Makeup and Beauty in Ancient Egypt

Dr. Colleen Darnell and Michelle Coursey discuss ancient Egyptian makeup and beauty practices.To see Michelle’s amazing 1920s makeup tutorial where she does an authentic day and evening look on me, go to @myvintagelove (My Vintage Love - Episode 88 - 1920's...)


Also, follow my vintage adventures Instagram: vintage_egyptologistFurther Reading: Lise Manniche, Egyptian Luxuries: Fragrance, Aromatherapy and Cosmetics in Pharaonic Times (Cairo, 1999)Image Credits:Cosmetic Box of the Royal Butler Kemeni, ca. 1805 BCE (Metropolitan Museum of Art 26.7.1438; Public Domain)Mirror of Reniseneb, ca. 1810-1700 BCE (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 26.7.1351; Public Domain)Silver and gold mirror of one of the foreign wives of Thutmose III, ca. 1479-1425 BCE (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 26.8.97; https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collect..., Public Domain); see Christine Lilyquist, The Tomb of Three Foreign Wives of Tuthmosis III (New York, 2003).Harvest scene from the tomb of Menna, ca. 1400 BCE (facsimile; MMA, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collect..., public domain)Menna’s daughter offering to her parents, from the tomb of Menna, ca. 1400 BCE (facsimile, MMA, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collect..., Public Domain)Seated statue of Yuny and his wife Renenutet, ca. 1280 BCE (MMA, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collect..., public domain)Statues of Rahotep and Nofret, ca. 2550 BCE (photograph by Djehuty CC BY-SA 4.0)Detail of the statue of Nofret, ca. 2550 BCE (photograph by Djehuty CC BY-SA 4.0)Wig of Merit, ca. 1400 BCE (Egyptian Museum Turin, https://collezioni.museoegizio.it:443... CC 2.0)Procession from the Temple of Amun, ca. 1250 BCE (facsimile, MMA, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collect... coin of Cleopatra VII (http://www.humanities.mq.edu.au/acans... Susan Walker and Peter Higgs, eds., Cleopatra of Egypt: from History to Myth (London, 2001); through Cleopatra I (wife of Ptolemy V), Cleopatra VII had some Persian ancestry, and the mother of Cleopatra VII is not definitively known, although Cleopatra VI Tryphaina is a likely candidate (Günther Hölbl, A History of the Ptolemaic Empire [London, 2001])Rear wall of Dendera Temple, showing Cleopatra VII and Caesarion (photograph by Francis Frith, 1857-59)Bust of Nefertiti, Photo by Philip Pikart (CC Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Colbert as Cleopatra (Public Domain)Colossal seated statue of Amunhotep III, ca. 1370 BCE (MMA, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collect..., Public Domain)Statue of the Third Dynasty king Djoser (ca. 2650 BCE) (photograph by Jon Bodsworth, copyrighted free use, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djoser#... of Rahotep and Nofret, ca. 2550 BCE (photograph by Djehuty CC BY-SA 4.0)Razor from the tomb of Hatnefer, ca. 1480 BCE (Metropolitan Museum of Art, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collect..., Public Domain)Barbers at work, tomb of Userhat, ca. 1420 BCE (Metropolitan Museum of Art, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collect..., Public Domain)Tweezer-like implement, ca. 1500 BCE (Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public Domain)Funerary mask of Wah, ca. 1980 BCE (Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public Domain)Statue of King Hatshepsut as a woman (Metropolitan Museum of Art, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collect..., Public Domain)Statue of King Hatshepsut in an act of devotion, having the proportions and body shape of a man (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collect..., Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public Domain)Head from an Osiride Statue of Hatshepsut, ca. 1460 BCE (Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public Domain)On the earliest figural tattoos, see Renee Friedman, et al., “Natural mummies from Predynastic Egypt reveal the world’s earliest figural tattoos,” Journal of Archaeological Science 92 (2018): 116-125 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2018.02... John Darnell and Colleen Darnell, “Decoding the Tattoos of the Ancient Egyptians,” Atlas Obscura, https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles... For images of the tattooed New Kingdom priestess, see Isaac Schultz, “Modern Tech is Revealing Ancient Egyptian Tattooing,” Atlas Obscura https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles... daughter offering to her parents, from the tomb of Menna, ca. 1400 BCE (facsimile, Metropolitan Museum of Art, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collect..., Public Domain); for the publication of the wax head cone excavated at Amarna, see Anna Stevens, Corina E. Rogge, et al., “From representation to reality: ancient Egyptian wax head cones,” Antiquity 93 (2019), DOI: https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2019.175