Cleopatra’s eye makeup secret? Ancient Egyptians used lead-based kohl

Make-up as an art never began simply to enhance the appearance but to draw courage from what was not mere beauty, but power and protection. Mistaken for mere garb, its long expanse across myriad empires and dynasties has symbolized unyielding power, stretched in strokes of black kohl and rosy rouge, painting a face not just to appease eyes, but to amass attention. However, National Geographic brings attention to something even more fascinating about the beauty rituals of the ancient world, especially when we discover that what people applied extended into what was believed to be medicinal.Ancient Egypt, a civilisation remembered for its elaborate jewellery, striking silhouettes and distinctive eye makeup, offers a fascinating example of how medicine and beliefs about protection could exist alongside one another. The dark, elongated eyes associated with Cleopatra, last ruling queen and pharaoh of the Ptolemaic kingdom of Egypt, has till date caught our attention. With researchers in the last few decades suggesting that certain compounds used in ancient Egyptian eye makeup could have stimulated the body’s immune defenses, a curious conversation between archaeology and modern science ...