Ancient Egyptian women used dramatic facial makeup, especially around the eyes, and the famous bust of the beautiful Cleopatra is a classic example.
Now, a group of French scientists discovered that make-up was not only meaningful as a cosmetic element or as a "talisman" from the "evil eye" of others (mainly women who envied the beauty of their neighbor), but also that women wore it for to protect against eye diseases.
The Ancient Egyptians, about 4,000 years ago, produced makeup that they used to emphasize and decorate their eyes. The substances were produced from lead and mixtures of lead salts mainly and needed up to a month to prepare.
"We know that the ancient Greeks and Romans also noticed that makeup had medicinal properties and wanted to understand exactly how this happened," said Philippe Walter, head of researchers at the Louvre museum and the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), who published the relevant work in the journal "Analytical Chemistry" (Analytical Chemistry) of the American Chemical Society, according to Agence France-Presse.
Contrary to the widespread belief that lead (pencil) is harmful, French researchers, doing chemical experiments, with the help of a tiny electrode one-tenth the size of a human hair, found that in very low doses this particular substance does not kill cells.
Instead, they confirmed (and thus vindicated the ancients) that, in low doses, lead produces a molecule (nitric oxide) that activates the immune system's defenses and fights bacteria in the event of an eye infection, which should happen often in ancient times.
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