The Hidden History of Makeup: How Sex Workers Shaped the Beauty Industry

WORDS by VIOLA WEST

There have been pockets of time where a few mainstream brands dared to go against the grain and include sex workers in their campaigns or runway. Each time this occurs it’s a major win for the sex worker community–and communally, I like to imagine a big ‘fuck you’ to the negative stigma that plagues them. The most recent major win occurred this past Thursday, July 17th, 2025 when Urban Decay became the first global beauty brand to hire Ari Kytsya, a viral Onlyfans Star with 2.4 million followers on Instagram alone, to be their new brand ambassador for their “Battle the Bland” campaign. This was a major and defining moment for the sex worker industry not only because Ari is the first sex worker to work with a makeup brand, but also because sex workers have long been generalized to be void of opportunities such as these due to how they survive, thrive, and exist in a capitalist society.

The campaign itself was cleverly crafted to touch on censorship issues, something sex workers know all too well, and subtly justify the reasoning of their choice for choosing a figure like Ari: they’re tired of playing it safe. As the campaign suggests, ‘expression gets flagged. Conformity goes viral. Censorship is out of control.’ About time. Especially since sex workers were one of the first to wear makeup before they were excluded from credibility. Somewhere along the way, sex workers were booted from the right of ownership when it was technically an obligation to differentiate them from the rest of society.

Let’s go back to ancient Egypt where it has been recorded that as early as 4000 BCE women and men were using makeup in the form of kohl, crushed malachite, and rouge to show their status in society. Interestingly enough, this might have been the only time in world history where the rules played this way up until the 20th century. On the other hand, during ancient Egypt you had Abraham’s descendants who felt differently and had a more reserved attitude concerning women ‘adorning’ their faces as recorded in biblical passages such as 2 Kings 9:30, “Then Jehu went to Jezreel. When Jezebel heard about it, she put on eye makeup, arranged her hair and looked out of a window.” A few biblical texts touch on how the use of makeup is a form of manipulation. So, if ancient Egypt was very different from its surrounding civilizations, how did sex workers stand out in that time?

Turin Erotic Payprus- dubbed the world's first 'men's mag'.

Rendition of the Turin Erotic Payprus

While there is no definitive evidence on how sex workers were set apart from Egyptian society, there are preserved garments, figurines, and sheer articles from entertainers and dancers who could have also been sex workers that could have been worn or used to indicate their status in society.  Unlike in most historical contexts, there is no evidence that sex work was stigmatized in ancient Egypt. In some research, it's been wondered if they [sex workers], like other cultures, would wear heavier makeup as a way to stand out, but again, it wouldn’t have been necessary.

When we get to Ancient Greece and Rome, we can see how they shared similar values to the Jewish and Christian people of that time about makeup being a form of manipulation, vanity, and selfishness, according to the stoics. That’s not to say that women would not wear makeup at all. Instead of wearing no makeup, they could be credited to be the originators of the “no makeup” makeup look. White powder made from either lead or chalk was worn as face powder while rogue was occasionally applied to the cheeks and lips. If they really wanted to take it up a notch, kohl was used to line and darken the eyes. It is recorded that sex workers were the ones to wear full faces of makeup, and exaggerate it to stand out and attract their clients.

We see this trickling down to the Victorian era where more of the same values around women wearing makeup remained unchanged. Aside from ancient Egypt, makeup was worn by marginalized people: sex workers, entertainers, dancers, and such. It wasn’t until the 20th century that silent film stars began to wear makeup and catalyze the change of who in society was deemed acceptable to wear makeup.

Louis Le Prince, a French inventor, created a single lens camera in 1888 that captured moving images, and birthed the beginning of films. Fascinated by this new form of entertainment, everyone wanted more. This is where film stars and theatres began to emerge. What first started in Europe, began to be a form of entertainment in many different countries, especially the United States and more specifically,  Hollywood, California. But how did makeup become a factor in all of this? The necessity for makeup for silent film actors stemmed from lighting limitations which determined what the complexion of a person would look like. Since no one really is born with filtered skin and perfect lighting, makeup was used to create those effects.

As the popularity for the films grew, so did the actors and actresses who were a part of these films. If makeup was good enough and glamorous for Mary Pickford, Louise Brookes, and Gloria Swanson, then makeup could be good enough for all women. When Max Factor created one of the first pan-cake makeup compacts, and saw how marketable it was for the everyday woman, makeup as they knew it, changed forever. From here, many different beauty brands capitalized on it. What was once deemed only to be worn by outcasts of society, became a money making business. And well, we see where that has presently landed us: makeup is a multi-billion dollar industry.

If you think about it, makeup has only really been accepted by society for about the last 100 years. Before then, it was not something a woman of any sort of class besides ‘lower’ class would dare to be seen wearing proudly (subtly was okay for non sex worker women.) Sex workers were always the ones to wear it, and from what we’ve learned, as a societal obligation. Sex work was often a matter of survival, and because makeup marked them as such, wearing it meant stepping into visibility—and, by extension, into the class society had already chosen for them.

And yet, when makeup became a symbol of stardom, femininity, and eventually becoming a symbolic display for women’s liberation, it was stripped from sex workers' right to credibility. With that in mind and to bring it to the present, Ari Kytsya’s Urban Decay collaboration could be a way for makeup to make its way back to the very community that has never abandoned it, but was rarely allowed to own it.