Cosmetic (Greek: kosmeo, “I parry, I adorns”) is a substance or mixture intended to be placed in contact with various parts of the human body, including the skin, hair and hair systems, nails , lips, genitals, teeth and oral mucosa, with a view exclusively or mainly to cleaning them, protect them, perfuming them, keep them in good condition, change their appearance or to “correct” the smell . Cosmetics are products of hygiene and beautification which are superficial in their actions, not acting under the skin barrier.
We talk about cosmetic work when something must be treated without radically changed from the dermis or organism. Cosmetics change the appearance with superficial products, makeup, odors, hygiene, cleanliness, etc. .
In the first century, not without risk to their health, Nero and Poppea thinned their skin with white lead (lead oxide, very toxic) and chalk, highlighted their eyes with kohl (containing toxic lead) and enhanced their complexion and their lips with red (toxic when it was cinnabar).
With the return of the Crusades, the makeup seems to have spread into Northern Europe from the fourteenth century, the nobles used moisturizer, foundation, hair dye and perfume, and soon the eighteenth century cosmetics are used in all classes.
Over time, cosmetics have varied methods and materials available. Some recipes like cold cream Galen are still used today, other recipes are almost abandoned as mouthwash urine. Some very hazardous to health (including the famous white lead, lead poisoning factor) were nevertheless widely used, until the early nineteenth century most cosmetics in Europe and North America contain lead.
Twentieth century and especially in the twenty-first century, industrialization and discoveries are changing the face of cosmetology: synthetic fragrances, petroleum derivatives, synthetic surfactants and emulsion stabilizers. These new ingredients and complex formulations, realized by researchers, characterize modern cosmetics, which benefited their wide dissemination of the advent of advertising.
Image http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cosmetics.JPG
Translated and adapted from Wikipedia under GNU Free Documentation License.
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