COSMETICS AND BATHROOM PRODUCTS:EYE SHADOW

EYE SHADOW

Ancient Egyptian women developed the art of decorating the eyes by applying dark green color to the lower lid and blackening the upper lid with kohl, a preparation composed of antimony and soot. Egyptians also used powdered charcoal, powdered galena, or soot alone to achieve the same eyelid-darkening effect. Semiprecious stones such as lapis lazuli and malachite were also ground and used as eye shadows. In addition, the Romans adopted the technique of using kohl to darken the eyelids. In the Middle Ages, the Crusaders found eyelid-coloring cosmetics widely used in the Middle East, and it was they who spread the use of these types of cosmetics throughout Europe. Elizabethan women used an iri- descent eye shadow made of ground mother of pearl. By the nineteenth century, research in France led to the development of more and better eye cosmetics at decreased cost.

Eye shadow is a cosmetic product applied to the eyelids for coloring. Modern eye shadow is mostly composed of a petroleum jelly base with fats (e.g., mineral oil or jojoba oil) and waxes (e.g., beeswax, lanolin, or ozokerite). It is colored with dyes that include ultramarine colors (organic polymers containing aluminum, oxygen, silicon, sodium, and sulfur) such as blue, pink, or violet, iron oxides of various shades, carbon black (a form of carbon resembling charcoal), carmine, bismuth oxychloride, manganese violet, chromium hydroxide greens, bronze powder, alumi- num powder, ferric ferrocyanide, ferric ammonium ferrocyanide, zinc oxide (ZnO), or titanium dioxide (TiO2). As titanium dioxide is a white opaque powder, it may serve as a base, allowing other included colored dyes to be viewed by muting the natural color of the skin. Eye shadow may also contain additional chemicals to enable a longer shelf-life and manufacturing consistency for the product, including talc, aloe, binders (e.g., octyl palmitate), and preservatives (e.g., parabens, imidazolidinyl urea, or BHA). A typical composition may be approximately 60 percent petroleum jelly, 10 percent fats and waxes, 6 percent lanolin (grease in sheep’s wool), and the remainder dyes, pigments, and preservatives. Un- fortunately, the addition of synthetic chemical preservatives is often the source of consumer allergic reactions, including contact dermatitis.