A group of scientists from the University of Hawaii made international headlines last week when they claimed to have recreated the perfume of Cleopatra, Egypt’s legendary queen known for her allure. In Egypt, the local beauty sector has also been banking on “Pharaonic recipes” to compete with pricey international beauty brands.

The ancient Egyptian queens whose faces are seen on murals or well-known statues were not simply natural beauties — Cleopatra, Nefertari and Nefertiti had complex beauty routines that included honey, mud or goat's milk, and modern versions have been growing in popularity in Egypt over the last decade.

“I’ve done a lot of research on the beauty rituals of the pharaonic era and how the ancients used beauty products,” Hisham Hassanein, co-owner of the “Back to Nature” shop, told Al-Monitor. He explained that he came up with “100% natural beauty products" based on Pharaonic recipes.

Ancient Egyptians — both men and women — used burnt almonds to fill in their eyebrows, kohl to emphasize their eyes, milk and honey as face cream and beeswax for epilation and perfume. The discovery of King Nammer’s plate, a 3100 BC ceremonial palette that was used for mixing cosmetic ingredients, showed that both male and female royals used cosmetics.