The story goes that as Princess Shouyang lay beneath a tree one day, a plum blossom fell on her forehead, leaving a floral imprint. It so impressed the court ladies that they made pink paper cuts of plum blossoms to paste on their own foreheads. This practice became widespread in the Tang Dynasty when appliqués came in various designs -- flowers, fans, and ox horns -- and different materials -- gold foil, shells, isinglass, and green bird feathers. Some women painted dragonfly wings and cut them in various patterns.

At the corners of the mouth and on the lower part of cheeks were two dots. Usually pale in color, they were called painted dimples. Applied to cover up blemish if any, it is preferred by girls today for the magic.

Adornments on the temple were originally a device used by concubines and court ladies to indicate to the emperor that they were menstruating, but later became a standard cosmetic feature. Initially, soybean-sized dots were applied, but later different shapes came into vogue, most notably a crescent linking cheek to ear. Some even rouged it in the shape of a scar. It's appearing once more on girls' face today.

Tang women traced eyebrows in different shapes. Some are by no means aesthetic today. But the long, narrow, and curving "willow leaf" eyebrows survived.

In the Tang Dynasty, young girls loved to rouge the cheek with red paint, resembling blush. With the resurgence of the Tang style fashion, Chinese women of today are again opting for rosy cheeks.

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