She wasn’t the ravishing beauty depicted in movies. And she looked nothing like one of the most famous movie stars to ever play her - Elizabeth Taylor.
The truth is no one really knows with 100% accuracy what Cleopatra VII, ruler of Egypt for 21 years truly looked like.
But we can make a few guesses based on the bust and sculptures that were made of the Queen of Egypt.
One of the most prominent is a marble bust dating back to third quarter of the first century BCE, housed in Altes Museum in Berlin Germany.
The bust depicts her wearing a royal diadem (headband like crown), a symbol of royalty. Her face is framed with ringlets of curly hair, with the rest gathered in a bun at the back. She has large almond-shaped eyes, a somewhat sloped forehead with a prominent nose, perhaps slightly hooked.
Coins that are imprinted with her image are even less flattering almost similar to some of the nicknames, given to her. Cleo was one of her more common nicknames but others included “Golden Mouth” given to her by Julius Caesar, with some sources linking it to her reputation for having above average oral sex skills.
The Greeks had an even harsher nickname —"Meriochane," meaning "she who gapes wide for 10,000 men.”
Cleopatra had given herself her own nickname — the “New Isis," which most likely refers to a new incarnation of the goddess Isis.
Cleopatra —a pharaoh of Egypt, was known for her political acumen, diplomatic skills, and strategic alliances. It’s said she used her charm and “good looks” to form powerful bonds with notable Roman leaders like Julius Caesar and Mark Antony in order to protect Egypt's interests.
Not only was she strategic in her decision making, but also in accumulating a vast amount of wealth. That’s because as ruler of Egypt, she controlled significant industries like wheat, papyrus, and unguents, generating an estimated annual income of 12,000 to 15,000 Egyptian talents (a Biblical term to describe a large amount of money).
In fact it’s said that her net worth would be around $95 billion in today’s money. Yet there are also essays written about her as being ruthless, reportedly killing several family members in order to solidify her power and retain her stance on the throne.
Cleopatra was last in the line of Macedonian rulers of Egypt, the Ptolemaic dynasty, which was founded by one of Alexander the Great's generals. And she was the only member of her house to learn Egyptian, which made her popular amongst the people she ruled.
A Pharaoh’s Beauty Routine
Just like women today, Cleopatra used make-up to enhance her looks. She used kohl (galena or malachite) to create dramatic black or green eyeliner, emphasizing her eyes as a symbol of divine insight.
She would have worn red ochre or carmine (from crushed insects) to tint her lips and cheeks, applied with brushes or fingers. These vibrant hues signaled vitality and wealth.
Cleo was known to bath in donkey milk (imported at great cost) to soften skin, mixed with honey or aloe. The lactic acid in milk gently exfoliated, while fatty acids and antioxidants nourished and protected her skin from Egypt’s harsh sun. She reportedly required milk from 700 donkeys daily for these indulgent baths.
She also used face masks made from green grapes and honey. The antioxidants in grapes rejuvenated skin cells, while honey’s humectant properties locked in moisture and protected against aging.
And if that wasn’t enough, she used Dead Sea salts as a body scrub to exfoliate and replenish her skin with minerals like magnesium, calcium, and potassium. Oils infused with frankincense or rose kept her skin radiant, reinforcing her Isis-like aura.
To keep her teeth “pearly white,” — well as best she could, recipes back then included natron (sodium carbonate), salt, ground alabaster, and myrrh, mixed with honey or resin for binding. These were applied with fingers, twigs, or reeds with frayed ends.
Sounds like it could hurt but it was certainly better than letting your teeth rot away. And if you’re a mighty Pharaoh, the last thing you want is bad teeth (and breathe).
And that Dear Reader is your clue to what this issue is all about … toothpaste. It’s an industry poised to rise from a high mark of $18.7 billion back in 2023 to $25.7 billion by 2030.
It’s something you use every day. Yet you aren’t alone. Studies indicate that approximately half of the world's population, or 3.6 billion people, use it too.
Mystic Meanings to a Sugar Explosion
Although Egyptians are credited with creating the first version of toothpaste, they do so because they believed oral hygiene warded off spiritual impurities.
Of course they weren’t the only ones using some crude form of toothpaste. Chinese records dating back to 3000 BCE mention pastes of ginseng, herbal mints, and salt, used to freshen breath and “balance energies.”
Ayurvedic texts as far back as 1000 BCE like the Sushruta Samhita recommend twig brushes (datun) from neem or banyan trees, paired with pastes of charcoal, honey, and camphor. These weren’t just for cleaning—neem was believed to expel “demons” from the mouth, blending medicine with mysticism.
Then there’s ancient Greek records around 500 BCE suggesting Hippocrates promoted using herbal pastes with fennel, anise, or crushed oyster shells. Teeth were seen as health barometers—bad breath signaled bodily imbalance. Some Greeks mixed in mouse ashes, claiming it strengthened gums, a practice shrouded in folklore.
While these ancient civilizations were using some form of toothpaste, it was most always connected to some kind of spiritual belief and not necessarily to keep your teeth clean.
But things changed in the 1600s to 1700s when sugar was introduced to the world, mostly in Europe. It was seen as a status symbol and used in extravagant candies, such as comfits (sugar-coated seeds or nuts), and marzipan. Wealthy households served sugar sculptures or “subtleties” at feasts, showcasing their wealth.
It was also used in breads, cakes, and early pastries like tarts and pies, especially in elite kitchens. Recipes like “sack posset” (a sugary, boozy custard) became fashionable, coating teeth in cavity-causing residue.
Then there were the preserves, jams and jellies with spoonful’s of sugars. These sticky spreads, slathered on bread or eaten alone, lingered in mouths, fueling rot.
And of course it was used in beverages such as sugar sweetened tea, coffee, and chocolate. Sugar’s spread was almost mystical in its allure, dubbed “white gold.” Some 17th-century alchemists claimed it held “vital essences,” yet its dental toll sparked fear.
In fact a 1660s English pamphlet warned of sugar as a “sweet poison,” tying it to blackened teeth. Even dentists of the time such as Dr. Pierre Fauchard noted sugar’s role in tooth decay but faced tremendous pushback from physicians who praised its “healing” properties—a mysterious contradiction.
Heck even an unknown apothecary (or pharmacist) in 1680, concocted a sugar-free paste to “banish the black rot.” The problem with sugar was so bad that by the 1700s, consumption in England jumped from 4 pounds per person annually to 20 pounds by 1750.
Blackened, crumbling teeth—once rare—became common, even among the young. Diaries from the 1680s describe gentry with “rotted mouths,” and dental extractions surged.
English folklore linked sugar’s “sweet rot” to divine punishment for gluttony. Some preachers called it a “devil’s gift,” tying decayed teeth to moral indecency.
Interestingly enough, germ theory didn’t exist back then, so tooth decay was blamed on “humoral imbalances” or “tooth worms.” This then led to ineffective treatments like bloodletting or burning gums with hot irons, which worsened damage.
Tooth decay became a huge public health issue; something had to be done.
A Chemist to the Rescue
You’ll rarely find his name mentioned in chemistry textbooks, but Carl Wilhelm Scheele was a German Swedish pharmaceutical chemist. He was born in 1742 in Stralsund, a small town on the Baltic coast (now part of Germany) that at the time was under Sweden’s jurisdiction.
The son of a rather unsuccessful brewer and corn-chandler, young Carl developed a keen interest in chemistry and went on to become a good pharmacist.
After a series of moves around Sweden, Carl settled down for a few years in Uppsala. There, he met a prominent professor of Chemistry, Prof. Torbern Bergman, and together they embarked on a series of pioneering experiments to define the purity of saltpeter (potassium nitrate, also spelled ‘saltpetre’).
Carl started heating various substances, including mercuric oxide, potassium nitrate, silver carbonate, manganese nitrate, manganese oxide, and more, all of which resulted in the production of odorless and tasteless gases.
In truth what he actually discovered was oxygen. However Carl named this gas “Feuerluft” (fire-air), and unfortunately, did not report his discovery until 1777. But it was already too late because Joseph Priestly published his own independent discovery of the gas in 1775, noting it as oxygen.
That was not his only discovery. Carl went on to isolate for the first time many organic acids, among them tartaric, oxalic, lactic, mucic, uric, prussic, citric, malic (which he called “acid of apples”), gallic, and pyrogallic acids, as well as other organic substances such as casein, aldehyde, and glycerol.
And it was his discovery of glycerol in 1779 that would revolutionize the dental industry, particularly in the formation of toothpaste — one that actually worked.
In fact British apothecaries like the 1660s English pamphlet warned of sugar as a “sweet poison in London were central to formulating medicinal and cosmetic products, including “dentifrices.” Once the discovery of glycerol was made, they began incorporating it into toothpaste mixtures.
By the 1780s, recipes for tooth powders evolved into pastes, with glycerin as a binding agent. Certain British brands like “Dr. Bate’s Tooth Powder” advertised “secret ingredients” in their dentifrices, which likely included glycerin, sourced from soap-making (a byproduct of saponifying animal fats).
John Harris, a British dentist and apothecary, is credited with advancing dental care in the mid-1800s by adding chalk to pastes for gentler abrasion. His 1850s “Dental Cream” became popular all across London.
Other toothpaste brands began to pop up as well, and Europeans took to using them with enthusiasm.
As for the U.S., well … we were lagging behind in keeping our teeth clean.
Candles, Soaps and Building a Business
That’s because in the 1600s, most American colonists, especially in rural areas, had limited access to dental care. Tooth cleaning, if practiced at all, involved European-inspired methods: chewing twigs (like Native American “chew sticks”), rubbing teeth with rags, or using homemade powders of chalk, charcoal, or burnt bread.
However wealthy colonists in urban centers (e.g., New York, Charleston) used imported British or French tooth powders, which included glycerin following the same trends happening in Europe.
The problem in the U.S. was that colonies lacked the infrastructure for mass production of toothpaste remedies. It was left mostly to small time apothecaries who hand mixed small batches for local communities.
For many Americans, dental care was often handled by barbers or blacksmiths, who pulled teeth rather than prevented decay.
And just like what occurred in Europe also began to take place in the U.S.—rotting teeth from too much sugar consumption. With “black teeth” on the rise, one man seized the opportunity to change the fate of America’s dental health forever.
That man was William Colgate, born on January 25, 1783, in Hollingbourne, Kent, England, to Robert Colgate, a farmer and local politician, and Sarah Bowles.
At age six, the family moved to a farm near Shoreham, Kent, where young William grew up in a rural, agricultural setting. This early exposure to hard work and resourcefulness likely influenced his later entrepreneurial grit.
The family would have stayed in England if it were not for the political tensions brewing from the American and French Revolutions. In fact his father was quite politically active and outspoken and fearful of backlash, in March 1798, when William was 15, the family to Baltimore, Maryland.
As for work, Robert partnered with Ralph Maher to manufacture soap and candles, with teenage William assisting them. Unfortunately the partnership dissolved after two years, but the experience gave William hands-on knowledge of soap-making, which most likely was a precursor to his later work with glycerin-based products like toothpaste.
On the move again, the family relocated to Delaware County, New York, continuing their farming life. However at 21, William left rural life for New York City, where he apprenticed with a soap-boiler.
Two years after that apprenticeship was completed, in 1806 William Colgate founded a starch, soap, and candle business located at 6 Dutch Street in Manhattan.
William began as a sole proprietor, producing tallow-based soaps and candles, using skills he honed in his father’s failed Maryland venture and his New York apprenticeship.
He boiled fats in large kettles, a process that yielded glycerin as a byproduct, though its commercial use was limited back then. His business model emphasized quality and affordability, targeting both merchants and households. By 1807, he advertised “fine soaps” in local papers, building a reputation for reliability.
But sometimes things get in the way of what you want to do and, in his case, it was a war.
Saving America’s Rotting Teeth
The War of 1812 disrupted trade, raising tallow costs particularly for William’s business, but he adapted by sourcing local fats and maintaining low prices. It was also around this time that William partnered with Francis Smith, an already established businessman with connections to New York’s business leaders.
William renamed the company Smith & Colgate. Francis more than likely provided additional capital, expertise, and market connections to further scale production of the soaps his company made. William’s frugality—living modestly and avoiding debt—aided in keeping the business solvent.
But the partnership didn’t last long. Sometime in the latter half of 1813, William bought out Smith, renaming the business William Colgate & Company. He also reinvested profits to expand, moving to larger premises at 50 John Street by 1817.
By the 1820s, he employed a small team, including his brother Bowles, and began exporting soaps to the South and West Indies, capitalizing on New York’s trade hub status.
He also formally named his enterprise, Colgate & Company. He then began to expand the business into perfumed soaps and shaving creams, because there was growing consumer demand for grooming products.
But there was also demand for something else … something that would help prevent “black-teeth”—the scourge spreading across the country. In fact newspapers and medical journals reported rising dental issues, with dentists like Pierre Fauchard and later American practitioners linking sugar to cavities.
Even New York diaries written in 1820s describe the horrible “blackened teeth” seen among so many in the middle class who enjoyed sugary treats and drinks and could afford them.
By this time William’s business was mostly family owned and operated. His brother became his partner and his sons: James, Robert and Samuel helped with operations and manufacturing.
Realizing that soap production generated glycerin, his son Samuel urged his father to begin making a toothpaste that would allow people of all classes to keep their teeth clean, while at the same time preventing rot.
Wanting to stay close to their business roots of manufacturing soaps, in 1840 the company introduced “Dental Soap.” But it wasn’t really a soap, it contained chalk, a common abrasive to scrub plaque, and was gentler than earlier coral or pumice.
It also included finely ground soap flakes, derived from Colgate’s tallow-based soaps. The flakes were added to create a slight foam and cleansing effect. This gave the product its “soap” name, though the soap content was minimal to avoid a harsh taste.
And then a few flavorings such as herbs like peppermint, spearmint, or cloves. While somewhat successful, the powder form of Dental Soap was inconvenient—hard to apply precisely and prone to clumping.
While their Dental Soap was somewhat of a success, William’s son Samuel was determined to make an even better product. In fact when William passed away in 1857, Samuel took over as President while his brothers Robert and James managed operations and finances.
As President Samuel Colgate hired chemists (names unrecorded, as was common for proprietary work) to formulate the paste. The team experimented in Colgate’s New York facilities, using vats and mixing equipment adapted from soap production.
Developing the paste involved blending glycerin with abrasives and flavorings. Early attempts may have mimicked Colgate’s Dental Soap, adding glycerin for texture. The process required balancing abrasion (to clean teeth) with palatability (to avoid soapy tastes).
By 1873, Colgate used steam-powered mixers to produce large quantities of paste, a leap from hand-mixed powders. The paste was poured into glass jars, hand-packed by workers, and sealed for distribution. The put labels on each jar, which read “Colgate’s Aromatic Toothpaste.”
The brothers were smart enough to leverage Colgate’s soap distribution network (rail, ships), which enabled the toothpaste to reach urban drugstores and rural general stores, making it widely accessible.
They also ran ads in newspapers like The New York Times and Harper’s Weekly, targeting middle-class families. The ads promised “preservation of teeth” and “pearly smiles,” directly addressing sugar’s decay.
By 1875, thousands of jars were sold annually, cementing Colgate’s dominance.
Get Bigger, Get Better
And from that point forward, the toothpaste hits just kept coming and coming.
For instance:
* In 1896, Colgate introduced Colgate Ribbon Dental Cream, the first toothpaste in collapsible tubes. Those tubes were the invention of Dr. Washington Sheffield in 1892, with inspiration drawn by artists' paint tubes.
* In 1896, Colgate hired chemist Martin Ittner, establishing one of the first applied research labs. Martin’s work refined toothpaste formulas, improving stability and flavor.
* By 1900, Colgate offered over 800 products, including soaps and perfumes, manufactured in New York and in their new Jersey City facility, which they had opened in the late 1800s.
* In 1910, Colgate distributed two million tubes and brushes to schools promoting oral hygiene while also promoting their brand.
* In 1914 Colgate established its first international subsidiary in Canada, followed by France (1920), Australia, the UK, Germany, Mexico, the Philippines, Brazil, Argentina, and South Africa by the late 1920s.
* In 1928, Colgate merged with Palmolive-Peet, forming Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Company (renamed Colgate-Palmolive in 1953). Palmolive, founded by B.J. Johnson in 1864, made the world’s best-selling soap by 1898, using palm and olive oils. Peet Brothers (founded in Kansas City, 1872) merged with Palmolive in 1926. The 1928 merger combined three major soap makers, with pre-merger sales exceeding $100 million.
* In 1953, the company officially dropped “Peet” from its name, becoming Colgate-Palmolive Company. This reflected the dominance of the Colgate and Palmolive brands and simplified the corporate identity.
* In 1955, Procter & Gamble’s Crest, the first fluoride toothpaste, overtook Colgate as the U.S. market leader. Fluoride’s cavity-fighting properties (discovered in the 1900s) gave Crest an edge. Colgate countered by adding MFP fluoride (sodium monofluorophosphate) in 1968, regaining ground. By the 1970s, Colgate reclaimed the #1 spot.
* By 1939, sales hit $100 million, with toothpaste as a key driver.
In 2024, Colgate-Palmolive's net sales reached a record $20.10 billion, a 3.3% increase compared to 2023. Today, Colgate is the number one selling toothpaste brand globally, holding the largest market share.
A Legacy Born from the Power of Innovation
The story of Colgate-Palmolive, from William Colgate’s modest soap and candle shop in 1806 to the global toothpaste titan it became by 2024, is a testament to entrepreneurial vision and relentless adaptation.
Born in an era when sugar’s “sweet poison” ravaged teeth across Europe and America, Colgate seized the opportunity to combat decay with innovation. From the gritty Dental Soap of the 1840s to the groundbreaking Aromatic Toothpaste in 1873, the company harnessed glycerin—a byproduct of its soap-making roots—to create a smooth, effective paste that transformed oral care.
Their story also underscores the power of turning adversity into opportunity, a lesson that resonates beyond the toothpaste tube. It also invites us to build with purpose, persevere through setbacks, and create products that not only meet needs but shape lives.
Amazing Quotes by Amazing People
“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” — Steve Jobs
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