War Paint
By Not Sure
18 Jan 2026
For Alan Watt Redux 246 - "Times and Portents to Conjure
Terror" - Jan. 18, 2026
Alan Watt Redux 246 - “Times and Portents to
Conjure Terror”
“Bathe now in the stream
before you,
Wash the war-paint from your
faces,
Wash the blood-stains
from your fingers,
Bury your war-clubs and your
weapons,
Break the red stone from
this quarry,
Mould and make it into Peace-Pipes,
Take the reeds that grow
beside you,
Deck them with your
brightest feathers,
Smoke the calumet together,
And as brothers live
henceforward!”
The Song of
Hiawatha, I. The Peace
Pipe
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
There is a long history of
Native Americans applying paint to their faces and bodies before going into
battle. They did this for several possible reasons including camouflage, to
strike fear into their enemies, and to provide the wearer with supernatural
powers. Different colors had different meanings. Red symbolized blood and war,
but also strength and energy. Indian braves might wear red made from clay,
while yellow paint would be reserved for the chief, and would symbolize
bravery, and the willingness to finish the battle. Prepared to die.
As with Scottish tartans,
some patterns were reserved for specific individuals, families, and clans. In
the Great Sioux Nation, yellow represented the sacred and was associated with
the warrior’s strength, intelligence, and strong heart. The red ochre made from
clay was mixed with animal fat and plant binders and it has been suggested that
the Beothuk of present-day Canada used this to cover their entire bodies, as it
possibly had some kind of insect repellent quality. I’ve struggled to survive
summer in Canada where mosquitoes are the size of small birds. Had I known of
the repellent qualities of ‘redskin’ I would have happily applied this war
paint head to toe.
Red signifies fighting
prowess and hunting success. To the Seminole, it symbolized an irrevocable oath
of war. To the Lakota Sioux, it symbolized perseverance, purity, passion, and
wisdom. Black symbolized strength, victory, and power, and to the Sioux, it was
associated with the Wakíŋyaŋ, a thunder
being.
George Catlin, I-o-wáy, One of Black Hawk’s Principal Warriors, 1832,
oil on canvas, 29 x 24 in. (73.7 x 60.9 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum,
Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr., 1985.66.12
The Picts of Scotland were a
group of ancient people that lived in the northern and eastern part of Scotland
from the 3rd to the 9th century AD. The Romans described them with the
word picti which meant
‘painted ones’ in Latin. Historical writing sometimes refer
to this body ornamentation as a tattoo, but experiments have shown that the
woad dye lasts only a week or two before it becomes so faded that it almost
disappears. I haven’t tried this at home, but I’ve read that anyone injected
with woad paste or powder becomes very ill, so perhaps ‘painted ones’ is
exactly what they were.
Elsewhere, Tartan
Tinker has written about the Picts. Perhaps he will write a post for
us about some of his research.
Tattooed war paint would
take us to Africa and beyond where tattoos have been deeply significant and
symbolize spiritual protection and a spiritual shield during warfare and have
been used for tribal identification and intimidation. Interesting, but beyond
the scope of my piece.
It seems that ‘war paint’
entered English in 1826 from writers such as James Fenimore Cooper (The Last
of the Mohicans) and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (The Song of Hiawatha)
who used the term to describe Native American Indians preparing to go into
battle, but when did the term get applied to women and their use of makeup?
Shortly after the term was used by those writers, it was applied to women
figuratively; putting on their best clothes, preparing for a social event.
About twenty years ago, a
friend gave me book she had just read entitled War Paint: Madame
Helena Rubinstein and Miss Elizabeth Arden: Their Lives, Their Times, Their
Rivalry. I recall that it was a fascinating look at two early
twentieth century entrepreneurial women who built cosmetic empires. Helena
Rubinstein was a Polish Jew (b. 1872) who emigrated from Poland to Australia,
then to London where she married a Polish-born American journalist. They left
London for Paris, and she became famous for her intellectual salons which her
husband publicized. It was claimed by them that her husband, Edward William
Titus, published (in France) Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H.
Lawrence, which would face obscenity charges and would not be published in the
U.S. until 1960, but the book was first released in 1928, and Titus and
Rubinstein left Paris at the start of WWI, so this boast is questionable.
It is, however, the kind of
shocking claim they enjoyed making. One anecdote had a French ambassador at her
party who drunkenly said to Edith Sitwell, Vos ancêtres
ont brûlé Jeanne d'Arc! Rubenstein,
who knew very little French asked for that to be translated. “Your
ancestors burned Joan of Arc!” to which she replied, “Well,
somebody had to do it.”
Helena Rubenstein opened a
cosmetics salon in New York City in 1915 and from there developed her famous
‘Day of Beauty’ treatments.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth Arden
was born in Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada in 1881 to a Scottish father and a
Cornish mother. A wealthy Cornish aunt paid for her education, but she dropped
out of nursing school and met up with her brother who was living in Manhattan.
There she studied skin care, traveled to Paris to learn facial massage
techniques and opened her Red Door Salon in 1910.
Both women were keenly aware
of the association of cosmetics with the lower classes, actresses, and
prostitutes. Both pursued the pseudoscience of skin care, positioning their
services as something closer to a health service, slowly adding luxury
packaging, and muted color palettes. The extremely high prices of their
products also served to separate their products from the ‘cheap’ and ‘tawdry’
lipsticks of the working girls.
What follows in the book
(which I’ve not read in twenty years, and no longer own) is the story of an
intense and at sometimes bitter rivalry between these two women, both of whom
were ambitious businesswomen and social climbers. Helena put much of her riches
into collecting African and fine art and furniture. Elizabeth collected and
raised Thoroughbred horses.
In 2007, a documentary film
(The Powder & the Glory) was made about this rivalry and in 2016, a
Broadway musical premiered entitled War Paint.
Alan Watt has said that we
become enslaved by wanting things that we do not need. I think that makeup must
certainly fit that description. Kohl for lining eyes and brows, red ochre for
lips, and green antimony for eye shadow have historically been for high-born
women (and men). Pale skin has usually been a sign of the leisure classes for
only peasants in the field burned their skin to fade to brown over time.
Chinese women used rice powder to achieve a pale complexion. Roman women used
toxic white lead (ceruse) which could lead to paralysis and death. Women in the
Middle Ages used egg white and lead-based powder. The Greeks preferred a more
natural look, with no coloring on the face and a bit of crushed berries on the
lips.
Styles vary from location to
location, but henna is still in favor for hair and body decorations in India
and parts of the Middle East, dating back to ancient Babylon and Egypt.
Elaborate henna tattoos (Mehndi) which wear off and wash away are part of
traditional Indian weddings, signifying prosperity and good fortune for the
bride.
Ancient Egyptians used much
makeup, but it appears the application was for religious and high-born social
application. It was used during periods of Roman history but frowned upon by
some philosophers and the Stoics who saw it as deceptive and associated with
prostitution. Seneca praised his mother for never defiling her face with paints
or cosmetics. The Christian Bible disapproves of the use of makeup when it is
used to deceive, to mislead or manipulate, or as a vain effort to hide inner
corruption. Queen Jezebel painted her eyes to seduce and manipulate Jehu.
Pre-1917 Russia prohibited the use of makeup, and it was only used by
prostitutes and actresses. It was considered vulgar to wear makeup in Victorian
England.
I have read about a 1916 ad
that Helena Rubenstein ran, but I cannot find it:
"Is yours a
'war' face? Even if your social or professional life does not demand
it, your patriotism demands that you keep your face bright and
attractive."
I did find this
ad of hers from the Second World War:
Elizabeth Arden was no
stranger to wartime marketing either. She turned makeup into a symbol of
patriotic duty during World War II, and in 1941, she was commissioned by the
U.S. Marine Corps Women’s Reserve to create a custom cosmetic kit that matched
the red piping on their uniforms. The result was Montezuma Red,
a vibrant red lipstick, paired with matching cream rouge and nail polish, issued
as part of an official military kit.
The wartime message
became “beauty is your duty.” In the UK, Churchill’s
government used this slogan, and many companies used variants of it in their marketing
campaigns.
Women were encouraged to
maintain their appearance as an act of patriotism and morale-boosting. Wearing
red lipstick was seen as a defiant symbol of femininity, confidence, and
the “free society worth defending” especially since Hitler
disdained “made-up” women.
Elizabeth Arden released Victory
Red for civilian women in 1941, with the tagline “Keep
’em flying!”—further embedding red lipstick
into the cultural fabric of the war effort. Even when supplies were rationed,
women were urged to use their makeup wisely. Maintaining one’s beauty routines
became a form of emotional resilience and a sign of national unity.
Estée La
uder was
born in New York City in 1908 to Hungarian Jewish immigrants. She worked in her
parents’ hardware store, and later she learned the beauty business by working
for her uncle who was a chemist who made and sold creams, lotions, rouges, and
perfumes. She married Joseph Lauder in 1930, had a son named Leonard in 1933,
divorced her husband in 1939, remarried him in 1942, and had a second son named
Ronald in 1944.
Here is Mrs.
Lauder with the first Mrs. Donald Trump in 1986:
Estée Lauder passed away in
2004, leaving her sons Leonard and Ronald as the sole heirs to The Estée Lauder
Companies cosmetic fortune. Leonard was the CEO until 1999 and after that he
served as chairman emeritus. In 2013, Leonard promised his collection of Cubist
art (Picasso, Léger, Braque, Gris) to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a
collection valued at over $1 billion. When Leonard died in June 2025, his
estate was worth nearly $10 billion.
Leonard Lauder was a member of
the Council on Foreign Affairs. He was a trustee of the Aspen
Institute and the chairman of The Aspen Institute International
Committee. His son William is chairman of The Estée Lauder Companies. His son
Gary has been involved with the Aspen Institute since 1992 as a member and
corporate officer. He is a founding member of the Henry Crown Fellowship
Program (developing community-spirited, entrepreneurial leaders), part of the
inaugural class in 1997, and he serves on the Advisory Council of the Aspen Institute
Science & Society Program. He co-created the Socrates Society at the Aspen
Institute with his wife, Laura Lauder, in 1996, which was formed to encourage
dialogue among young leaders on technology and democracy.
Ronald Lauder is the second
son of Estée and Joseph Lauder. He started to work for the Estée Lauder Company
in 1964 as head of the international department which evidently qualified him
to become Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO
policy at the United States Department of Defense in the
Ronald Reagan administration.
Ronald is a
vocal supporter of the Likud party, and a long-time friend and supporter of
Benjamin Netanyahu. He has also been friends with Donald Trump for many years. The list of organizations that Lauder has
been associated with over the years is lengthy and includes the Conference of
Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Jewish National Fund,
the World Jewish Congress, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee,
the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Theological Seminary, Rabbinical College
of America, Brandeis University, and the Abraham Fund. (Source, Wikipedia)
Currently, Ronald is the
President of the World Jewish Congress, an international federation
of Jewish communities and organizations. The WJC’s initial purpose was to
defend the rights of Jews in the Diaspora, but it was always a strong supporter
of the aims of Zionism. Ronald has been president of of
the WJC since 2007, taking over the role from Edgar Bronfman, son of the
bootlegging rum-runner Sam Bronfman (Distillers Corporation Limited, Seagram
Company). Alan Watt talked about Sam Bronfman quite a few times in regard to
Prohibition and politics. He was the Canadian counterpart to Joseph Kennedy
during Prohibition. That’s a different story, though coincidentally makeup
became a powerful symbol of women’s liberation and modernity during the
Prohibition era (1920-1933).
In 2022, Mahsa Amini was
arrested for wearing her hijab wrong. She died from injuries that occurred when
she was detained (skull fractures and severe head injuries). Official reports
state that she died from a stroke or sudden heart attack, but
given that she was twenty-two at the time of her arrest, believing the official
account requires some credulity. At the time of her death, protests erupted,
with more than 500 deaths, and 20,000 arrests. Many women cut their hair and
burned scarves to show their outrage.
We’re told that the Iranian
protests that began in December of 2025 started over terrible economic
conditions and hyperinflation. Women are smoking on the streets of Tehran as an
act of defiance. It’s been nearly 100 years since Edward Bernays got women
smoking. Now these Torches of Freedom are setting fire to pictures of Iran’s
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. No doubt there’s plenty that is
protest-worthy, but it feels staged, nonetheless.
Ronald Lauder has repeatedly
called Iran the ‘world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism’ and fears what
could happen if they are allowed to develop nuclear weaponry. In his official
capacity as head of the World Jewish Congress he stated, “My thoughts are with
the people of Iran who are protesting a brutal and repressive regime. May all
those who have taken to the streets remain safe.”
Lauder has been the driving
force behind the idea of the United States acquiring Greenland. Since planting
the idea in 2018, (‘strategic’, ‘rare earth minerals for AI’) he has begun
investing there through Greenland Development Partners. Per https://www.arctictoday.com/ “Lauder
is a participant in Greenland Development Partners, a Delaware-registered
investor consortium that has bought into Greenland Investment Group — a company
with ambitions that stretch well beyond consumer products.
Greenland Investment Group has
expressed interest in bidding for a major hydropower project at Lake Tasersiaq, Greenland’s largest lake. The project is
envisioned as the energy source for a future aluminum smelter and, according to
company projections, could markedly increase the island’s export revenues and
boost the territory’s public finances.
The company is chaired
by Josette Sheeran, the former U.S. deputy secretary of state under
Condoleezza Rice (Aspen Institute) and former head of the UN World Food Programme.”
Check out Josette
Sheeran. She’s a piece of
work. UN, WEF, CFR, Haiti relief. But, she applies her
makeup with a light touch. Neutral colors, a soft palette. Her rouge is Icelandic
Saga, her eyeshadow is Inuit, her lipstick is Ultima
Thule.
©Not Sure
Additional reading:
Trump ally who inspired Greenland purchase idea
quietly invests in Greenlandic companies