Roman makeup
In 2003, archaeologists excavating an ancient Roman temple from the middle of the second century AD (around 2,000 years ago) in London unearthed a tin container, still sealed with its lid, that contained a white ointment. It still had fingerprints from the last person who used it! A 2004 Nature paper presented the results of an analysis of the ointment’s ingredients. The University of Bristol and Museum of London researchers determined that the ointment was made from equal amounts of adipose fat (body fat, in contrast to dairy fat such as butter) from a ruminant, such as sheep or cattle, and a starch. About 15% by weight of tin oxide had been added to make it white. The authors note that other known Roman foundation-type cosmetics used lead acetate (cerussa), made by dissolving lead shavings in vinegar. Tin oxide would have had many of the same properties and would have been easily available from Cornish tin mines. They also suggest that Romano-British chemists didn’t make clear distinctions between the two and might have thought tin oxide was another type of cerussa. It is also possible that some cosmetics manufacturers used tin oxide because growing awareness of the dangers of lead poisoning might have increased demand for lead-free products. Since tin oxide had no known medicinal uses in Roman times, the authors conclude that the ointment must have been a cosmetic, similar to modern foundation, and made a reproduction.
The top picture shows the original Roman tin with the reproduction the scientists made in the corner.
Whatever the Romans’ reason for using tin oxide instead of lead acetate, I’m glad they did because as it turns out, tin oxide is still used in some cosmetics today and is considered safe. This means it should be both easy to make and safe to use an exact replica!
I ordered some beef tallow and tin oxide from Etsy. The beef tallow at my grocery store has “beef flavor” added and I wanted pure, unadulterated and as white as possible tallow, which I found on Etsy. The Romans probably used wheat starch but I had cornstarch on hand. I melted 3 oz fat, mixed in 3 oz cornstarch, and 25 grams tin oxide, which was about 15% of 6 ounces. It didn’t smell too “beefy” but I still didn’t like the scent that much so, even though the Nature paper found no evidence that the original cream had been scented, I added some lemon essential oil to my cream.
The results are in the second picture. I rubbed a thin layer onto my face and it evened out my complexion nicely. I don’t want to bore you with a picture of my face but in the third photo you can see a small white scar on my wrist and a dark spot where I got a small burn while cooking dinner. The last photo shows how well the cream hid the scar, and reduced the appearance of the darker burn.
This cream is not at all greasy, though I think I would prefer it with a little less starch so it’s creamier and goes on easier. Maybe I got the proportions slightly wrong. I’m glad it was a success because I’ve got a lot of this stuff now.
Now I want to look into whether or not the Romans had a similar cosmetic for darker skin tones.
