The aspiration to be attractive and beautiful is considered to have been inherent in a person for a long time. What canons of beauty people figured out for a centuries-old history! They ruthlessly pierced ears, shaved off eyebrows, reduced the sizes of legs and breasts, got fat and grew thin, but remained dissatisfied with themselves. The most widespread means to become more appealing at all times was cosmetics. The word "cosmetics" is derived from Greeks "kosmetice" and in literal sense it means art to "decorate".

In general, the cosmetics have a very long and interesting history. People started to paint their faces and bodies during the primitive period. During festivals, ritual ceremonies and hunting they painted a body of a person in various primitive dyes: color clay, chalk, ochre, charcoal, juice of grasses and leaves. However, such painting carried more likely protective and ritual functions and aimed at frightening off rather than at embellishing.

The decorative cosmetics, carrying the direct duty to transform ugly people into beautiful ones, were born in Ancient Egypt about 5000 years ago. People of Ancient Egypt were able to make a powder giving a matte shade to skin and hiding its defects. Naturally, such recipes were kept in the deepest secret. For a daily make-up, Egyptians used rather bright paints which today seem to be even causing. Eyes were covered with a black powder, superscalar space was painted with copper or finely grated malachite. Women used whitewash in Ancient Egypt to make their faces white.

Powders and ointments brought from Ancient Egypt were appreciated everywhere. The Romans annually spent up to 100 million sesterces believing that they had magic properties. The Romans had their own recipes: they bleached rouged wine yeast, blackened eyebrows soot, widely used vegetable oils and animal fats as ointments. Some ointments carried out functions of spirits. Caesar's favorite aromatic substance was ointment "Telium" made of olive oil and a dried peel of oranges of a special grade.

The ancient East did not lag behind the West. In fantastic India with its refined traditions both men and women used antimony and coal as eye shadow, vermilion for cheeks, painted lips in gold color, and painted teeth into brown. The sign on a caste was located with a sandalwood tree or saffron on a forehead. Nails on hands and legs were painted in red or orange colors as well as some hairs in their hair.

The crescent-shaped and graceful Chinese women used cosmetics sometimes without a measure. They were densely bleached. The arched eyebrows were the special subject of pride. They gave green shade to eyebrows, were powdered with rice starch. To blush they added saffron and for teeth they used gilded. As all these cosmetic means were extremely expensive, a few representatives of the elected estate could use them only. The commoners used "green" cosmetics: grasses, leaves of trees, berries. It is still a question who was the winner if to take into account the condition of skin. However, today the ingredients are listed on every jar of hand or facial cream: hypoallergenic!