Yep, this historical fiction author has been known to torture her children with Colonial Williamsburg, Civil War re-enactments, and loooong leisurely walks around Revolutionary War battlegrounds at Yorktown. Hey, cool it, we do fun kid stuff, too (which is why I can advise you to never ever attempt a weekend in Colonial Williamsburg immediately after a week in Orlando for reasons that should’ve been obvious to me).

Last spring break we hit a few museums in Chicago. This year we chose to see a very special exhibit in Cincinnati; the Dead Sea Scrolls. Perhaps the world’s greatest archeological treasure, they were first discovered by a Bedouin goat herder near Qumran in 1947. With six hundred artifacts on display, this was the largest collection from the Holy Land ever to go on tour outside Israel. It included a copy of the ten commandments from about thirty BC, the oldest known, which took my breath away.

Even my kids were impressed. Seriously. My daughter even drew highly accurate pictures of the scrolls in art class when we returned. See…

When I asked her for an exact translation, I received a blank stare. However, for readers who may be interested in what I learned about ancient cosmetics during this museum adventure, I have a treat!

These are Iron Age (seventh-ninth century BC) limestone cosmetic bowls from Hazor, Megiddo, and Arad. Ancient Israelites combined kohl or antimony with fat or resin in these, dipped a metal or ivory wand into the mixture, then used it to line their eyes. Sounds like a lot of work to me.

Decorative palmettes are carved into the underside of this bowl of steatite from the same period.

Keep in mind these are Iron Age tools from the middle east. Stay tuned for more about eye cosmetics from other eras.

The lipsticks we know, in retractable tubes, were invented in 1915. Lipstick itself, however, has been around for thousands of years. Archeologists discovered a five thousand year old sample of lip rouge in an Egyptian tomb, and Etruscan women still rouged their lips in the sixth century B.C. In the fourth century, early Christians began their unceasing complaints against cosmetics, including lip paints. Even when Europe was thrust into the Dark Ages, men and women in the thriving Indus Valley enhanced their lips with betel.

Ladies in the Middle Ages went for a pale look, and if lips were rouged it was lightly. They used plant matter and minerals. The colorful Queen Elizabeth I’s lips were painted “rubie red.” And by the time James I united Scotland and England as the first Stuart Monarch, cosmetics were more widespread.

The primary lip colorant in use from then into the Restoration Period, and used in my upcoming novel, was known as Spanish Red. The Spanish created this with cochineal insects imported from the Americas. It came on paper and was applied moistened with water or dry with a cloth.

This is an image of just how those prized cochineal bugs were collected.

Indian Collecting Cochineal with a Deer tail

In 1740 an alternate became available when a recipe for Red Pomatum for the Lips was published. It called for melted white wax, ox marrow, white pomatum, and a dram of alkanet stirred in until the concoction acquired a red color. I don’t know about you, but I’ll stick to my handy tube of lip gloss!

When I started researching for THE DUCHESS OF RICHMOND, it was difficult to find information on the web about makeup during Restoration Period England. I quickly discovered the reason for this – there isn’t a ton of information out there in the first place.

The 1600’s were rather eventful. England split into Royalist and Parliamentarian factions and proceeded to bludgeon each other during the Civil Wars. These ended in 1649 when Parliament executed the head of the Royalists, King Charles the First. Royalists fled into exile, and the Puritan head of the Parliamentarians, Oliver Cromwell, took it upon himself to rule England as a Commonwealth for the next eleven years. Apparently Puritan rulers are pretty drab, because England got sick of the situation and invited the heir to the throne, Charles the Second, home. They called this the Restoration of the Monarchy, and legendary partying ensued.

Throughout this upheaval, there were necessary changes in access and attitudes toward cosmetics. Wars shorten supply. Puritans denounce artifice. Restored Monarchs revel in it. Despite the confusion, time was kind enough to preserve family letters, paintings, records left by herbalists, plays, poetry, woodcut illustrations, and extant cosmetic containers to help us keep track.

So as you read future posts on this blog about gross ingredients (puppy dog fat!), odd elements (mooches and plumpers!), and strange practices (forehead shaving!), keep context in mind! We’re going to jump around through the decades mentioned above to get an understanding of beauty trends in the seventeenth century. In closing, a work by a Dutch painter from the same period.

Gerrit Dou: A young woman at her toilet, 1667,

A studious historical fiction author and blogger herself, she laughed and laughed.

But I was quite serious. You see, five years ago, when I started the long process of researching and writing THE DUCHESS OF RICHMOND, I found a gaping lack of information on the web about make-up throughout history. Particularly during the Restoration Period in England. There was a blog post or two. A few museum photographs. But few meaty facts. The main character of my novel was known as one of the greatest beauties at a court where both men and women wore cosmetics. Like most ladies, I myself simply love to have fun with makeup, so I considered it important to get beauty elements right in the novel.

I hit the books. Thankfully, historians before me produced a number of informative guides to the topic. If you decide to follow my posts, you’ll learn lots of nitty-gritty details about cosmetics during the Restoration and through the centuries.

But you’ll also find posts like today’s, where I succumb to one of my personal obsessions and talk about…you got it…lip gloss.

Bobbi Brown High Shimmer Lip Gloss in Naked Plum

This February I’m wearing a Bobbi Brown favorite. Naked Plum High Shimmer Lip Gloss glides on with a rich and opaque soft mauve-purple that suits green-hazel eyes. With just the right touch of shimmer instead of lacquered shine, and a hint of peppermint, it’s perfectly kissable for the month of St. Valentine’s.

What are you kissing with this month?