It turns out, she says, that "there's much more to eyeliner than meets the eye." Hankir's account starts in ancient Egypt and spans much of the world, where people of all genders line their eyes.

For centuries people have used cosmetics to enhance or decorate the human figure for aesthetic or religious purposes. The earliest archaeological evidence of the use of cosmetics can be traced back to ...

In ancient Egypt, both men and women used to wear eyeliner for spiritual and medicinal purposes. They believed that wearing kohl could help guard them against the evil eye and honour the gods.