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Most ancient Egyptian women-and men-loved cosmetics. The museum's Cosmetic Jar features a squat little figure made of Egyptian blue who represents the Egyptian god Bes, a dwarf with a lion-like face and chubby belly wearing a cheetah skin. A sampling of the jar's contents revealed that it once contained eye makeup.
Cosmetic containers often were made of costly materials, such as onyx - a semi-precious stone - with gold. Another uniquely Egyptian material called "faience," was not costly, but the secrets of its manufacture made it a desirable entity in the ancient world. Faience, also called "Egyptian blue" is basically a mixture of silica (sand), natron (salt), and something to provide color when the mixture is fired (such as copper for blue, though other colors also were made). Once mixed, the material can be molded, carved, and sculpted much like clay.
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