Water Cosmetique (Mascaro)

Moustaches and beards were very fashionable in the nineteenth century and there was a wide variety of products used by men to shape and style them. Like other hair-grooming products of the time most were made from oils and greases. These were sold as liquids or creams but could also be produced as sticks if enough wax and/or resin was included in the formulation to harden them. The oils and greases had to be deodorised before they could be employed and formulators also usually included a fragrance in the final product as well.

Hard or Stick Pomatums

Purified suet1 lb.
White wax1 lb. oz.
Jasmine pomatum½ lb.
Tuberose pomatum½ lb.
Otto of rose1 drachm.

(Piesse, 1855, p. 207)

If gray appeared on their beard, moustache or sideburns some men used colour to hide the white. As well as the more permanent dyes, men could be temporarily darkened the hair with a hard pomatum coloured with black and/or brown pigments, such as lamp-black and umber. These pomatums were sold under a number of names including cosmetiques.

1860 Cosmetique Brun

Above: c.1860 Cosmetique Brun.

Cosmetiques were found in the inventories of most reputable perfumers in the nineteenth century but the practice of using them had its critics.

The hair, or portions of it, particularly that of the face, is sometimes temporarily darkened by what may be called “painting” it. This is done by smearing a black or coloured stick of hard pomatum or cosmetique over it until the desired colour is given to it, and then slightly diffusing the colour over the surface with the brush. The practice is a dirty and unnatural one, as the colour is partially removed by everything it touches, and the moustache or beard is converted by it into a trap to catch the dust. It is only to be tolerated when occasionally used by the fastidious to conceal a few straggling gray or faded hairs. Its use, like that of false moustaches and whiskers, once so common, is now chiefly confined to fashionable fops, and to the “swells” and “gents” of low life.

(Cooley, 1866, p. 270)

As well as the fatty odour issue, the natural greases and oils used in cosmetiques could go rancid over time, a problem also faced by other cosmetics until petrolatum began to replace natural fats and oils in the 1870s.

See also: Petrolatum/Petroleum Jelly

At some stage, someone came up with the idea of making a hair colourant that mixed the pigments into soap instead of oils or grease. These water cosmetiques could be easily removed with soap and water, would not go rancid, and could be used if men did not want their moustache or beard to feel greasy.

Formulation

As they were simple mixtures of soap and pigment water cosmetiques were relatively easy to make. An early addition was the inclusion of a small amount of gum Arabic which would help the formulation stick to the hair.

Beard-coloring
[Can] be made by melting 20 parts of soft soap on a water bath, and adding to it 1 part of gum Arabic dissolved in 2 parts of water. The colouring for brown is fine mahogany-brown with a little drop-black, and the latter alone for black. The colouring must be finely comminuted, and well mixed with the basis. The preparation may be perfumed with a sufficiency of the following mixture after it cools:—

French Geranium Oil20 parts
Oil of Bergamot10 parts
Oil of Cloves15 parts
Cedar-wood Oil2 parts

Form the colouring into sticks about 3 in. long, and ¾ in. in diameter.

(Year-book of pharmacy, 1892, p. 252)

Like grease-based cosmetiques, water cosmetiques were made as batons/sticks but they were also produced in ribbons which were then cut into blocks, a procedure already developed to make bars of soap. If men used the baton/stick form they would apply it wet and then adjust the colour using a moustache brush or a baby’s toothbrush. The block type was more convenient as it was sold in boxes with a mirror and small brush.

1898 Bourjois Indian Tablet

Above: 1898 Bourjois Indian Tablet (Tablettes Indiennes), a type of water cosmetique. It came in four shades.

Both types of water cosmetique continued to be made in the twentieth century. The baton/stick forms were sold as hair sticks and were generally used by women to touch up gray showing through between hair dye treatments; the second would go on to become the basis of what became known as cake or block mascara. Traditionally, Eugène Rimmel [1821-1887] has been credited with creating the first water cosmetique, and this has led to him being credited with the invention of mascara.

See also: Mascara

Mascaro/mascara

Male actors adopted water cosmetiques to temporarily change the colour of their hair, eyebrows, moustaches, and beards when disguising their age, their character, or to blend their own hair colour with that of a wig or hairpiece. When used in theatrical make-up, water cosmetique was often referred to as mascaro.

Mascaro or Water Cosmetique—For darkening the eyebrows and moustaches without greasing them and making them prominent. A most useful article. It can be applied by wetting in cold or warm water.

(Fitzgerald, 1881, p. 124)

Actresses picked up the use of water cosmetique/mascaro from actors but extended its usefulness by using it to darken their eyelashes. By 1900, it was being used by women in general as an eyebrow and/or eyelash darkener. As it gained wider acceptance mascaro became mascara. Universal acceptance of this new term was largely achieved in the English-speaking world by the end of the 1930s, with most cosmetic companies falling into line. However, some firms held out for longer. Rimmel was still using Eye Cosmetique in 1947, and Elizabeth Arden still referred to her eyelash darkener as Cosmetique until 1950. By this time there were a range of mascara formulations on the market and the word had completely lost its relationship with the moustache, beard and sideburns colourant used by men, becoming instead a generic term used for any pigment applied to eyelashes by women.

See also: Rimmel (post 1940) and Elizabeth Arden (post 1945)

Petrolatum cosmetiques

As a side note, I should mention petrolatum-based cosmetiques. These were made using petrolatum (petroleum jelly) by the Chesebrough Manufacturing Company, the American Oil Company and others. Chesebrough’s product was called Vaseline Cosmetique and American Oil’s was marketed as Densoline Cosmetique. Densoline Cosmetique was sold in sticks wrapped in silver paper but Vaseline Cosmetique was sold in tubes suggesting it was more like an ointment or cream. These petrolatum-based cosmetiques could be regarded as the successors to the older grease-based cosmetiques. Little is known about them but it is likely that they were also used to fix and/or temporary darken hair.

See also: Chesebrough Manufacturing Company

First Posted: 9th June 2011
Last updated: 29th August 2025

Sources

Cooley, A. J. (1866). The toilet and cosmetic arts in ancient and modern times with a review of the different theories of beauty and copious allied information social, hygienic, medical. New York: Burt Franklin.

Fitz-Gerald, S. J. A. (1901). How to “make-up”. London: Samuel French.

Fitzgerald, P. (1881). The world behind the scenes. London: Chatto & Windus.

Harrison, C. (1882). Theatricals and tableaux vivants for amateurs. London: L. Upcott Gill.

Piesse, G. W. S. (1855). The art of perfumery, etc.. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans.

Rimmel, E. (1855). The book of perfumes. London: Chapman and Hall.

Young, J. (1905). Making up. New York: M. Witmark & Sons.

Year-book of Pharmacy. (1892). London: J. & A. Churchill.