Flashback Friday: The History of Face Masks

Have you noticed the uproar for face masks lately? Maybe it’s just us, but it seems like face masks are being pushed everywhere we go. It’s great because winter is hitting our skin hard by drying it out and making it irritated with cold, dry, conditions. Plus, there’s nothing like a warm bath and relaxing face mask on a cold winter evening

Alright, so maybe we’re excited about the face mask craze. In fact, we’re so excited, we just can’t hide it, and we’re going to tell you all about their history because the love for face masks isn’t a new thing at all!

Face Masks In History

Does it sometimes feel like you were born with a natural love for facials? No one taught you to love face masks, you just are drawn to them. This is because humans have been obsessed with facial masks for centuries.

There is a long history of people wanting to enhance their skin tones, clean up their acne, tighten their skin, moisturize it, and tone it, all with masks. The first masks came from fruit juices and mud, and some methods were so beneficial, like mud from the Dead Sea, that it’s still being used today.

People actually rubbed these mixtures on their faces and wore them for about 15 minutes before washing them off or waited for them to dry before easily peeling them off.

There were also masks that involved using sand to exfoliate dead skin away for a soft and smooth complexion.

Your girl, Queen Cleopatra was slaying as she used a mask made from egg whites to tighten her skin. Other methods in Egypt involved using olive oil, aloe vera, beeswax, honey, and peppermint oil to protect the sky from harsh desert conditions.

Captain cook loved sailing around to tropical areas and was known to take a few coconuts to use to oil on his face to get rid of his acne. The poor guy had to travel by boat for weeks to get his skincare products of choice.

You can’t forget about the herbal specialists over in Asia who used items like white jade, ginseng, and lotus blossom roots to clean the face. Plus, there was nothing like ground up rice powder to brighten their skin tone.

However, the history of skin care masks isn’t all glam, it actually has a dark past of people doing anything for beauty, making the saying beauty is pain all too real. Elizabeth Bathory gets a shout out because she used the blood of children on her face to look young. The more youthful the child, the better the blood.

Also, it was popular in Rome and during the victorian era to put poison on your face for beauty. Face masks included large amounts of lead, radium, raw meat, bleach, and more. People were dying because of them! These items burned the skin away leading to awful scars and marks, that would have to be covered up with more poisonous mixtures.

Luckily, today the FDA regulates our beauty products to keep harmful items like lead and other poisons out of them, so we can embrace the joy of toned, moisturized, and clean skin without adverse health effects.

Don’t Mask Your Excitement

Go ahead and treat yourself to a facial! You deserve it. Both men and women have been using face masks for centuries. We even still use some of the mud and ingredients that were used centuries ago, like Dead Sea mud, aloe vera, honey, beeswax, and more!

For more beauty tips visit UnitWise.com and please share your comments about your favorite face masks below!

*Content found in the UnitWise blog is for informational purposes only. UnitWise is an independent business with no affiliation to Mary Kay®.