Homemade Kohl Recipe – Edwardian Black Grease Paint

Homemade Kohl Recipe - Edwardian Black Grease Paint

Black grease paint was used in the Edwardian era as alternative to liquid eyeliner to accentuate the eyes. Grease paint was usually sold in sticks covered in paper, sometimes protected by a cardboard tube. Grease paint sticks looked like wax crayons (here’s a picture of 1930s stick grease paints). This Edwardian black grease paint recipe is from 1916.

DIY Grease Paint Paper Wrapper

Diy edwardian kohl paper banderole

Because Edwardian grease paint came in stick form like wax crayon in a paper sleeve, I designed a paper wrapper in Word with a fictional company name inspired by Stein’s grease paint sticks, and printed it out. Then I rolled the paper around a pencil – you can also use a skewer – and glued the banderole together with DIY wheatpaste. Then I made a paper funnel to fill the black grease paint into the paper wrapper.

Edwardian Black Grease Paint Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 1 part lampblack (or black iron oxide)
  • 1 part almond oil
  • 3 parts cocoa butter

Homemade Mascara Eyeliner Kohl Kajal Recipe

Triturate lampblack ‘to a smooth mixture with the oil; then add to the melted cacao butter’ (Henley’s Twentieth Century Formulas, Recipes And Processes, 1916). I melted all together: cocoa butter, oil and lampblack. As soon as it’s melted, use the paper funnel to fill the grease paint into the paper banderole.

Here you’ll find my tutorial for DIY almond kohl and more recipes for homemade kohl, grease paint, mascara and eyebrow dye.

Edwardian Black Grease Paint Recipe

14 thoughts on “Homemade Kohl Recipe – Edwardian Black Grease Paint

  1. This is so interesting. Seeing the kind of ingredients that you use for these homemade makeups you’ve been making really makes me think about what kind of ingredients are in shop brought cosmetics too.

  2. I love the recipe! Thanks! But the paper wrapper is closed at the bottom? Sorry but i can’t imagine how to refill ir…

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