The Aztec's Cosmetics

Sahagun has left a description of the kind of make-up worn by fashion-conscious women, in particular by the courtesans who were the companions of the young warriors:

Their faces were painted with dry, colored powder;
faces were colored with yellow ochre, or with bitumen.
Feet were anointed with an unguent of burned copal
incense and dye. . . . Some cut their hair short, so
that their hair reached their noses. It was cut and
dyed with black mud~so did they place importance upon
their heads; it was dyed with indigo, so that their
hair shone. The teeth were stained with cochineal; the
hands and neck were painted with designs.

Perfumes, rose water and incense were popular, and a kind of chewing gum (made of chicle mixed with axin and bitumen) was used to sweeten the breath. As always, the appearance and manners of the young people did not meet with the approval of the older generation, and this father's admonition to his daughter has a familiar ring: 'Never make up your face nor paint it; never put red on your mouth to look beautiful. Makeup and paint are things that light women use~shameless creatures. If you want your husband to love you, dress well, wash yourself and wash your clothes.'

Men painted their faces and bodies on ceremonial occasions, but it is not certain whether the Aztecs followed the example of their Otomi neighbors who covered their arms and chests with tattooed designs. Sahagun reports, however, that the fifth month of the year was the time when incisions were made on the chests of children as a mark of citizenship or tribal identification.

Mirrors were made from pieces of burnished iron pyrites or from obsidian, a kind of black volcanic glass which was cut and polished into discs up to a foot in diameter. These were provided with wooden frames or with loops of cord so that they could be hung on the wall.