World's oldest skin whitening cream found in China

Researchers found the world's oldest lead-containing skin whitening cosmetics in a tomb of aristocrats who lived in China more than 2,700 years ago.

New findings show that ancient Chinese people used skin whitening cream nearly 300 years before the Romans. White residue was found in six copper jars buried in a tomb belonging to an aristocrat who lived in northern China during the early Spring and Autumn Warring States period (770-476 BC), Mail on September 6 reported.

The location where the jar containing the white residue was found in the grave.

Previously, experts believed that the Romans paved the way for the technology to produce skin-whitening creams. Research results show that they started using this cream around 500 BC, but the new discovery proves that the ancient Chinese pioneered the production of skin-whitening cosmetics. The team of archaeologists at the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) also emphasized that the white sediment may be older than the tomb.

Using lead as a skin-whitening cosmetic can cause a number of problems for users such as lead poisoning, skin damage, and even death. However, fair skin is highly valued and appears in many ancient Chinese artworks.

After the UCAS team analyzed the white residue, they found it to be cerussite, a lead carbonate mineral and an important lead ore. Cerussite is also toxic to the human body. "Although the date of lead carbonate does not coincide with the burial date of the tomb, the discovery still reveals the anthropogenic origin of the specimen," the team concludes in a report published in the journal Humanities and Social Sciences. They also identified lead chlorocarbonate phosgenite, in the powder, indicating that the artificial cosmetics were made by mixing two minerals.

Not only the Chinese aristocracy, the Japanese samurai also used cosmetics containing lead. A 2012 study found that children of the samurai class were severely lead-poisoned by cosmetics their mothers used and were deformed when they grew up.