It is widely agreed that women are vain people and now, even men too. The women in the past were no exceptions. They too, enjoyed a fashion sense and put in much time and effort to keep themselves beautiful. In ancient India for instance, the women wore necklaces, bracelets, earrings, bangles, nose-studs, armlets and rings. They tied their hair up into a bun and had mirrors with which they used to check their appearances after a make-up.

The ancient Egyptians are another example of very vain people of the past. The members of the upper classes devoted much of their time to keeping themselves beautiful. Instead of using soap when they bathed, they used soda, and after a bath, they applied perfumed oil to their body so that they would smell nice. Men had short hair and wore wigs. The women too, wore wigs or added false braids to their own hair. They owned combs, hairpins and mirrors made of polished bronze or silver. The men owned bronze razors instead.

Both men and women used a bright green paste of copper minerals as eye shadow. They also painted their eyebrows and eyelashes with black kohl, which was a cream made out of sheep's fat and powered lead. Women used ochre, a clay stained read with iron, as lipstick and painted their palms with henna, a red brown dye, to make them look younger. Their cosmetics were kept in intricate boxes. Both men and women wore jewelry collars and necklaces, strings of beads, bracelets, anklets, earrings, and finger rings. Strangely enough, silver was more precious than gold and thus, only the rich owned them. Their clothing and jewellery were ornate and expensive, and they used perfumes and cosmetics lavishly, the men as well as the women.

The Greeks and Romans had elaborate hairstyles and the class they belonged to, their age and marital status determined how elaborate their hairstyle should be. They also basked themselves in lengthy rituals of adornment. For the Romans, they had slaves to help them style their hair, drape their togas, and apply their cosmetics.

For the ancient Chinese, especially the women, they enjoyed wearing many pieces of jewellery made of gold on their body. Jade was the most popular gem though and was regarded as even more valuable than gold, which only the rich and the nobles and kings could afford.

Today, jade is still regarded as a highly valuable gem to the Chinese. The older generations of Chinese today like to wear jade bangles on their wrists, jade pendants on a gold chain around their necks and even jade earrings to symbolize good luck and act as a symbol of their wealth.

Women today still enjoy putting on make-up to look beautiful. The type of cosmetics that women use today are fairly similar to those in the past; women still use lipstick, eye shadows, mascara (which is somewhat similar to the black kohl used by the Egyptians) and nail polishes. In addition, there are newer types of cosmetics used such as foundation, liners and pencils, and lip gloss.

We still use perfumes as well to keep ourselves smelling nice. Perfumes are available for both men and women. Examples are Thierry Mugler for women and Jean Paul Gaultier for men.

Besides using cosmetics, perfumes and wearing jewellery, what other methods are there to improve our appearances and keep ourselves looking good?

Cleopatra putting on makeup

A clown in the circus with lots of makeup on. Makeup helps impart a specific kind of personality.

A bracelet was part of the Olbia Treasure unearthed at Olbia, site of an ancient Greek colony in the Crimea, in 1891. It dates from the 1st century BC.