Here’s how it goes, so you have fairly egalitarian hunting/gathering type societies (ur-communism), you’ll notice that in these societies makeup is used equally by pretty much all men and women or sometimes to denote specific roles (like religious official or similar) or particular activities (you paint your face a specific way at this particular festivity). Also interestingly cosmetics tend to be more “abstracted” during these periods (i.e. you’re not painting an idealized version of your face on top of your face, you’re painting your face half blue or what have you)

Then you have monarchies, peasants and lower class people no longer wear makeup, makeup is worn by all members of the aristocracy regardless of gender. Merchant class people may or may not wear some makeup. Ancient Egypt was an exception of course as at least eyeliner was used by nearly everyone (though Egypt being uniquely fertile and uniquely predictable allowed more luxuries for common people than elsewhere, and eye kohl both prevented infection and offered protection from sunlight). I am having trouble confirming the cosmetics practices of working people in ancient Japan, but I can say for certain aristocratic men and women did wear makeup, as there are accounts of Samurai rouging their cheeks before battle, as well as of the cosmetic practices of aristocratic women. I know that in ancient China aristocratic women did wear makeup, and we have little evidence on the cosmetics practices of working people and I am having trouble finding sources on what aristocratic men did or did not do (though I did find an interesting tidbit about nail color being used to indicate social class, with non-royals being forbidden to tint their nails ). In ancient India cosmetics were used by men and women, but I’m having trouble finding sources on how this related to class. Under the Aztec and Mayan empires it seems that cosmetics were used to indicate class by the color and design (and were relatively stylized, most feudal societies seem to do more “representational” types of cosmetics, where they paint an idealized version of a face) and were used by both men and women, though it does seem to have been used more readily by the upper classes (it’s often hard to find records on the stuff the underclass wore/what cosmetics if any they used, though apparently the Aztecs used red cosmetics of some sort almost universally)

After bourgeois revolutions you see makeup and adornment being shunned in line with bourgeois values (the victorian era for example, makeup being banned under Cromwell, the French revolution etc) and being seen as the realm of “disrespectable” women (read: Sex workers usually) but gradually coming back into general favor but only or primarily for women. Proletarian women wear more of it, lumpen prole men also may wear some at various points.

In Ancient Rome and Greece when they were closer to bourgeois democracies you see the same pattern of “generally frowned upon”, and “acceptable if used lightly” by women.

Obviously I’m extrapolating based on data points I have and will need to look for more examples and counterexamples world wide, but it is interesting. IDK exactly what it means but it seems to be like… repeatedly true, also I know I’m not separating “pre-feudal post ur-communism” from feudal very well… but those seem to have varied a bit some behaving more like feudal societies and some behaving rather like capitalist ones (in terms of cosmetics usage) which I think might have something to do with how those systems were shaped in terms of their states… I’m not even sure I’m precisely a Marxian historical materialist, but like the coincidence seems weird.

Here are some of my sources:
http://radicalanthropologygroup.org/…/…/pdf/pubPower_JCS.pdf

http://dlia.ir/…/Chemistry/QD_71_142_Analytical_…/014111.pdf

https://books.google.com/books?id=ckZhe0fdmaMC

https://www.amazon.com/Appearance-Sake-Histori…/…/1573562041

http://www.amazon.com/History-Costume-West-Fr…/…/ref=sr_1_1…

http://www.amazon.com/20-000-Years-F…/…/ref=pd_sim_sbs_14_2…

http://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Luxuries-Fragran…/…/ref=sr_1_1…

http://www.amazon.com/Cosmetics-Perfumes-Roma…/…/ref=sr_1_3…

http://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Eastern-Victori…/…/ref=sr_1_3…

http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Costume-Tradit…/…/ref=sr_1_1…

http://www.history.com/…/did-lead-makeup-poison-samurai-kid…

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2825132/
http://www.beautifully-invisible.com/…/nail-lacquer-blood-r