History of skin care Part 5: Imperial China: From the Tang Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, 618-1644

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Longing for the pale at the time when the Tang dynasty came up, the women of the imperial court had made skin care and cosmetic applications a high form of art. Based on the artistic techniques of Buddhism, which had spread across the country, women turned into gilded statues, completely with smooth porcelain skin and facial applications. A pale complexion became more and more important than hoped -for new and larger heights to lighten their skin temporarily and permanently. Chinese women have wanted pale skin since the first imperial era. When agriculture became increasingly important for culture and business, tanned skin with a working class made of farmers and ...
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longing for the pale

At the time when the Tang dynasty came up, the women from the imperial court had made skin care and cosmetic applications a high art form. Based on the artistic techniques of Buddhism, which had spread across the country, women turned into gilded statues, completely with smooth porcelain skin and facial applications. A pale complexion became more and more important than hoped for new and larger heights in order to lighten their skin temporarily and permanently.

Chinese women have wanted pale skin since the previous imperial era. When agriculture for culture and economy became more and more important, tanned skin was associated with a working class of farmers and fishermen. While noble women initially wanted a white complexion to show that they do not have to work, however, a powdered face and smooth skin soon became a fashionable statement. During the Tang dynasty, Kurtisans began to take more extreme measures to lighten the skin on the face. While they continued to press white powder from lead, they also used special gels and lotions from natural ingredients to remove pigments and bleach their skin permanently. One of the most popular gels has been made from songyi mushrooms, an ingredient that is still used in many skin rescuers today.

The seven steps to beauty

Even in times of lead powder and pigment -changing creams, the Chinese approach of skin care was still holistic. Nutrition, health and circulation were still considered necessary to maintain a beautiful complexion and many lotions were developed with medicinal herbs that are popular in traditional medicine. While skin care was previously limited to the bedroom, many women of the Tang dynasty wore small containers with lotions and other cosmetics so that they could repair their face at will.

However, this does not mean that the Tang dynasty's Tango Dynasty performed their make-up in public. Your make-up was actually applied in seven separate steps every morning. The first step was to powder the face with a thick white primer. The second step was to apply Rouge to the cheeks. The third step was to gild your forehead with a golden ocher. The ocher was painted in complex patterns that are modeled on the gold gilding of Buddhist statues. The fourth step was to trace the eyebrows. The fifth step was to paint the lips in bright red. The sixth step was to puncture the cheeks. The seventh and last step was to glue a flower application between the eyes. (You can find out more about the seven steps to beauty here: http://www.chinatoday.com.cn/english/e200411/p60.htm)

The art of application

Although facial applications had great popularity for the first time during the Tang dynasty, they remained popular during the many centuries of imperial China. As described in the seven steps of cosmetic application, there were actually several different types of applications. The dotted cheek has existed since the beginning of the imperial court, but at that time it had lost all the remains of a practical benefit and was only used for fashion. In fact, it was very rare that the points were still round. While one of the most popular design was a crescent moon on the cheek, these so -called points were able to adopt the form of a variety of shapes, from flowers to insects. The flower application placed between the eyes had a similar number of variations. It could consist of paper, gold foil or mussels and the patterns ranged from flowers to subjects, from dragonflies to ox horns.

Although it was not exactly an application, re -drawn eyebrows were still an important part of the face jewelry. At that time, the designs were much more complex than during the Qin or Han dynasty. While the different forms were generally patterned according to objects from nature, the shapes themselves were far from the natural form of eyebrow. Weidenblatt-Eighte Brauen were one of the most popular design, with round, olive-shaped eyebrows not far behind. Emperor Xuanzong even commissioned a book called Shi Mei Tu, in which ten different eyebrow patterns were outlined. (You can read more about facial applications and eyebrow patterns here: http://www.chinatoday.com.cn/english/e200411/p60.htm)

from lead powder to skin bleach to eyebrows in olive form, many of the skin care techniques and cosmetic approaches of the imperial China appear in today's world. However, their holistic approach to skin care and its bizarre make-up show that the imperial china of the modern world still has a lot to offer.