I've been thinking about your idea of the history of make up and I think I may have been a little unfair with you. Maybe i was thinking more in terms of a wiki or a play but on reflection I think it might make a good book (I'm sure there is or are many on this subject already in existance)

You would need lots of illustrations.

Trace the history of make up from ancient cultures, (Cue a photo of an Australian Aboriginal Sahman in body

paint dancing at a religious ceremony)

Or History (cue a painted figure from Ancient Egypt)

Or theatre (Cue an actor in full Comedia Del Arte Make up)

Fashion (Loads of Models to chooses from )

Religion (Photos of Hindu Sadus with their faces painted blue and covered in flowers) Etc.

Not to mention protective make up (Mascara under the eyes was origionally used to dim the glare of the sun in the middle east.The mascara under the eyes to protect against the glare of the sun among Arab and Indian men or American football players)

Because painting one's face or body is as varied as painting anything else and is done for so many different reasons you could choose any one of those catagories and write a book on that, but I think a nice visual format would be interesting and certainly eye catching.

I look forward to seeing some of the photos. I'm sure you can download them from the net.

Cosmetic Surgery and how a procedure that was once denied and regarded with shame is now as acceptable as buying a new suit.

Post mortem make-up! from the Mummies of ancient Egypt to the dolled up corpses in todays under-takers.

You need something to hold it all together such as maybe the chemistry of make-up or maybe something more philosophical such as a quote from Elliot's poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock: ..."Prepare a Face to meet the faces that we meet.

What about teeth and the growing industry about orthodentistry