History of Cosmetics, From Antiquity Down to Our Days

Tonight’s episode is a remastered version of one of the first stories ever released on the podcast. The original version covered cosmetics and perfumes; in this new version we expanded the history of cosmetics and left the history of perfumes for a future story.

The new material covers the influence of Hollywood and flapper culture, women who helped build the modern beauty industry, dangerous cosmetics and the rise of regulation, makeup during World War II, and the changing beauty culture of the 1950s and 1960s. We also explore the history of cosmetics, as we did in the original story, from ancient pigments and Egyptian kohl to Japanese beauty traditions, and more.

This content is entirely scripted and recorded by real people, it includes no AI, and mid-roll ad breaks are turned off so that you can relax without interruption.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Welcome

02:50 Introduction: Why Humans Use Cosmetics

07:44 Cosmetics in Ancient Egypt

13:42 Beauty Standards in Ancient China and Japan

28:51 Cosmetics in Greece and Rome

41:18 From the Middle Ages to Elizabethan and French Courts

46:35 The Birth of the Modern Cosmetics Industry

54:11 Hollywood, Regulation, War, and Modern Makeup