Modern makeup technology is changing with each passing day. If paired with a beauty camera, it can even have the magical effect of "changing your head." However, for many men, this is a minefield. Because they have been deceived too much by the "photo scams" on the Internet, some men have complained: "It would be great if modern beauties were as natural as the ancient beauties without makeup." But ancient beauties are really as these men said, a Are all of them “purely natural and pollution-free”? No, no, everyone has a love for beauty. Girls in ancient times, both at home and abroad, loved makeup, and their makeup skills and makeup conditions were no worse than girls today. Now let me show you how girls in ancient times dressed up and put on makeup to look the most beautiful themselves.
Ancient civilian women did pursue "natural beauty", but this "natural beauty" does not mean not dressing up without makeup, but using cosmetics to release the most natural version of themselves. Because ancient civilian women had to work in the fields with their faces facing the loess and their backs to the sky, they often got tanned and dirt was hidden in the folds of their skin. If these civilian beauties don't use cosmetics as netizens say, their faces may scare these netizens. Just like a hibiscus shakes off the mud and blooms, it must first be washed with clean water. If ordinary women in ancient times wanted to restore their natural beauty, they first needed to use a batch of cleansing cosmetics.
The most common cleaning cosmetics in ancient times were called "bath beans", which were similar to today's facial cleansers. Bath beans are made from kneaded bean powder. Glutinous rice, honey and other materials are added to it, which not only protects skin, but also has strong adsorption properties. Its specific effects are recorded in the Tang Dynasty medical book "Waitai Mi Yao":
According to records, bath beans can not only prevent sunburn and keep the skin rosy, but can also wash away blackheads and blackheads on the face. Acne, this is a proven cleansing tool. Since most of the materials are derived from agricultural products, and expensive raw materials such as honey can be replaced with pig brains and peach kernels, the production cost of bath beans is relatively low, and the price is also low. Everyone from ordinary women to royal relatives can afford them. It can be said that bath beans were a real national product in ancient times and "the light of domestic products".
In addition to bath beans, ancient civilian women also had many cosmetics specially used for facial cleansing, and aloe vera paste was one of them. As we all know, rice water and aloe vera can both protect and cleanse the skin. Our ancients understood this truth more than 2,000 years ago. In the Chinese medical book "Zhuyan Youshu Prescription", there is such a formula: pick and wash 250 grams of aloe vera, use fire to force out the juice, mix with soapy water, and then apply the liquid on the face. It can act like a facial mask. However, it is worth noting that the ingredients of ancient aloe vera and soap are slightly different from those of today. Please do not try them lightly. After all, our skin quality is quite different from that of the ancients.
Cleansing cosmetics were the mainstream among ancient civilian women’s circles, because cosmetics such as rouge, pink and black were difficult to work with after being applied to the face. However, when they are not engaged in farming and weaving, civilian women will also use a little rouge and pink to dress themselves up. The "Hua Huang" that Mulan puts on the mirror at the end of "Mulan Poem" is a flower-shaped cosmetic powder or sticker.
In ancient times, aristocratic women had good economic conditions and were active in banquets among nobles for a long time. They had a greater demand for cosmetics and were exposed to more types of cosmetics. These women do not work and can bathe and change clothes every day. They do not need cleaning cosmetics. Therefore, the most commonly used cosmetics for noble women in ancient times were lead powder, lip balm, stone ink, rouge, flower buds, facial balm and other cosmetics specially used for dressing up.
In addition to having many cosmetics, the ancients also developed a scientific makeup process. According to the Song Dynasty's "Taiping Yulan":
The "plum blossom" in this passage refers to plum blossom makeup, which was a very popular makeup in the palace during the Tang Dynasty, but few people in the Song Dynasty could do it. Therefore, after Princess Shouyang put on this retro plum blossom makeup, "all the palace ladies were surprised" and imitated her one after another. When Princess Shouyang sketched the plum blossom makeup, she used a standard ancient makeup process.
The first step in this process, "applying", refers to applying lead powder. Lead powder is a traditional Chinese medicine made from lead. It was originally used to treat diarrhea and parasites, and was later developed into cosmetics. . One of the biggest advantages of lead powder is that it is white and can cover blemishes. When ancient aristocratic women put on makeup, they would first use lead powder to cover the bumps and bumps on their faces. The second step "Hook" refers to hooked eyebrows. Hooked eyebrows are similar to modern thrushes, but the ancients used "Shidai" for thrushing eyebrows, which is a black mineral powder. Since the first layer of powder is applied, it will rub on the face. It has strong power, so the ancients could use powdery "Shidai" to draw their eyebrows, unlike today where we have to use oily eyebrow pencils.
The third step of the makeup process, "dotting", is to dot the forehead. The so-called "forehead yellow" is the pattern painted by ancient women on the center of the forehead above the eyebrows. "Hua Huang" belongs to this type. However, since most women do not have strong makeup skills, it is easy to make imperfections when painting patterns on their own, so many forehead yellows are applied with flowers instead of dots. The reason why Princess Shouyang's plum blossom makeup is stunning is because she painted a plum blossom between her eyebrows. The fourth step in the makeup process is to apply diagonal red. Oblique red is a pattern on the faces of ancient aristocratic women. It is crescent-shaped and is usually painted on both sides of the cheeks. However, oblique red painted between the eyebrows can have the effect of modern eyeliner.
The fourth step of the ancient makeup process, "containing", refers to holding the lipstick. Lipstick is rouge specially used for smearing lips. This rouge is usually made into paper shape. When women want to put on makeup, they take a sip of it and then use their fingers to spread the lipstick evenly on their lips. The ancients also needed to set their makeup just like our modern people. The last step of "applying" was to apply facial oil on the face to fix the makeup. However, if the facial oil was not dried enough, the ancients would look greasy.
Wearing makeup is not just for girls. Many modern male actors or anchors also wear makeup. The straight male cancer idea that "men never wear makeup" was outdated during the Warring States Period more than 4,000 years ago. The famous patriotic poet Qu Yuan wrote in "Dazhao":
Among them, "pinbai" refers to spreading fragrant powder on the face. This kind of fragrant powder is usually composed of rice flour mixed with spices. During the Warring States Period, Chu people Many officials in the country need to apply such a layer of powder on their faces when they go to court. "Daihei" means eyebrow drawing, which is also a kind of court etiquette for Chu officials. Qu Yuan, as a politician and writer of the Chu State, not only retained the palace custom of "pink in white and black in black" when he traveled, he also learned from women to "wear hairpins". Qu Yuan's makeup skills, which combined elegance and folklore, were inherited by similarly aloof and romantic celebrities during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.
According to Yan Zhitui's "Yan Family Instructions": During the Liang Dynasty, the aristocratic children "were dressed in smoked clothes, shaved their faces, and applied powder and vermilion on them." Compared with Qu Yuan and others, they were more meticulous in dressing up. Noble children not only had to put on make-up and eyebrows, but also used smoke to add fragrance to their clothes, and they also had to shave off the unruly spots on their faces. This series of operations is similar to making a modern appearance design. Pan An, the famous handsome man in the Western Jin Dynasty and the first of the "four handsome men in ancient times", was a makeup master.
Legend has it that Pan An always wears makeup on his face every time he appears in front of a crowd. Not only does he have a fragrance on his body, but also the horse that pulls his cart has a fragrance. At that time, many concubines in the palace were not as good-looking as Pan An. Could it be that these concubines were not as good-looking as Pan An? No, no, most of the concubines in the Western Jin Dynasty came from the royal families of the three kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu. They had been carefully selected before entering the palace in the Three Kingdoms. They passed another level when they were selected into the palace of the Western Jin Dynasty. The difficulty of ascending to the throne was compared to Today's beauty pageant champions are even worse.
None of these "beauty pageant champions" look as good as Pan An. In the final analysis, it is because Pan An's makeup skills are particularly strong. Pan An himself has a good foundation, and he knows how to control the shade when drawing eyebrows, and pays attention to the shape when applying lipstick. Moreover, he never applies yellow, and only pursues the effect of "seeing the landscape but not the pavilion, but showing the eyebrows without makeup".
The handsome men and beauties in ancient times were all makeup masters. Even Xi Shi, one of the four great beauties, in Han Fei's writings, has to "make her look twice as beautiful as she was before by applying rosy makeup and pink." Therefore, there are no lazy people who become beautiful naturally, only beauties who work hard to become beautiful.
During the Spring and Autumn Period when Xi Shi lived, my country's cosmetics and makeup technology were still immature, but makeup has become a required course in the beauty club. In the era in which Diao Chan, Yang Guifei and Wang Zhaojun lived, makeup technology was advancing rapidly. They were able to stand out among the many beauties of their respective eras and win favor among the three thousand beauties in the harem. Their exquisite makeup played a big role.
Since the Western Zhou Dynasty, after more than four thousand years of development, makeup has evolved from a technology to an art. Many makeup techniques used by the ancients have been improved today. For example, the yellow on the forehead painted by the ancients is concentrated between the eyebrows, which can easily shift people's attention to the forehead. The forehead is not the focus of makeup, so the yellow on the forehead will cause the viewer to lose focus. Modern makeup artists have learned their lesson and moved the decals to a centimeter or two below the eyes. They can focus the viewer's attention on the makeup artist's eyes. It happens that the eyes are the soul of many makeup looks. It can give the viewer a Bring excellent visual enjoyment.
References:
"Taiping Yulan"
"Secrets of the Outer Stage"
"Chu Ci"
"Han Feizi"