We live in an age where new cosmetic brands and products are created seemingly every other day. There can be few people who haven't had the experience of flicking through a magazine in a hair salon only to find so many products that you've never even seen before. To try and make sense of what's hot and what's not, I like searching for information on new cosmetics and going through beauty pictorials whenever I have spare time. Plus, I like going to department stores, drug stores and road-side beauty shops, even when I don't have anything particular to buy.

But, amid all this abundance, I've often wondered where did the first cosmetics come from? You might have heard the folk history that "mascara was first inspired by a man who got the idea of mixing up Vaseline and coal powder to apply it to the lashes of his sister for her date." Today, I want to share with you some interesting stories about how cosmetics were first made, including mascara.

One of the most popular cosmetic items with tourists to Korea is the mask sheet pack. You can see how popular this item is for yourself if you head to Myeongdong, where the road-lined shops stack mask sheets in packs of 10 and 20 which are willingly snapped up by passers-by. Mask packs made in Korea are particularly popular among travelers to Korea on account of their high quality, great functionality and comparatively reasonable price. But, when was the mask pack first made?

There are many stories about the origin of the mask pack, but the most believable is the one that says it was derived from a skincare method used by women in Ancient Rome. Makeup was already popular and common in the Roman period and women in those times actively shared and developed various beauty techniques, including powdering, shaving and hair dressing. The quality of the makeup formula they used on the face at the time was coarse compared to present-day ones and they caused the skin to become damaged and rough. So, women in Rome had to make quite an effort to repair their damaged skin.

Their method to soothe and smooth facial skin was to use various materials such as wet or steamed dough of wheat flour or bean flour and bread soaked with donkey milk. It was this method which became the origin of the present-day mask pack. Believing that the more ingredients you mix, the more effective the face pack becomes. They also used ingredients like wine dregs, salt, antlers, dry rose petals, root of narcissus, beans, eggs, and even lumps of dirt.

Today, there are many women who put a deposit down at their favorite nail shop to get regular nail treatments. During the summer months, many women get pedicures so that they can wear sandals and open toe shoes with confidence. The gel nail products, which have been developed recently, have reduced drying time and made it easier to create colorful nail art.

Did you know that in ancient times nail care was only for aristocrats? The origin of nail care can be found in the word "manicure", which we use for nail polish. It is derived from the two Latin words, manus (hand) and cura (care), meaning 'nail care'. So, the word manicure at the time meant nail care and included the whole service from removing cuticles, to trimming nails, massaging hands and coloring.

The roots of nail care can be traced back to Ancient Egypt and China, around 3000 B.C. It was popular among royalty and aristocrats. In Egypt, they dyed their nails with orange or red dyes called Henna, which had been extracted from a shrub. Red was used for higher class royalty, while lower-class people were allowed to use pale colors.

In Ancient China, it was popular to grow safflower, which was used as rouge and nail polish, called "chaohong." To fix the extract onto the nails, people mixed it with honey, egg white or rubber tree sap. Aristocrats who lived around 600 B.C wore gold colored outfits with nails painted in gold or silver. During the 17th century, upper class people often had nails as long as 5 inches (1.27cm), which they decorated with gems or bamboo to symbolize their wealth.

Eyeliner is one of the makeup items that have been used both for magic and beauty. Burnt willow branches, vegetable dye and various chemical ingredients were used to make the eyes look deeper and bigger. In Ancient Egypt, eyeliner was worn by men, women and children to protect their eyes from the scorching sun and repel insects. For the ingredients of the eyeliner, they used dough made from galena powder mixed with oil. We now have the relics of cosmetic jars they used to store them.

Even today, new types of eyeliner such as pencil and liquid types are being developed and launched. Gel eyeliner has become one of the most popular new types of eyeliner with women, as it offers soft texture and stays long on the skin without smudging. As it's especially used for performance makeup, it is seen as an essential item for girl idol groups and athletes. In Korea, it became instantly popular as the figure skater Kim Yu-na's favorite item.

But do you know this much-loved item was born from a carelessly packed bag of a makeup artist? The renowned makeup artist Bobbi Brown, which is also the name of the leading brand of the company ELCA, was asked to shoot for the Architectural Digest during her visit to Colorado. Brown went to do her makeup and, when she opened her bag, she realized she had no eyeshadow or brushes. But, she had mascara in the bag! She put mascara on, but it was not enough to make her look awake. So, she dipped a Q-tip in the mascara to line her eyes.

Surprisingly, the eye lines drawn with mascara liquid looked nice and felt easy to use. Brown adapted the idea of an inkwell on her desk to create gel eyeliner by pouring a gel based formula into a little glass jar. The gel eyeliner soon became one of the best-selling makeup products, and various other brands have now researched and developed gel based eyeliner to bring upgraded, easy-to-use products to market.

Nowadays, perfume is no longer seen as a luxury for women or men. Many people use it as part of their daily routine and look for one that matches the season or their own image. Alongside cosmetic brands, fashion brands and celebrities also bring out new fragrances which embody their identity.

Perfume was originally used for religious ceremonies in the form of incense. The French word parfum is derived from the Latin word per meaning "through" and fumare meaning "smoke," which shows the close relationship of perfume to religious ceremonies. There are different views about the origin of perfume, but if you take the view that it was derived from incense burning ceremonies, the most plausible view is that the Hindu country of India in the Pamir Plateau was the birth place of perfume.

In Ancient Greece, they burnt scented herbs to treat disease with scents and Egyptians applied oil mixed with perfumes to their entire body to protect the skin from strong sun. The ancient Arabians took it to the next level by developing a perfumery of extracting fragrances through steam distillation. The rose water made in Arabia spread to Europe through the Crusades and became extremely popular within Europe as a symbol of aristocratic culture.

In Korea, we have historical records showing that the monks sent from Goguryeo and Baekje to China imported perfume to Korea in the years 372 and 382 CE, respectively. Later, people put this perfume into a small pouch to carry it in their body in the Shilla period, when it became popular with noble ladies.

Perfume as we currently understand it first came out around 1370 in Hungary. The Hungary Water, a distilled perfume which was made at the command of a Queen of Hungary, was the first alcohol based perfume. Since then, the perfume industry has gradually evolved and the number of perfume-crafting ateliers, perfumers and perfume specialty stores have increased, with Italy and France becoming the center of the perfume industry. Perfume went on to enjoy huge success during the reign of the "Sun King" Louis XIV in the 17th century.

The Grasse region of France, which is known as the home of perfume making, was one of the places where the perfume industry blossomed at the time. The perfumes made there from materials like orange blossom (neroli) and hyacinth gained huge popularity. Various extracts like bergamot oil, orange oil and rosemary were used as ingredients for perfume. Perfume remained the exclusive preserve of aristocrats. However, since the mid-19th century, chemical synthetic compounds were developed for use as ingredients in perfume, which enabled the mass production – and consequent popularization - of perfume. This is how perfume has come to take its present form.

Looking back on the history of cosmetics, I can't help but think that people in Ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt, China and Korea must have been very sophisticated in terms of their makeup rituals. I hope AMOREPACIFIC also will be able to become the origin of various products, just like it created the revolutionary product, the cushion.