Where We Begin

Cosmetics, jewelry, perfume, and the care of the body are as old as humanity, and they appear all through Scripture — often without a word of blame, sometimes even as a picture of God's own tenderness toward His people. So the honest starting point is this: the Torah nowhere forbids a woman to make herself beautiful. The questions worth asking are gentler ones — about the heart behind it, about modesty, and about not letting the outside become more important than the inside.

House of Miriam tries not to be heavier than Scripture is. Where the written Torah draws a clear line, we keep it. Where it is silent, we hold these things as matters of conscience — offered here with the texts, the history, and the range of sincere opinion, so that each woman can decide before God rather than before other people.

What the Hebrew Scriptures Show (Old Testament)

Adornment is woven quietly through the Tanakh. It is described, celebrated, and occasionally used as a warning — but the warnings fall on the heart, never simply on the paint or the gold.

In Ezekiel, God Himself is the one who adorns His bride with jewels and fine things — a striking sign that ornament, in its place, is bound up with love and honor, not shame. The Song of Songs likewise delights openly in perfume, spices, and beauty (Song 1:3; 4:10–11).

And yet the same Scriptures keep the order right:

Beauty is not condemned here — it is simply put in its proper, passing place beneath the fear of the LORD. The one woman whose eye-paint is remembered darkly is Jezebel (2 Kings 9:30), yet even there the text does not fault the kohl on her eyes; it faults the wickedness in her house. Cosmetics were so ordinary in Israel that one of Job's restored daughters is named Keren-happuch — "horn of eye-paint" (Job 42:14).

Where the Torah Does Draw a Line — the Body Itself

The clearest boundary is not about makeup at all, but about permanently marking or cutting the body:

This is the verse most relevant to modern tattoos and body-cutting, and House of Miriam takes it plainly. Notice the distinction, though: piercings are treated differently. Nose rings and earrings appear in Scripture as gifts and blessings, not sins (Genesis 24:22; Ezekiel 16:12). A verse earlier, Leviticus 19:27 speaks of not rounding the hair of the temples or marring the beard — language aimed at men and at pagan mourning rites, not at a woman styling or trimming her hair.

So the Torah's own line runs between washable adornment (paint, jewelry, perfume — freely used in Scripture) and permanent marking of the flesh (tattoos, ritual cutting — forbidden). That distinction does a great deal of the work on this page.

What the Messianic Writings Show (New Testament)

Yeshua never spoke against cosmetics. What he pressed, again and again, was that the inside must not be neglected for the sake of a polished outside (Matthew 23:25–28). His apostles carried that same emphasis into their letters to women:

These passages are often read as an outright ban on braids, gold, and finery. But read that way they would ban clothing too (Peter names "the putting on of fine clothing" in the very same breath) — which no one intends. The plainer sense is one of proportion and emphasis: let the adorning you labor over most be the heart, not the mirror. A gentle spirit is the jewelry that never fades.

What the Cultures of the Bible Showed

The women of Scripture lived in a world that already knew cosmetics intimately, and knowing that world helps us read the texts without importing our own century's assumptions.

• Kohl (eye-paint). Dark eye-lining was near-universal across Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Canaan — worn by women (and men) for beauty and also believed to protect the eyes from sun-glare and infection. The Hebrew puk is the same substance named for Jezebel and in Jeremiah 4:30 and Ezekiel 23:40.
• Henna. The plant the Song of Songs calls kofer (1:14; 4:13) was used across the ancient Near East to stain the hair, palms, and nails a reddish gold — the ancient ancestor of today's manicure.
• Perfumed oils. Myrrh, spikenard, frankincense, and scented oils were part of ordinary grooming and hospitality, and are celebrated rather than frowned upon in the text.
• Removing body hair. Egyptian, Greek, and Roman women (and often men) removed body hair as a matter of grooming and custom. The Torah gives no command either way for a woman — it was, and remains, a cultural and personal matter.
• What is genuinely new. Acrylic and gel nails, modern makeup, chemical hair-dye, and salon grooming are recent inventions. Scripture cannot address them by name — which is exactly why they fall to principle and conscience rather than to a chapter-and-verse rule.

The Practical Questions — Gently Answered

None of the below is offered as a law binding your sisters. It is how House of Miriam reads the texts and the history — a starting point for your own prayerful decision.

• Makeup. No Scripture forbids it; kohl and cosmetics are simply part of the biblical world. Worn with modesty and without vanity, it is free. The caution is only ever about the heart, not the paint.
• Nail polish & false nails. Staining the nails is ancient (henna) and not forbidden. One genuine consideration is immersion (tevilah): for a valid immersion the water should reach the whole body, so many women remove polish or false nails beforehand. See Ritual Cleansing. Outside of immersion, this is a matter of conscience.
• Shaving & body hair. The Torah gives women no command to shave or not to shave. Legs, underarms, and the like are entirely a personal and cultural choice — no sin attaches either way.
• Hair — cutting, styling, colour. Trimming, styling, and dyeing the hair are not forbidden. The distinct question of covering the hair is treated on its own page — see Veiling.
• Jewelry & perfume. Both appear as blessings and delights in Scripture (Ezekiel 16; Song of Songs). Worn modestly, they are a gift, not a fault.
• Piercings. Ear and nose piercings are pictured positively in the text (Genesis 24:22) and are widely held to be permitted.
• Tattoos & body-cutting. These House of Miriam sets apart: Leviticus 19:28 forbids them plainly, and we keep that line.

A Documented Difference of Opinion

Sincere Torah-keeping women do not all land in the same place on adornment. Three honest positions are held across the wider movement — and within our own sisterhood:

Where House of Miriam Rests

We keep the one line the Torah itself draws — no tattoos, no cutting of the flesh — and beyond that we choose not to be stricter than the text. Makeup, nails, perfume, jewelry, styled hair, and the ordinary care of the body are not sins; they are matters of a modest heart and a free conscience. Adorn yourself, sister, or don't — but let the beauty you tend most carefully be the one that "in God's sight is very precious," the hidden person of the heart. That beauty never washes off and never fades.

This page draws on the Torah and the wider biblical text, together with historical and cultural sources on ancient cosmetics. Matthew Janzen's teaching does not specifically treat cosmetics; the framing here is House of Miriam's own, in keeping with our "written Torah first" approach.