In ancient times, women's cosmetics were scarce, but they were all well-known.
One: ancient female cosmetics-flower buds
Flower bud, also known as applique, face flower and flower seed, is a small decoration that ancient women put on their faces and eyebrows, belonging to the category of ancient women's cosmetics.
Song Gaocheng's Affairs Hou Ji records the origin of this flower hairpin, which was made by Princess Shouyang, the daughter of Emperor Wu of the Southern Song Dynasty. At that time, Princess Shouyang pinned five needles on her brow, which looked like plum blossoms, so this kind of makeup was also called plum blossom makeup or Shouyang makeup, which was popular until the Tang and Song Dynasties.
Buds are rich in materials, some are made of paper, camellia cakes and fish scales, some are cut with gold foil, and even dragonfly wings. The use of dragonfly wings as flower buds mainly occurred in the late Tang Dynasty. After catching dragonflies, the women folded their wings and painted them in their favorite colors to make flower buds. In addition to the plum blossom shape mentioned above, there are birds, ducks and fish. , ingenious and novel, and many colors. Besides red, green and yellow, there are purple, blue and black. For example, in the well-known poem "Yellow on the Mirror", the bud used by Mulan is yellow.
Two: ancient female cosmetics-lipstick
Lipstick was also called lip fat and mouth fat in ancient times. Most ancient lipsticks were vermilion. When applied to lips, it can increase the brightness of lips and give people the impression of being young, energetic and healthy, so it is very popular with ancient women.
Lipstick was applied in many ways in ancient times, such as a little red lip and a little brown lip.
China used to be beautiful with its small mouth, especially in Tang Chaoyuan and those years. At that time, influenced by the makeup of Tubo costumes, crying makeup and tears makeup appeared. As can be seen from the name, it is to make makeup look like crying, which was also called "contemporary makeup" at that time. At that time, I didn't wear makeup, my lips were painted red and small, and my eyebrows were painted eight characters. From a distance, the whole face is black and white, and it looks like crying at close range. It has no aesthetic feeling and gives people a strange feeling, so it has only been popular for a while.
Tan lips were popular in Tang and Song Dynasties. At that time, Tan was a light crimson color, which has been popular until now.
Three: ancient female cosmetics-powder application
Powdering is the most common way of makeup in ancient times, that is, putting powder on the face. For a typical example, according to historical records, the Tang Dynasty emperor gave Yang Guifei an annual fee of one million taels of gold, which shows that ancient women attached great importance to Fu powder.
The ancients' views on fufen were quite original, which clearly revealed the relationship between makeup and aesthetics. This is Li Yu's description of Nvfu powder in Qing Dynasty. Women follow suit, but beauty is used more, and the more beautiful it is, the more beautiful it is. However, if the skin is black, it is a bit strange.
As for powder, the ancients also linked it with personal moral cultivation, pointing out that makeup should be combined with self-cultivation, that is, beauty in appearance, beauty in mind and better personal morality.
Four: ancient female cosmetics-yellow forehead
It refers to painting the forehead yellow, also called crow yellow. This makeup method originated in the Southern and Northern Dynasties and was popular in the Tang Dynasty. It is rarely used now.
According to relevant documents, the appearance of this decoration has a certain relationship with the popularity of Buddhism. Buddhism reached its peak in China during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Inspired by the golden Buddha statue, it gradually became a custom for ancient women to paint their foreheads yellow.
We all know that there were many famous poets in the Tang Dynasty. During the popularity of Huang Er in Tang Dynasty, poets such as Wen Tingyun and Li Shangyin once described poems about Huang Er and even told fairy tales about Huang Er.
Five: ancient female cosmetics-eyebrow pencil
Thrush is the most popular and common makeup method at all times and in all countries. Before thrush materials came out, most ancient women burned willow branches and smeared them on their eyebrows. Thrush originated in the Warring States period, when thrush was only black, so it was also called "black".
By the Han dynasty, thrush was more common among women and there were more ways, but the more you painted, the better you looked. Some people paint their eyebrows as long and curved blue, as beautiful as distant mountains. This is why we often say that eyebrows are like distant mountains. Then it became popular to use jade thrush, which was the most popular in the palace, and there were fewer black thrush, so that Yang Guifei's use of black thrush became a new thing, and the harem concubines who contended with each other followed suit.
In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, it was popular for women to draw their eyebrows wide and short, and their shapes were similar to those of laurel leaves or moth wings today. This kind of broad eyebrows can easily become dull. In order not to be dull, ancient women would "faint their eyebrows", that is, they would faint the color on the edge of their eyebrows when thrusting; There is also a thin eyebrow, that is, the eyebrows are drawn very thin, and the effect is just like the poem "One petal is like her face, and one willow leaf is like her eyebrow", which is Cecilia Cheung's eyebrow when he was young.
There are various makeup styles of eyebrows in the Tang Dynasty, among which ten kinds of eyebrows, such as mandarin duck, hill, cracked tip, smoky, three peaks, hanging beads, Mayday, blowing smoke and fainting, are the most famous.
The materials used in thrush changed with the change of dynasties. The earliest thrush material is a black mineral called Dai, also called Shi Dai, which prevailed in the Warring States period. Before thrush, Shi Dai was ground into powder and then blended with water. The method is somewhat similar to the ancient grinding ink.
In addition to Shi Dai, there were bronze Dai, snail Dai and jade bird Dai in ancient times. The copper generation is a chemical substance in the form of copper rust, and the green finch headband is a dark gray thrush material, which appeared in the Southern and Northern Dynasties and was introduced from the Western Regions. Spironolactone is produced in Persia and originated in Sui and Tang Dynasties. This is a processed thrush tool, and its shape is very similar to that of Mo Ding, so it is also called graphite thrush ink. When in use, there is no need to grind, just dip it in water.
In the Song Dynasty, women seldom used Shi Dai, but mainly used Luo Dai to thrush. From the Yuan Dynasty to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the jades used by women in the palace were all from the eyebrow stone of Zhaitang specialty in Ximentou District, Beijing. Until the early 1920s, thrush material was a chemically adjusted black grease, which was easy to use and carry, and has been passed down to this day.
Six: ancient female cosmetics-cosmetic powder
The use of makeup powder began at least from the Warring States period. There are two kinds of the oldest makeup powders. One is that white lead turns into paste-like facial fat, which is also called "lead powder", "lead flower" and "Hu powder" because of its high lead content. The production process of lead powder is complicated. Although it is called lead powder, it contains chemical elements such as tin, aluminum and zinc. The original lead powder is not dehydrated, so it is pasty. After the Han Dynasty, most of the lead powder used for cosmetics was made into powder or solid after absorbing water, with fine texture, white color and easy preservation, which was deeply loved by ancient women and gradually replaced the status of rice flour.
The other is rice flour ground from rice flour. Rice flour is the most primitive milling method. Rice juice is deposited in a vessel to obtain white powder, which is exposed to the sun. The dry powder is very fine and can be used to wipe the face.
There is also a kind of fragrant powder, the main raw material is chestnut rice, and finally it is made of various spices. Chestnut rice contains a certain viscosity, which is not easy to fall off when coated on the surface, and it tastes fragrant, which is quite popular among women at that time.
These three types of cosmetic powders are applied to the face to keep the skin bright and clean.
In addition to the above three makeup powders, there are purple powder, pearl powder, peach blossom powder, Hosta powder, pearl powder, stone powder, official powder, silver powder and cinnamon powder, which are round, quadrilateral, square, sunflower petal-shaped and octagonal.
Seven: ancient female cosmetics-rouge
Rouge, also known as Yan Zhi, Cigarettes, Yan Zhi, Yan Zhi, Xianzhi, E Shi, etc. , is one of the cosmetics commonly used by ancient women. Rouge was originally a kind of red pigment, and it was said that it was introduced into the Central Plains when Zhang Qian was in the Western Regions. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the ancients added pig pancreas, bovine bone marrow and other items when making rouge, which turned rouge into a kind of oil.
The raw material of rouge is a kind of flower called red and blue. Red and blue petals are red and yellow. After picking the flowers, beat them repeatedly, and after removing the yellow juice, they become bright carmine. In addition to red and blue, the raw materials of rouge are pomegranate, mountain flower, crimson, hematoxylin and so on.
According to the literature, ancient women used less rouge for makeup, but it was often used with powder. There are three specific uses:
The first type: rouge and lead powder are mixed into a brownish red, that is, pink, before makeup, and then directly applied to the cheeks. Because the color is uniform and consistent, it gives people a feeling of tranquility and solemnity after being applied to the face, so it is mostly used for adult women.
The second type: white powder first, then rouge. The forehead, nose and chin are exposed to white powder, and the cheeks are painted with rouge. The makeup painted in this way has red cheeks, so it is called peach blossom makeup.
The third type: first apply a layer of rouge evenly on the face, and then cover it lightly with white powder. Those with strong shades are called "drunken makeup" and those with light shades are called "Fei Xia makeup".
Buds, oral fat, Shi Dai, lead powder, rouge ... It can be seen that ancient women's pursuit of beauty is no less than that of modern women, and it is even worse to follow suit and imitate makeup.