Source: Shanghai Daily

02-26-2009 11:57

BEIJING, Aug. 26 -- It's difficult to trace the history of makeup, and even harder to find out when women in Shanghai started to use cosmetics. But it's common that ladies all over the world are desiring to make themselves more beautiful.

From ancient times to the present day, women have been sitting down in front of a mirror to put on makeup.

Around 1840, cosmetic products such as powder and rouge were usually handmade in family-run firms. The quality was low and couldn't be guaranteed.

Later in the second part of the 19th century, Lao Miao Xian became one of few beauty stores in old Shanghai to sell women's cosmetics. It enjoyed the same fame as Kong Feng Chun in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, Yue Zhong Gui in Suzhou and Xie Fu Xiang in Yangzhou, both in Jiangsu Province.

Those stores were also known as "fragrance powder store" by people at the time. But they were still not able to compete with foreign cosmetics imported from Japan, Europe and the United States since the 1870s.

In the era before today's state-of-the-art cosmetic products, there were not many choices with different functions. There were either no products designed for women in different ages. In the makeup boxes of most women at that time, there were probably merely a basic cream lotion, a box of fragrance powder, a lipstick and a bottle of perfume.

In the 1930s-40s, cosmetics were mainly used for skin whitening as well as hair blackening and smoothing. For skin care, women used cream in winter and fragrance powder in summer for hair care, hair tonic and Vaseline oil were widely used.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the establishment of Guang Sheng Hang was considered to open a new era for the Chinese cosmetics industry. One of the products that first became well-known was their Shuang Mei (Twin Sisters) toilet water, which was similar to perfume.

Gradually, Shuang Mei lotions, cosmetic powders, perfumes and hair tonic also gained popularity in Shanghai.