This section in our inaugural Issue 0, “The Power of the Femme,” is dedicated to the rituals of Ancient Egypt.

Ancient Egyptian queens were goddesses on Earth, and the people of the Nile believed their rulers to be divine. The rulers cultivated their otherworldly beauty—they soaked in milk-and-honey baths until their skin puckered, and painted their lips blood red with ochre. They dusted precious saffron on their cheeks, donned bobbed wigs, and darkened their eyebrows with burnt almond.

Like the queens, Egyptian cosmetics blurred the line between this life and the next. Explorers have excavated mummies still perfumed by cinnamon, which the Egyptians called “sweet wood” and imported from India. Henna, whose seeds were simmered in olive oil then crushed to dye hair and skin, was thought to have an odor so potent it could raise the dead. But Cleopatra and Hatshepsut trusted their rituals to nourish their Earthly bodies as well: the kohl they layered around their eyes had antibacterial properties and reduced glare from the scorching sun. Honey, too, fought infection, and lactic acid in milk healed the skin. The queens sipped cardanon mixed with wine to soothe digestion, and chewed frankincense like gum.

Many of our most haute trends have trickled down from the ancients—silky bobbed hair, delicate floral scents, a dramatic cat eye, or an exfoliating sea salt scrub.