Images, masks and faces.: Production and consumption of cosmetics in Ancien Regime Paris

This article is devoted to cosmetics, as a total object of history, in Early Modern era. It is based upon a corpus of unpublished archives which were analysed through qualitative and quantitative methods. We studied the materiality and the composition of the products, their intended effects and the gestures fit for their application, as specific, multiple and evolving "body technologies". We also cast light on the modalities of production. While the fabrication was formerly restricted to the domestic sphere, in relation with cooking and healing, the making of cosmetics became the realm of gloves and perfumes makers. In their laboratories and in their shops, these artisans contrived composite and hybrid technologies, perfectly adapted to answer the growing consumers' demand. As they gradually entered the world of goods, cosmetics were widely diffused in society: a new market emerged in the course of the eighteenth century, along with control policies by the institutions of the enlightened monarchy.