--- David Hobby <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Deborah Harrell wrote: > > --- Jon Gabriel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > Behalf Of Deborah Harrell > > > > Perish that thought! Although I think there > *is* something to lipstick as a signaler, otherwise > > > we'd just use neutral chapstick... > I think that a lot of cosmetics started out as ways > to look healthy, and then got sidetracked. Red >lips, smooth > pink nails, shiny hair all are signs of health. > > Thought Experiment: Picture a gorgeous, sexy woman, > > hair tumbling wildly about her face, looking at you > > through sultry, lowered eyelids...she draws a deep, > > slow breath through parted vermilion lips... > > > > Now, if her lips are bright purple, or ... > No big deal, once one is used to it. The first > time you see it, it would look odd and distracting. > > The thing I like is how some looks were good because
> they showed status. Being pale was good, years ago > when > commoners would be tanned from outside work. Then > factories > came, the common crowd were pasty, and a tan was > what looked > good. When getting enough food is hard, plump looks > good. But now it's not a good look... It is funny how "what is Beauty" has changed through the ages. I remembered from somewhere that arsenic (or an arsenical compound) was ingested to make the skin pale and the veins show through, but the only site I could find about that was a Goth webpage... ;) This 'cosmetics through the ages' (with poor editing and no references given, but I have read some of this info before, and didn't find glaring faults) reports that *yellow* was a popular skin coloring for both men and women in Egypt: http://www.bec-natura.com/storiauk.html "...The fashionable colour was yellow: a piece of linen dipped in a suspension of yellow ochre was applied to the face, neck and arms. Both men and women shaved their eyebrows and then long black ones were drawn in just above the natural line..." And here's an overview of arsenic poisoning through the ages (didn't we just have a case in Maine?): http://www.dartmouth.edu/~toxmetal/TXSHas.htm "...In the rest of Europe from the time of the Roman Empire through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, arsenic was the king of poisons. Mineral forms of arsenic were known as early as the fourth century BC, but the German scholastic Albertus Magnus is usually accredited with the discovery of the element around 1250. The first precise directions for the preparation of metallic arsenic, however, are found in the writings of Paracelsus, a physician-alchemist in the late Middle Ages who is often called the father of modern toxicology..." Naturally Fish-belly White Skin Maru ;) __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month! http://sbc.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
