Brief History of Cleansing

our oldest ritual

Beauty rituals have been a feature in human nature since the dawn of recorded history. While being primarily a privilege of royalty, aristocracy, and the upper classes until the 20th century, the acts of cleansing and caring for the skin and body have progressed with us through the ages, the remnants becoming tenets of modern skincare and beauty regimes. Delving into this history allows us to understand the nature of self care and indulgence that has transcended time, suggesting these aspects of ourselves to be inherently human.

Cleansing, or cleaning, is an old ritual of ours. In prehistoric times this consisted of using water, a symbol of life and cleansing in all regions and cultures, to rinse dirt and grime from the skin. Neanderthals have left us cave paintings depicting men without beards, suggesting the removal of facial hair, most likely for hygiene to avoid bacteria and parasites. They also left us some of the earliest hygiene artifacts in the form of combs and supposedly used seashells for tweezers. Much later, around 2800 BC, the Babylonians recorded the first recipes for soap on clay tablets, consisting primarily of water, ash, and animal fats. The Sumarians followed around 2000 BC and began incorporating plant oils like cassia oil.

Legend, however, attributes the invention of soap to the Romans at the base of Mount Sapo, where the women noticed that the Tiber River was frothy from the animal sacrifices made atop the hill. While the Romans were certainly known for their hygiene practices, creating massive aqueducts, famous bathhouses, and intricate plumbing systems, the claim of inventing soap isn’t true as this anecdote comes from 100 BC.

Camille Pissarro - Woman Bathing Her Feet in a Brook, 1895

Cleopatra, 69-30 BC, is famous for her bathing rituals. It is said she soaked regularly in donkey milk (for which she kept a stable of over 700 donkeys) and used olive oil and beeswax to cleanse her face. From here soapmaking became the primary form of hygiene and ritualistic cleansing for the skin, becoming ever more popular with the addition of essential oils for fragrance. The Silk Road became the primary route for the transfer of goods and knowledge, not only for the distribution of soap recipes, but also for the distillation techniques of essential oils. The French began to experiment further, crafting a wide range of scents and recipes, and the first recorded bar of soap from saponification (a process that converts fat, or oil, into soap with aqueous alkali) was in 1791 in France.

Progress in soapmaking continued throughout the 19th century, traversing all parts of the globe. William Colgate started producing his soaps in 1806 in New York, followed shortly thereafter when William Proctor and James Gamble created Proctor & Gamble in 1837 in Cincinnati. Meanwhile, in Milwaukee, the BJ Johnson company created their hit product Palmolive by incorporating palm and olive oils into their soap. Such a success, they renamed the company after the soap itself.

While excellent for the evolution of hygiene, soap was, and is, known to dry the skin, providing little in regards to protection and rejuvenation. The “squeaky-clean” feeling that soap (and even some modern day cleansers) touted actually left the skin with less of the natural “good” oils that it needs to stay healthy and hydrated. Oil cleansing was indeed used by the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians where they would use tools called strigils to remove the oil and dead skin cells from the body, however with time it fell out of favor with the proliferation of soap. Surely not aware of the benefits on the microbiome of the skin, they were providing their skin with the nutritious fatty acids of the oils they used (primarily olive, but also sesame and argan).

During the 20th century there was an explosion of cosmetic products on the market due to the advances in chemistry and the proliferation of chemical companies coming out of WW2. While not always consisting of the safest ingredients, “facial cleansers” began incorporating synthetically derived ingredients such as surfactants, emollients, and emulsifiers that were also not ideal for supporting the skin. Then in the 1970’s, 80’s, and onwards the “natural” skincare market began to slowly grow, really gaining steam in the late 2000’s.

Today there is an abundance of choice for facial cleansers. So much so, it can oftentimes be difficult to choose, however we adhere to the philosophy that good products should be simple in concept. We enjoy the timeless classics, providing beauty rituals that are gloriously indulgent, grounding, and comforting to the skin. Our Rituel de Maison Restorative Cleansing Oil was created for exactly this reason. Learning lessons from the past and incorporating the latest in cosmetic plant science, we humbly like to think that it is a product that Cleopatra herself would relish in during one of her decadent milk baths.