Imagine Getting Ready 2,000 Years Ago: Ancient Roman Makeup
- Erik Berntsen
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
A woman living in 26 AD Rome.
She wakes up and begins getting ready for the day.
There is no Sephora, no modern foundation, brow pencil or mascara—and certainly no permanent makeup. But if you are a woman of means, sitting in front of a polished metal mirror while an attendant helps with your hair and beauty routine, parts of the experience might feel surprisingly familiar.
You want clear, beautiful skin. You want a little healthy color in your cheeks. You want your eyes to stand out and your brows to look full and defined. You might finish with perfume before leaving the house.
Two thousand years later, the products have changed dramatically, but many of the ideas behind ancient Roman makeup—enhancing the complexion, defining the eyes, and shaping the brows—feel surprisingly familiar.
The goals? Not nearly as much.
Your Complexion Could Advertise Your Status
For an elite Roman woman, a clear, pale complexion was more than a beauty ideal—it could signal social status.
Skin protected from the sun suggested a life removed from outdoor physical labor. A smooth, light complexion therefore carried associations with leisure, wealth and refinement.
Women used powders and preparations to help create that appearance. These included pale mineral products such as chalk and, most notoriously, Cerussa—white lead.
And here is the astonishing part:
The Romans knew lead could be dangerous. They used it anyway.
Pliny the Elder described white lead as useful for giving women a fair complexion while also identifying it as a deadly poison.
Apparently beauty, status and questionable ingredients were already intertwined 2,000 years ago.
This is not a modern reconstruction. It is an actual Pompeian fresco from the first century—the same Roman world we're imagining. Look at the wife's carefully groomed hair, jewelry, smooth complexion and direct gaze. The identification of the couple is debated, but the painting itself comes from Pompeii.
Then Came Color: Cheeks, Brows and Eyes
A completely white face wasn't necessarily the goal. Roman beauty ideals paired pale skin with healthy-looking color.
We know this because Ovid, who died in AD 17—only nine years before our imaginary morning—actually wrote beauty advice for women.
In The Art of Love, he describes a woman who doesn't blush naturally blushing “by art.” He then tells women they can fill sparse areas of their eyebrows and accentuate their eyes with finely prepared ash or saffron.
Think about that:
Blush. Brow enhancement. Eye definition. Two thousand years ago.
Roman rouge could be produced from red ochres and various plant-based colors. Wine lees, mulberries and floral preparations are among the substances associated with red cosmetic color, while wealthier women had access to more expensive pigments and imported materials. Some mineral reds, including cinnabar and red lead, could also be toxic.
And We Can Look Into the Face of a Roman Woman
Often nicknamed “Sappho,” this is actually an unidentified young Roman woman from Pompeii. She wears a gold-threaded hairnet and earrings, with carefully arranged curls, prominent brows and strongly framed eyes.
And one important correction to something you may see online: she is not applying lipstick. The object touching her mouth is a writing stylus, and she is holding wax writing tablets in her other hand.
A fresco alone cannot prove that every line or shade on her face represents actual makeup rather than the painter's technique. But place this portrait beside Ovid's instructions about filling eyebrows, creating blush and defining the eyes, and Roman beauty suddenly doesn't feel very distant.
For Wealthy Women, Beauty Could Be a Team Effort
A wealthy Roman woman might not even perform the entire routine herself.
Elite households could include enslaved female attendants skilled in grooming, cosmetics and hairstyling. The beauty routine itself could therefore be another display of status—you not only owned expensive cosmetics, mirrors, perfumes and jewelry, you had someone with the time and skill to help you get ready.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art notes that high-status Romans owned luxury personal items including silver mirrors, ivory combs and hairpins, and containers for perfumes and cosmetics.
And Don't Forget the Perfume
Beauty didn't stop with the face.
Perfumes and scented oils were an important part of Roman grooming, and wealthy Romans owned specialized and sometimes expensive containers for perfumes and cosmetics. Luxury materials moved across Rome's enormous trading world, making certain beauty products another way to display wealth and access.
Rome even attempted at various times to control conspicuous displays of luxury. It's sometimes claimed online that the Lex Oppia specifically restricted makeup, but that's too strong—the law was concerned more broadly with elite female luxury and display.
There are similar reasons to be cautious with claims about Roman lipstick and nail polish. The evidence for complexion products, rouge, eye cosmetics and brow enhancement is much stronger. Evidence that Roman women routinely colored their lips is surprisingly thin.
Maybe We Haven't Changed That Much
Put everything together and the morning routine of a fashionable Roman woman sounds strangely recognizable:
Care for the skin. Even the complexion. Add healthy color. Define the brows. Bring attention to the eyes. Style the hair. Add fragrance. Look polished.
Even cosmetics themselves could communicate status. Some ingredients were expensive. Some came from far away. Wealthier women could have attendants help apply them.
And some women apparently continued using a beauty product containing lead even though its dangers were known.
As someone who works in permanent makeup, that's what fascinates me most about looking at these faces from Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Our pigments are vastly safer. Our sanitation, tools and understanding of skin would be unimaginable to a Roman woman.
But the basic idea?
Define the brows. Emphasize the eyes. Improve the complexion. Use a little artistry to bring out the features you already have.
Two thousand years later, we're still doing it.
The tools have changed. The desire to feel beautiful hasn't.
See you at your next appointment!
Erik
