Lisa Eldridge, a U.K.-based makeup artist and beauty expert, posted this video to her YouTube channel, showing exactly how dramatically makeup trends have changed throughout history.
View this video on YouTube
The video corresponds with her book, Face Paint: The Story of Makeup, which was just released.
She begins the video with Egyptian makeup, which was worn daily by women and men.
Next up is Ancient Greece, where the male elite frowned upon women wearing makeup.
Here's what the aristocrats looked like in Venice in the 16th century.
In Great Britain in the 19th century, Queen Victoria proclaimed that makeup was "vulgar and unladylike."
At the end of the 19th century — the birth of the silent-movie industry — there was a newfound respect for theater actresses, who changed the perception of makeup into something that was fun and a symbol of strength.
Come the 20th century, makeup looks started changing from decade to decade.
And finally, Eldridge explains, today in many parts of the world — though certainly not all parts of the world — you can choose without censorship any makeup at all.
In conclusion: Go wear whatever you damn well please.
