See through Cleopatra’s eyes and ward off disease


According to a study produced by French researchers in the Analytical Chemistry journal, wearing heavy eye make-up like the Ancient Egyptians could help prevent disease. Ancient Egyptians wore their eye make-up much like we do today, to enhance our eyes and darken our features. But all those who had eye make-up like Cleopatra may have benefited not just aesthetically but medically.

The researchers for this project had noted that it wasn’t only the ancient Egyptians that had adopted this heavy eye make-up but the ancient Romans and Greeks too; but interestingly they too noted the medical benefits that make-up can have. Therefore, the projects head researcher Phillipe Walter informs us that their task was to find out exactly what medicinal properties the eye make-up had. The key for this seemed to lie in the type of make-up used, which contained lead salts.

Whilst lead would be presumed to be a health risk as opposed to a benefit, it would appear that the use of it in such small doses as the ancient Egyptians did, could benefit the immune system. Using a miniscule electrode, the researchers looked at what effect the lead salts had on one human cell. They found that the lower level of lead salts contained in their make-up would have produced nitric oxide which adds to the immune system, helping it to ward off eye infections caused by bacteria.

However, the researchers don’t try and take full credit for discovering this beneficial use of lead salts within eye make-up as Phillipe Walter comments that the lead salts may have been used deliberately by the ancient Egyptians to sustain a healthy eye as well as add to their aesthetic appearance. Perhaps when we are looking for make-up tips it isn’t the celebrities of today we should be looking to, but the ones of the ancient times.

9th January 2010

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