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The Cosmetics Market And Its Success

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Introduction
For centuries, there have been ideals and standards set for beauty and what it is that makes a beautiful person. Women, in particular, have been susceptible to upholding these specific standards all throughout history – dating even back to Cleopatra’s time. The modern cosmetics industry has used these psychological ideas to help facilitate its empire today. However, much, if not all, of the cosmetics market and its success is due in part of the expanding marketing base that has been seen around the world. Marketing pioneers have helped uncover the fears of women and what it is they look for in certain cosmetics to stay a ‘beautiful’ person. This essay holds personal meaning and holds significance because the marketing of …show more content…

Beauty Beginnings
Dating back to the 6th century BC, Pythagoras propagated the idea that harmonious balance would be achieved based on correct proportion and perfect symmetry. This ideal is still widely believed today to be a basis on what constitutes something or someone as beautiful. The term used to describe this harmonious balance amongst a certain system was ‘cosmos.’ Other ideals came to have an effect as well, such as the lightness of one’s complexion, a youthful looking body, and an unblemished face. Furthermore, in ancient times, women used natural substances to enhance appearances of their face and body, much similar to what women use today, however they appear in different forms. Egyptian women would “[dust] their skin with ochre to give it a lighter, golden hue,” as well as “[paint] their eyelids with charcoal,” and have “their lashes darkened” (Tungate 11). What Egyptian women would do to make themselves more ‘beautiful’ is something that is seen amongst all women today. It is important to investigate what it is that kept this trend going, understand the desires and pursuits of women in why they use cosmetics, and what other advancements and ideas came along that sparked the mass marketing of cosmetics to women.
Unlike the Egyptians, other early civilizations, like the Greeks, had a certain reluctance about using cosmetics. Instead, beauty lay more in the shape of their body, and strong body structure. It was not until

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