Photograph by Kenneth Garrett, National Geographic Stock

Cleopatra’s Eye Makeup Warded Off Infections?

Kate Ravilious

for National Geographic News

January 14, 2010

Cleopatra and her kin knew a thing or two about crafting an alluring smoky eye.

Now French researchers suggest that the ancient Egyptians’ heavily painted eyelids did more than attract admirers—they also protected against eye infections.

(Related: “Scorpion King’s Wines—Egypt’s Oldest—Spiked With Meds.”)

Artifacts and documents from ancient Egypt show that everyone, man or woman from servant to queen, wore black and green powders coated thickly around the eyes.

“People wore it on a daily basis,” said study co-author Christian Amatore, from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, France.

According to ancient Egyptian manuscripts, the eye makeup was believed to have a magical role, in which the gods Horus and Ra would protect wearers against several illnesses.

Bacterial eye infections such as conjunctivitus, for example, would have been a common problem along the Nile’s tropical marshes.

But previous chemical analyses of powder residue, taken from ancient makeup containers, had isolated four lead-based compounds.

That would seem to suggest that the makeup was harmful, since lead can be highly toxic to humans.

Makeup’s “Magic” Required Hard Work

Instead, the new study found that the low doses of lead salts in the makeup may have actually had beneficial properties: When the salts come into contact with skin, they boost the body’s production of nitric oxide.

This chemical is known to stimulate the immune system and help fight off disease-causing bacteria.

Based on the amount of the lead compounds in the ancient makeup, a wearer’s nitric oxide levels would have increased by 240 percent, the study found.

“Two of these chemicals do not occur naturally, and would have taken 30 days of hard work to make,” Amatore said.

“In my opinion, [the ancient Egyptians] were aware that these compounds brought good health, and they were making them on purpose.”

The research is detailed in the January 15, 2010, issue of the journalAnalytical Chemistry.

Sonia Gandhi

To watch, click here.

Queen Elizabeth I
Queen of England and Ireland
September 7th, 1533 –  March 24th, 1603

“Swooning with fear, Lady Rochford was dragged to the blood-soaked scaffold.  In her final words, she maintained her innocence as being Kathryn’s procuress, but admitted that she had  “falsely accused” her late husband “of loving in an incestuous manner, his sister, Queen Anne Boleyn. For this I deserve to die”.”

I do have to say,  I do feel she deserved her punishment.  She lies not only directly cost two people their lives, but she also left the future Queen Elizabeth motherless.  I can not help but think, what if Anne was spared her life and simply divorced.  Would Elizabeth been able to know her mother?  Would she have become the Queen she was? Would she have outlived Henry?   Would be interesting indeed.

“Mary Boleyn remained at the French court, where she became a lady in waiting to the new queen, Claude, the wife of Louis’s son François”

Claude was indeed the wife of François, but François was not the son of Louis XII, in fact Claude was Louis’s daughter.  While French law prohibited the crown be handed down to a woman, and poor king Louis with no surviving sons, Claude was married to her cousin and her fathers heir-presumptive, François, Duke of Angoulême.  But this wasn’t Claude’s first marriage arrangement.   Her mother, Anne of Brittany, wanted her daughter to be married to Charles V the future Holy Roman Emperor.   This marriage would mean Claude would take the duchy of Brittany and Burgundy from the French Crown.

The French nobles wanted no part of this deal and argued against Claude’s marriage to Charles, the loss of Brittany and Burgundy would have greatly reduced the size of France.  So the marriage promise was called off and Claude was arranged to marry François, whom she was married to at the age of 15 on May 18th, 1514.

While this little snippet of text is an error, do not let it discourage you from reading Leslie Carroll’s book, it is fantastic!

For more reading:

Katherine Swynford: how a Duke’s Mistress became the ancestor of royalty
http://katherineswynford.blogspot.com/
http://royalaffairs.blogspot.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Swynford

Barbara De Angelis
American relationship consultant

Martha Carrier
1643 – August 19,1692

Cher
American Singer Songwriter