The Complexion

Every morning, millions of people apply cosmetics – like a moisturiser or foundation – to fix and/or minimise imperfections in their complexion. We all know that the use of cosmetics goes back to prehistoric times but what is less well known is that the idea of a ‘complexion’ also has a long history that has changed over time.

The term ‘complexion’ is derived from “the Latin con (with or together) and plectare (to plait or twine)” (Connor, 2004, p. 19). This definition reflects an older view of the complexion which was seen as the surface manifestation of the interactions between the body humours, an idea first put forward in the West by the ancient Greeks and Romans.

Body humours

The idea of body humours was developed to explain the cause of disease. According to this theory, everything in the world was made up of four elements – earth, fire, water, and air – and that there were four body fluids called humours – blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile – each one corresponding to one of the four elements.

The humours were thought to be in a constant state of flux as they were affected by factors such as diet and activity. Their presence and imbalance was believed to effect a person’s health, but also determined what we would now refer to as someone’s personality, temperament or disposition; e.g., too much black bile would make you melancholic. Traces of this thinking can still be found in our language today when we talk of people being ‘cold’ or ‘hot tempered’.

When physicians of the Middle Ages looked at a person’s skin, they saw it not as a thing in itself, but rather, as the outward sign of the state of the body’s humours, as a complexion of the four body fluids. They examined it for signs of imbalance, with skin blemishes being seen as places where excess humours were trying to get out. The colour of the skin was considered to be particularly important, as an excess of any one colour – red, black, white, or yellow – could be related to an overabundance of one of the four humours.

Should such signs be found, then the physician’s job was to rebalance the humours – through herbal remedies, emetics, purges, fasting and/or changes to the diet – or to open an escape path for them – through blood-letting, blistering or scarification of the skin – so that excesses could be cleared.

Understandably, medical ideas about body humours were also used by beauty writers to explain skin conditions, often associating skin problems with a person’s ‘temperament’. These beauty experts did not have access to medical treatments but could suggest that improvements could be made by changes in diet and exercise.

A dull, earthy skin is generally to be seen in those people who are of a phlegmatic temperament, who are the victims of indigestion, and who, either from inclination or from necessity, lead a sedentary and inactive existence. A close, vitiated atmosphere and poor living are also frequently responsible for a pasty, muddy complexion, although, in some cases, it is natural. As a result of the above-mentioned sedentary life, the circulation becomes languid and sluggish, and the first step towards improving the skin is to go in for a thorough course of active physical exercise. Rowing, tennis, swimming, walking, and running should all, when practicable, be freely indulged in. The diet must be generous, but light, and all excesses avoided. No outward applications can clear the skin, although, occasionally, they may assist Nature in doing so.

(‘The toilet,’ 1897, p. 11)

The humoural theory dominated medical thinking up until the eighteenth century and was discredited when it was discovered that many diseases thought to be due to humoural imbalances were actually cased by microbes. However, the idea of humours has not completely died and references to it as a causative agent can still be found today.

Complementary medicine

The idea of body humours was also appeared in different forms in India and China and it is from these traditions that it is being reintroduced into the West through Ayurvedic, traditional Chinese, and other complementary medicines. Consequently we have seen a return of the practices of purging and fasting although fortunately, not bloodletting.

Cosmetics

By the sixteenth century the term complexion had started to lose its connection to the body humours and had began increasingly to refer primarily to the “natural colour, texture and appearance of the skin” (The Compact Oxford English Dictionary, 1991). By the seventeenth century, it had also become associated with cosmetics, which were described as being able to ‘give a complexion’ to the face. The strengthening relationship between cosmetics and complexion was accompanied by masculine concerns about ‘natural’ compared with ‘artificial’ complexions. Men of the time were worried that they could be deceived by diseased women using paint and powder to cover up the effects of smallpox and other blemishes or by older women applying it to ‘adjust’ their age to make them look younger.

The concern with artificial complexions was still present in Western societies at the end of the nineteenth century but by then the application of paint and powder was on the increase and the social stigma associated with using it was declining, a process that accelerated in the twentieth century. By the 1960s, the use of make-up was so culturally entrenched that we do not think of it as odd that it could be even be applied to create a ‘natural-looking complexion’.

First Posted: 31st March 2009
Last Update: 10th April 2025

Sources

The compact Oxford English dictionary, (2nd ed.). (1991). Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Connor, S. (2004). The book of skin. London: Reaktion Books.

The toilet: Containing hints and advice on health, beauty, and dress, with innumerable recipes for the toilet table. (1897). London: Ward, Lock & Co., Limited.