A History of Cosmetics, Part 3

The cosmetics craze continued throughout the centuries into the 1900’s and began to see the earliest of the cosmetics industry being formed. Mrs. Henning’s House of Cyclax in London sold many products that you can still buy today from world famous companies like Avon. Another beauty salon owner found herself expanding her products to meet the demands of her upper class clientele from a facial cream that protects women’s skin from the sun to lipstick and face powder. Today, you can find a whole line of cosmetics from Helena Rubenstein.

As the years went on, the popularity of beauty salons continued to increase. In 1909, a salon called Selfridges began to sell cosmetics out in the open ver the counter. Women’s attitudes began to change and confidence grew.  When the Russian ballet came to London, the influence of high art was apparent on many designers. A man named Paul Poiret was one of the first to come out with a much more vibrant and colorful look. It was also the first time that permanent cosmetics was seen. Women could tattoo their lipstick and eye shadow permanently on their faces.

During the 1930’s the fashion of lipstick went to a darker shade with a variety of shades. Around the time of WW II, ingredients for cosmetics was at a severe shortage and women underwent a kind of make-down. This ended right when the war did and demand for cosmetics increased more than ever. Competitors began manufacturing a number of products to meet the demands of the female consumer.

Today’s woman is the benefactor of all these years of trial and error with a virtually unlimited choice of products for any look they want to achieve. There are literally thousands of companies who have products in this now billion dollar yearly industry. Cosmetic products sell year round and even in times of recession.

 

So ladies, thank your ancestors and their concern for their own appearance for your own that you have today. There were probably days when they woke up and didn’t really feel like going through the hassle of putting on their face either.

A History of Cosmetics, Part 2

For centuries after the Egyptian empire faded, the fashion norm around the world was a pale complexion. A tanned, sun-dried face was associated with being a commoner who worked out in the field all day alongside her husband. The upper class ladies of course did not participate in physical labor like that so they stayed inside and had white faces.
A white, pale complexion was also a symbol of wealth. If you had enough money, then you didn’t have to work. So a pale complexion was extremely important to some people. To get this look, women (and men too) would use a combination of hydroxide, lead oxide, and carbonate in a powder form to paint their faces and bodies. Unfortunately, this lead to a sometimes fatal side effect, lead poisoning.

To remedy this, chemists in the nineteenth century finally discovered a mixture of zinc oxide that didn’t block the skin from being able to breathe and kept people out of that irritating lead poisoning sickness. It worked so well that it is still used today by cosmetics manufacturers.

In the Edwardian era of London, around the turn of the century of 1900, society women with a disposable income would throw lavish parties and do a lot of entertaining to show off their wealth. As hostesses of the party, it was important for them to be the best looking woman at the function, so it was extremely important for them to look the youngest they possibly could. Women at that time who lived these extravagant lifestyles did not eat well, would not exercise, and breathed in the heavily polluted air that the cities of the time produced. They would rely on products like anti-aging cream and face cream to help hide their blemishes.
They would also go to the beauty salon. It was a little different back then than it is today. Women would sneak into the back of the salons and hide their faces as they entered. One of the most famous of these discreet beauty houses was the House of Cyclax, who would sell creams and rouges to ladies. Mrs. Henning, who was the owner, sold and created many products for her desperate customers who didn’t want anyone to know that they were getting old.

A History of Cosmetics, Part 1

With all the billions of dollars spent every year worldwide on cosmetics, sometimes we may find ourselves asking, “How did it get to this point? When did it become the norm for me to have to wake up every morning and before I even go out the door I get to paint my face from top to bottom? Surely a woman way back in history didn’t just wake up one day and apply eyelashes, lipstick, eyeliner, foundation, and rouge all at the same time. No, it was, like many things, a culmination of things from the past.

     Remember the Egyptians? That was over four thousand years ago. Cleanliness and appearance were terribly important to the Egyptians. They believed the appearance was in direct link with the health of the soul. They strived to always look and smell good. And with a society who values their appearance, you’re inevitably going to have people who are going to make themselves stand out. But the Egyptians, being the innovative people they were, used cosmetics for reasons that were even smarter than just trying to look good.

 
    Mesdemet was the earliest kind of eye shadow- a substance made of copper and lead ore. The dark shades they believed would ward off evil eyes to their own. It was also a great disinfectant and insect repellant. Kohl was a dark powder that was also applied around the eyes in an oval shape. It was a combination of lead, ash, ochre, copper, and burnt almonds. To further enhance their appearance, they would apply a mixture of water and red clay to the cheekbone area. They would also paint their nails colors of orange and yellow with a substance called henna.

    As time moved on and cultures were exposed to each other more and more, the Greeks began to pick up on the many practices of the Egyptian’s use of cosmetics. They would give themselves a pale color with a foundation that contained lead in it. This proved fatal on more than one occasion. As the Romans began to pick up the cosmetics practice, the pursuit of beauty became much less about function ability and took a turn into much more exotic routes. The Romans would paint their nails with a combination of sheep’s blood and cooked body fat. An ancient Roman man once said, “A woman without paint is like food without salt.”

 

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Wisdom Through the Ages

Do you have a friend who is much older than she looks?, Yes, I had since   I once asked her if there was one thing she did that she felt contributed the most to her youthful look and she replied “I try to sleep long enough every night so that I wake up naturally”.  (I had hoped to get the name of some new amazing beauty treatment). 

There’s lots of new research out there attempting to fully understand the effect that disturbed sleep has on health.  Although, those of us who have had a newborn baby in the house KNOW without the science what sleep deprivation does to you…OH BOY!

But seriously, there are more and more indicators of the association between lack of sleep and many of the “big” killers.

Lack of sleep appears to increase the production of stress hormones and drives up blood pressure, a major risk factor for heart attacks and strokes. Moreover, people who are sleep-deprived have higher levels of chemicals in the blood which indicate a heightened state of inflammation in the body, a risk factor for heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes (big killers)…. All of which can lead to a shortened life.

Scientists tell us that, for the majority of people, seven to nine hours per night of sleep is needed for optimal functioning.  And as more and more studies of the body processes that take place during sleep are uncovered, it becomes clearer that getting enough sleep is really important in the prevention of disease. The research even points to the idea that, in addition to the big killers, the risk of obesity increases with less than 6 or 7 hours of sleep per night. Obesity?  Really?

Hold on. The idea that excess fat accumulation happens because of lack of sleep goes against my personal logic. After all, if you stay awake more hours it seems like you would burn more calories than if you were sleeping.  Well, apparently you do burn more calories….but there’s a pitfall:  the brain chemicals involved with appetite signals go wacky. So much for that line of thinking…

The two recently identified chemicals involved with appetite are called leptin and ghrelin.  Leptin, which is produced by the fat cells, suppresses appetite and ghrelin increases it.  When the duration of the sleep is shorter or sleep is interrupted, the leptin levels drop and ghrelin increases, and sends hunger signals to the brain.  That explains the popularity of the midnight snack!

Back to my friend’s idea of sleeping until you wake up naturally.  Last summer, I decided to try it for a couple of weeks (with the alarm set as backup in case I slept TOO late).  To do this, I had to go to bed a bit earlier.  You know what happened?  Except for the one night I stayed up too late with my girlfriends and woke up too early, I slept between seven and eight hours.  I felt great and looked rested.  More importantly, I became more tuned into my own body’s sleep requirements.  Good lesson.

The gist of it all?  My friend is on to something.  Sleep IS….. good for you.

Can We Stop the Aging (2)

Here are some of the current theories about why we age:

Hay flick Limit Theory – Two scientists in the 1960s noticed that many human cells would divide a limited number of times, then stop.  If the cells were well fed, they divided faster.  Body cells may have a built-in genetic program that tells them not to reproduce anymore.

Free Radical Theory -  Free radicals are molecules or atoms that have an unpaired electron.  In order to be electrically balanced, these molecules or atoms will grab an electron from a nearby atom, thereby creating another free radical, eventually resulting in a cascading chain of damage to cells and organs. 

Free radical formation may not account for all the symptoms of aging, but it probably does play an important part in accelerating cellular damage.  Free radicals are unavoidable.  They are an inevitable consequence of living in a physical body.  However, there are steps we can take to slow down free radical damage, such as avoiding pollutants, and eating a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables.

The Telomere Theory – Telomeres are special types of chemicals that seem to have some ability to protect the chromosomes inside our cells.  Every time our cells divide, the telomeres become shorter and less able to protect the chromosome.  This may explain why the cells eventually become damaged and die.  Scientists are currently trying to find out how to repair telomeres and stop the damage to the cells.

Gyration –  When proteins in your body react with excess blood sugar, the proteins become damaged.  This process is known as “gyration”.  These sugar-damaged proteins may contribute to the breakdown of many other systems in the body.  People who have diabetes or problems with insulin resistance are particularly vulnerable to gyration damage because of abnormalities in their blood sugar levels.

If it turns out to be true that gyration plays a major part in causing the negative effects of aging, we may be able to slow it down by making sure we avoid excess blood sugar levels.

Here are some other factors that play a part in aging:

-We experience a steep decline in hormone production in our later years
-Our body becomes less efficient at detoxifying
-The DNA in our cells becomes damaged
-A life time of exposure to stress and environmental toxins in our air, food and water overwhelms our body’s repair systems.

These are some of the explanations for why we age, but it’s not a complete picture.  At the present time, we don’t yet know all the reasons for this process.  And so far, there is no single magic bullet to stop it.

If scientists can learn how to slow down the process of aging, we will be able to spend many more happy years enjoying our lives while maintaining our peak of physical perfection.

And that’s something to look forward to!

Can We Stop the Aging Process?

If you’re still alive, you’re growing older every day. 

You may not notice it, but you are.

When we make that great shift out of our teenage years into our twenties, most of the changes we encounter about growing older are good.

Who we are in our twenties, growing older means a lot more freedom and a lot of adventure.  Physically, we are at our peak of perfection.

In our thirties, we are starting to enjoy many of the benefits of growing older as we accumulate more wisdom and in most cases, continue to have a body and a brain that’s still in great shape.

But there comes a time, perhaps in our fifth decade, or in our sixth, when growing older starts to have some negative effects we don’t really like.

We may not be as physically fit as we used to be.  We start to get sags and bags.  We get aches and pains.  We may be showing some forgetfulness.

Our beautiful perfection of youth is gone.

Why do we age?

Over the centuries, people have often wondered how it is that our bodies grow and develop from a tiny fertilized egg, to a newborn baby, to a young child, then a teenager and, finally, a young adult.  A huge number of very complex changes within our bodies must happen perfectly in order to achieve this.

Once we grow into our adult perfection, why can’t we just stay there?  Why do we have to age?

And can we stop it? 

Doctors and scientists used to take aging for granted.  Scientists used to think that because aging was a natural process, there was no need to investigate it.

Now, as increasing numbers of baby boomers are turning fifty, anxious to hang on to some semblance of youth, more and more research is being devoted to the topic of aging.

Scientists are trying to find out how and why we age, and they are investigating possible ways to slow down the aging process, or perhaps even stop it altogether.

If new ways are found to extend physical and mental health for the aging population, the benefits to society will be enormous.

Although all of us want to live a long time, none of us wants to spend our final years in physical pain or suffering from mental decline.

Scientists have been able to identify some of the factors that influence the process of aging, and new knowledge is accumulating at a rapid rate.  Dozens of theories to explain aging have been proposed, but it seems that aging is a very complex, and several processes are interlinked.