A Defence of Cosmetics

"A Defence of Cosmetics" is an essay by caricaturist and parodist Max Beerbohm and published in the first edition of The Yellow Book in April 1894.

When it was published, "A Defence of Cosmetics" was singled o" for vilification as "decadent", and subsequent issues of The Yellow Book containing his work were condemned by the establishment.

Delighted with the essay, William Rothenstein wrote to Beerbohm, "...all my friends chuckled over your dear cosmetics as they read & reread them.

To Lord Alfred Douglas, Oscar Wilde wrote: "Max on Cosmetics in the Yellow Book is wonderful: enough style for a large school, and all very precious and thought-out: quite delightfully wrong and fascinating".

Wilde, appreciating Beerbohm's wise but ironic manner, commented that "The gods bestowed on Max the gift of perpetual old age".