BEIJING, Aug. 26 -- It's difficult to trace the history of makeup, and even harder to find out when women in Shanghai started to use cosmetics. But it's common that ladies all over the world are desiring to make themselves more beautiful.

    From ancient times to the present day, women have been sitting down in front of a mirror to put on makeup.

    Around 1840, cosmetic products such as powder and rouge were usually handmade in family-run firms. The quality was low and couldn't be guaranteed.

    Later in the second part of the 19th century, Lao Miao Xian became one of few beauty stores in old Shanghai to sell women's cosmetics. It enjoyed the same fame as Kong Feng Chun in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, Yue Zhong Gui in Suzhou and Xie Fu Xiang in Yangzhou, both in Jiangsu Province.

    Those stores were also known as "fragrance powder store" by people at the time. But they were still not able to compete with foreign cosmetics imported from Japan, Europe and the United States since the 1870s.

    In the era before today's state-of-the-art cosmetic products, there were not many choices with different functions. There were either no products designed for women in different ages. In the makeup boxes of most women at that time, there were probably merely a basic cream lotion, a box of fragrance powder, a lipstick and a bottle of perfume.

    In the 1930s-40s, cosmetics were mainly used for skin whitening as well as hair blackening and smoothing. For skin care, women used cream in winter and fragrance powder in summer for hair care, hair tonic and Vaseline oil were widely used.

    At the beginning of the 20th century, the establishment of Guang Sheng Hang was considered to open a new era for the Chinese cosmetics industry. One of the products that first became well-known was their Shuang Mei (Twin Sisters) toilet water, which was similar to perfume.

    Gradually, Shuang Mei lotions, cosmetic powders, perfumes and hair tonic also gained popularity in Shanghai.

    In 1925, Shuang Mei cream lotion even overtook Hazeline, which was imported from Britain and had taken up the major share of the market in Shanghai for a long time.

    The whole 1930s can be regarded as the flourishing time of Guang Sheng Hang, with the annual turnover averaging around 5 million yuan (700,000 U.S. dollars). Now Guang Sheng Hang has turned into today's successful Shanghai Jahwa.

    Since the 1930s, different cosmetic brands had been imported from Europe and the United States. American brands Max Factor and Cotex, Bourjois from France and 4711 from Germany were among the most popular in Shanghai at the time.

    "What made people deeply impressed was Max Factor," says Jiang Jinling, 88. "It attracted so many people because of its successful marketing and advertising strategies.

    "It was a brand that showed up most frequently in the lifestyle magazines at the time," recalls Jiang. "People were fascinated by the images of Hollywood film stars in the advertisements."

    Although many other foreign cosmetic brands were available in Shanghai, such as Elizabeth Arden from the US, they were so expensive that only few people could afford them, according to the elderly.

    "At that time, a perfume was regarded as the best gift for a young lady," Jiang smiles.

    All the cosmetics, he says, were available in big stores. "Like the four big department stores on Nanjing Road E., namely Sincere (established in 1917), Yong'an (1918), Shin-Shin (1926) and Da-Shin (1936)," says Jiang.

    At the same time, domestic cosmetics were also trying to catch up. With the development of the productivity of Chinese cosmetics in the 1940s, lower price and good quality became the biggest advantages of domestic cosmetics.

    "A local cream called Die Shuang (Butterfly Lotion) was very popular in Shanghai during the 1940s," recalls Ren Ci, Jiang's wife. "It was named after a famous actress in old Shanghai, Hu Die (1907-89)."

    Meanwhile there were other local brands of skin-care products, such as Ya Shuang and San Hua (Three Flowers).

    In the 1930s, besides lipsticks and ordinary fragrance powder, women in Shanghai started to pursue long and curly eyelashes. They also tried to form dark eye sockets by using dark-color eye shadow.

    Even for today's young people, they are still using some brands from the 1970s-90s, which they recall from their childhood, such as Maxam cream lotion, Yu Mei Jing lotion, Hai Er Mian lotion and Queen Pearl Cream.

    Most of them were produced by Shanghai Jahwa which once dominated China's domestic cosmetic markets for a long time. Local brand Shanghai Sofea also became famous at the beginning of the 1990s.

    "Yeah, of course, I remember Hai Er Mian lotion," recalls Zheng Yin, 27. "It has a very sweet smell, and the box looks like a mushroom. I think it was the most popular skin-care lotion for children in the 1980s. Almost all the kids at the time used it."

    (Source: Shanghai Daily)