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African Ritual, Makeup, & Skin Still Trending Centuries Later
- Abla Gorashi
- May 7
- 2 min read
Egypt is known for its culture, spirituality, its monarchy, and gold jewelry . While it’s also known for its history, not many talk about the history of women's beauty. Egyptians achieved the iconic eyeliner, called “Kohl”, where a black liquid liner is placed below the eyelashes, from top to bottom. Many can say it’s eyeliner, only used differently. Many TikTok users embrace the history of Kohl as part of their makeup routine.
Over 4,000 years ago, during the Middle Kingdom period, makeup was a common thing for both men and women. Kohl was used by women to protect their eyes from the sun's glare. Makeup is also a personal necessity for many women. Brands often put their logos on their eyeshadow pallets, lipstick’s, mascara, eyeliner etc. For Egyptians, their pallets were often embedded with adjudication symbols or even animal prints to signify receiving power.
West African Kingdoms
Egypt isn’t the only country that had rituals within natural beauty and skin care. The countries that are part of the West African Kingdom are Mali, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, and so many more.
As for Nigeria, they value cleansing and moisture. They used natural oils, butter and black soaps. Black soap is still a major popularity in clearing acne. I was hooked on it in high school, because my acne was so bad. Cleansing and exfoliating is my everyday routine. When it comes to natural ingredients that Africans always put on the forefront, Ethiopians and Somalians often used qasil powder. They are ground leaves from gob trees.
The Horn of Africa
As for anti-ageism, many communities within The Horn of Africa used Frankincense and also Myrrh. Those are two words I’ve never heard before until today. Those two were used for anti-ageism and for healing.
Anti-ageism is still a popular topic that many beauty experts help others avoid. Now we see creams, serums, cleansing that is most likely proven to reduce anti-ageism lines.
Beauty is not just makeup, but also skincare. Just like kohl was for sun protection for the eyes of Egyptians.
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