Beauty Products in Ancient Rome Quiz

Answer: Fresh dung

Dung it was indeed, carefully applied and allowed to dry. Other products used to achieve the dead white skin so prized included placenta, bile, animal urine, sulfur, vinegar, onions, eggs, ground oyster shells and white lead. Now and then a dash of honey or myrrh was thrown in for good measure. Roman men complained about the stench wafting forth from their women. So, women of the time usually followed up their beauty routine by dousing themselves with perfume to hide the aroma of these skin whitening products.

Answer: Milk from asses

With emphasis on ass. Cleopatra and Poppaea Sabina (the second wife of Nero) are known figures from those days to use this product in their never-ending chase to maintain beauty.

Answer: Swans

How sad to think that beautiful swans were sacrificed in this manner. Comparatively speaking then, asses had it a lot easier. Their task was more like working in a nine to five job. The poor old swan's job, on the other hand, required a lifelong sacrifice.

Answer: Ashes of snails

Perceived blemishes included freckles, age spots, sunspots, sores or flaky skin. As a last resort, these little features standing in the way of true beauty were covered with tastefully designed leather patches and referred to as beauty spots. Criminals also took advantage of these leather patches - as did freedmen - to hide their brand marks.

Answer: Hair removal was seen as a prelude to sex

Hair removal procedure was not much different to what is still in use today. It was carried out either by plucking, shaving, removal with a type of resin glue (hot wax would be today's equivalent) or with a pumice stone.

Answer: Mulberry

For the rich, rouge could be made from the poppy, but also from a form of seaweed, rose petals, ground up ochre, mercury, red lead and red chalk - and crocodile dung. Poorer women, in addition to using mulberry fruit, also used the dregs from red wine. Roman writers, including Plutarch and Martial, had great fun in mocking women who used too much rouge, chortling that it made them look showy and it melted in the sun.

Answer: Chastity

Women tried many means, as a result of this belief, to maintain long eyelashes. The great Pliny the Elder, normally noted for his wisdom, wrote that eyelashes fell out from too much sex, and said that women should therefore try any means possible to keep their eyelashes looking long and lustrous to prove their virginity.

Answer: Charred rose petals

Kohl is still used in many Middle Eastern countries today for this purpose (eye-liner). It says today however that "the trend is to make it without poisonous ingredients". Back in Roman days, eye-liner, at a pinch, could also be made from soot, date stones and ground up antimony.

Some forms of antimony can actually explode if rubbed with a pestel in a mortar. Oh, and eyeshadow, particularly green eyeshadow, was made from malachite - which is also poisonous.

Answer: Dark, thick and almost meeting in the middle

After all that work getting the eyes right to please everybody, the women then had to paint on eyebrows. Roman women everywhere darkened, thickened and extended their eyebrows to meet in the middle, with soot - and more antimony. Fortunately, plucked dainty eyebrows came into fashion in 100 BCE.

Answer: Bone

Bone it was, and sometimes ivory and paste. The Roman writer Ovid wrote that "You can do yourself untold damage when you laugh if your teeth are black, too long, or irregular." It's surprising they even had teeth left to be in that condition, what with all the lead being used. Ancient Romans also used a form of toothpaste as well.

This was made from a combination of pumice stone and baking soda. One presumes younger Romans did likewise.