For years, classical Greek sculpture was believed to be a perfectionist fantasy - an impossible ideal, but we now think a number of the exquisite statues from the 5th to the 3rd Centuries BC were in fact cast from life - a real person was covered with plaster, and the mould created was then used to make the sculpture.
For the Greeks a beautiful body was considered direct evidence of a beautiful mind. They even had a word for it - kaloskagathos - which meant being gorgeous to look at, and hence being a good person.
Beauty was frequently a competitive sport. Beauty contests - kallisteia - were a regular fixture in the training grounds of the Olympics at Elis and on the islands of Tenedos and Lesbos, where women were judged as they walked to and fro
There was even a contest in honour of Aphrodite Kallipugos - Aphrodite of the beautiful buttocks, where women were judged based on their butts
Let's try Ancient Rome! Beauty masks and makeup
:
To keep their skin beautiful, women put at night a mask called tectorium (traditionally invented by Popea, Emperor Nero's wife), which they would remove the next day with milk. They exfoliated their bodies by smearing olive oil and then applying calcium carbonate or with pumice stones. Then they rinsed the mixture with water or with scented oils (cedar, myrrh, pine, lily, saffron, quince, jara, violet or roses). Women had to be careful with cosmetics because applying them too much was considered only proper for lupae (prostitutes)
The most used cosmetic was colour for the cheeks, which was considered healthy (although Plutarch advises to not use too much)
Long eyelashes were considered very beautiful (from the writings of Pliny, some women were totally obsessed with them). Eyes were shaped as big as possible with black antimony powder
Anything sounds familiar?
I stand by the statement. Not much has changed the last 2000 years