Ilise Carter’s The Red Menace is a lighthearted coverage of makeup, and its popularity in the U.S. from colonial days onwards. Carter makes the case that cosmetics were known and used through the 18th and 19th centuries, long before they were “officially” socially endorsed in the 20th. Through her descriptions, we see not just the options, but the demands for beauty society puts on women.
Carter includes a recipe for lip salve from Martha Washington, although it might be generous to call it makeup. (It sounds more like a balm against Potomac winters, rather than a forerunner of Revlon Colorstay). But whatever products were sold, or homemade, there was still a fair amount of prejudice against cosmetics. Women who painted their faces were, to respectable Protestants, actresses and tarts.
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