes in the Roman World. Gloucestershire: Tempus, 2007, pp. 9-13.
Cosmetics were applied in private, usually in a small room where men did not enter. Cosmetae, female slaves that adorned their mistresses, were especially praised for their skills.A Brief History of Cosmetics in Roman Times Life in Italy. Retrieved 2009-10-29. They would beautify their mistresses with cultus, the Latin word encompassing makeup, perfume and jewelry.Olson, Kelly. Dress and the Roman Woman. New York: Routledge, 2008, pp. 61-70.
Scent was also an important factor of beauty. Women who smelled good were presumed to be healthy. Due to the stench of many of the ingredients used in cosmetics at the time, women often drenched themselves in copious amounts of perfume.Stewart, Susan. Cosmetics & Perfumes in the Roman World. Gloucestershire: Tempus, 2007, pp. 32-60.
Christian women tended to avoid cosmetics with the belief that they should praise what God gave them.Tertullian, De cultu feminarum, 2.5. Some men, especially cross-dressers, did use cosmetics, although it was viewed as effeminate and improper.Angeloglou, Maggie. A History of Make-up. London: Studio Vista, 1970, pp. 30-32
All cosmetic ingredients were also used as medicines to treat various ailments. Lead, although known to be poisonous, was still widely used.
Men's attitudes Roman attitudes towards cosmetics evolved with the expansion of the empire. The assortment of cosmetics available increased as trade borders expanded and the resulting influx of wealth granted women additional slaves and time to spend on beauty. Ideas of beauty from conquered peoples, especially the Greeks and Egyptians, greatly influenced the Roman paradigm of beauty. Unlike their eastern trading partners however, the Romans felt that only the "preservation of beauty" was acceptable and not "unnatural embellishment". Despite exaggerating their makeup to make it appear in the poor lighting of the time, women still wanted to appear natural as a sign of chastity . Artificiality denoted a desire to be seductive, which made men question for whom exactly a woman was trying to appear attractive. In particular, Romans did not like unnatural colors on the eyes and overlined eyes. This was why men generally viewed the use of cosmetics as deceitful and manipulative.Achilles Tatius. Leucippe and Cleitophon. 2.38.2-3. Vestal Virgins did not do makeup because they were supposed to look holy and chaste. Postumia, one of the Vestal Virgins, defied this convention and was consequently accused of incestum.Livy, History of Rome , 4.44.11.
The consensus was that women who used cosmetics in excess were immoral and deceptive and were practicing a form of witchcraft. Juvenal wrote that "a woman buys scents and lotions with adultery in mind" and mocked the need for cosmetics, believing that they were ineffective. Use of perfumes was further looked down upon because they were thought to mask the smell of sex and alcohol. Seneca advised virtuous women to avoid cosmetics, as he believed their use to be a part of the decline of morality in Rome. Stoics were also against the use of cosmetics, as they were opposed to the usage of all man-made luxuries. Although there are no surviving texts written by women expounding the attitude of women towards cosmetics, their widespread use indicates that women accepted and enjoyed these products. Of all the surviving texts mentioning cosmetics (all written by men) Ovid is alone in his approval of their use. Archaeologist and Haaretz columnist Terry Madenholm writes: “Ovid is one of the few who understood the sexist social system of his time, portraying in his poems the expectations and criticisms women were facing. Where men shaped their identity through public engagements, women were defined through the prism of being wives and mothers. In a society where women had little liberty, makeup was undoubtedly a tool of expression and, perhaps, for some, even a means of voicing their individuality. Women who were using makeup were consciously or unconsciously assuming some control over their lives. They were projecting a self-constructed image that they wished to present to others.”
Skincare
Pure white skin, a demarcation of the aristocracy, was the most important feature of Roman beauty in women. Pale skin gave the impression of a higher social status. It was assumed that if a woman had pale skin, she stayed inside because she could afford slaves that would go outside and do labor she otherwise would have done.
Women would often prepare their faces with beauty masks prior to applying makeup. One recipe called for the application of sweat from sheep's wool (lanolin) to the face before bedtime,Ovid, The Art of Love. 3.213-14. emitting a stench often criticized by men.Balsdon, J.P.D.V. "Roman Women: Their History and Habits". London: Bodley Head, 1962, p. 261. Other ingredients included juice, seeds, horns, excrement,Ovid, The Art of Love., 3.270. honey, plants, placenta, marrow, vinegar, bile, animal urine, sulfur, vinegar, eggs, myrrh, incense, frankincense,Ovid, The Art of Beauty. ground oyster shells,Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 32.65. onions with poultry fat, white lead, and barley with vetch. Bathing in donkey milk was an expensive treatment that would exfoliate the skin due to its lactic acid component, and was used by wealthy women such as Cleopatra VII and Poppaea Sabina.Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 11.238.
After their baths, they would then apply face whitener, such as chalk powder,Horace, Epodes, 12.10. white marl, crocodile dung and white lead. The Roman recognition that lead was poisonous underscored their point of view on how important white skin was. Other ingredients used in whiteners included beeswax, olive oil, rosewater, saffron, animal fat, tin oxide, starch,Roman cosmetic secrets revealed BBC News. Retrieved 2009-10-29. rocket (arugula), cucumber, anise, mushrooms, honey, rose leaves, poppies, myrrh, frankincense, almond oil, lily root, water parsnip and eggs. In Ovid's Art of Beauty, he gives a recipe and directions on how to make a face whitener. The Romans disliked wrinkles, freckles, sunspots, skin flakes and blemishes. To soften wrinkles, they used swans’ fat, asses’ milk, gum Arabic and bean-meal. Sores and freckles were treated with the ashes of snails. The Romans pasted soft leather patches of alum directly over blemishes to pretend that they were beauty marks. Criminals and freedmen used these leather patches, which came in both round and crescent shapes, to conceal brand marks.
With the exception of hair on her head, hair was considered to be unattractive on a Roman woman. Consequently, women removed hair by either shaving, plucking, stripping using a resin paste, or scraping with a pumice stone. Older women faced ridicule for their depilation because it was viewed primarily as preparation for sex.Martial. 12.32.21-2, 10.90.
Rouge Although Romans esteemed pale faces, a light pink on the cheeks was considered to be attractive, signifying good health. Plutarch wrote that too much rouge made a woman look showy, while Martial mocked women, believing that rouge was in danger of melting in the sun. Sources of rouge included Tyrian vermillion, rose and poppy petals, fucus,Pliny the Elder. Natural History, 26.103. red chalk, alkanet, and crocodile dung.Horace, Epodes, 12.10-11. Red ochre, a more expensive blush, was imported from Belgium and ground against a stone into powder. Despite knowledge that cinnabar and red lead were poisonous, they were both still used extensively. Cheap alternatives included mulberry juice and wine dregs.
Eye makeup
Roman eye makeup relied on diverse materials and tools, serving not only decorative but also ritualistic and medicinal purposes. Archaeological and scientific findings show that women incorporated these practices into their daily lives, with ingredients and methods differing according to social class, region, and function. Despite the negative connotation against the practice from the literature, makeup was still a part of female identity, a taught behaviour and daily habit.
Materials and Application
Women commonly included eyeliner and eyebrow darkeners in their everyday grooming practices.Susan Stewart, Gleaming and Deadly White: Toxic Cosmetics in the Roman World, in Toxicology in Antiquity, 2nd ed., ed. Philip Wexler, Elsevier, 2019, pp. 93–103. These cosmetics often included stibium (kohl), a substance composed of a wide range of ingredients. While the exact function of each component remains unclear, research suggests that kohl served purposes beyond appearance, including medicinal and ritual uses.Zafar A. Mahmood, Iqbal Azhar, and S.W. Ahmed, Kohl Use in Antiquity: Effects on the Eye, in Toxicology in Antiquity, 2nd ed., ed. Philip Wexler, Elsevier, 2019, pp. 94. The term kohl encompassed not only fine powders but also solid forms like sticks, stones, cakes, and pastes derived from those powders. Pliny the Elder documented several recipes and noted that some cosmetics were even sold in tablet form.Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 28.163.
Kohl was traditionally applied to the eyelids and eyebrows in powdered form using a slender applicator made from materials such as wood, glass, bone, or ivory (Figure 1, 2).Kelly Olson, Dress and the Roman Woman: Self-Presentation and Society, Routledge, 2008, p. 298. This stick was first moistened with water or perfumed oil, then dipped into the kohl powder. In modern practice, a rod is often swept horizontally across the closed eyelid. The rounded tips found on ancient kohl sticks suggest a comparable technique was used in antiquity. The elongated, narrow design of ancient kohl containers also appears suited to this method of application.
Recent scientific analysis of eleven kohl containers revealed a wide range of chemical compositions, challenging earlier assumptions that kohl followed a standardized formula.H. Riesmeier, M. Marabel, et al., Recipes of Ancient Egyptian kohls more diverse than previously thought,, Scientific Reports, vol. 12, no. 1, 5932, 2022. One container, a double cosmetic flask from Diospolis Parva Cemetery, was likely used in a burial setting, possibly symbolizing spiritual beliefs or daily practices of the deceased. The study also found that organic materials such as resins, plant extracts, leaves, and seeds were more common in kohl recipes than previously believed, suggesting the substance held aesthetic, medicinal, ritual, and everyday significance. These findings highlight the complexity of kohl preparation, which involved diverse ingredients, specialized vessels, and applicators, practices that continued into Roman Egypt and likely shaped Roman cosmetic traditions.