Tom Medvedich
Egyptian blue is believed to have been the first synthetic pigment ever created, in the history of all the world, ever. The Romans called the deep, clear hue caeruleum; to the ancient Egyptians it was, and still is, hsbd-iryt, which translates to “artificial lapis lazuli.” They used it in any and all decorative or creative pursuits?to color canvas and scarabs, to stain statues and wood?from the third millennium BC onward, before the secret to its creation was lost at the end of the Greco-Roman period.
Cut to 2016: We’re now able to determine the exact composition of the long-lost pigment, and we’ve coined 65 other Wikipedia-recognized varieties of blue to go along with it. We associate blue with stillness, Pablo Picasso, jeans, “Blue Velvet,” Ol’ Blue Eyes, and sadness more or less directly related to the existence of the Blue Man Group. Not to cut the Cultural Significance of the Color Blue lesson short or anything, but there’s one blue thing in particular we’d like to bring your attention to. It is very, very relevant to our interests.
Blue tansy is a flowering plant, a close cousin of soothing, anti-inflammatory chamomile. It produces yellow flowers, but due to the high azulene content, the plant’s actual essential oil is a true, rich blue.
This may have something to do with why it’s quickly become a popular, borderline culty ingredient in skin-care formulations?namely, oil blends intended to...