The more things change, the more they stay the same. Tens of thousands of years before skin care routines started popping up on social media, Neanderthals — our supposedly brutish, decidedly unglamorous evolutionary cousins — were wearing makeup and even jewelry. This discovery was made by archaeologists working in Spain who excavated oyster shells covered in an “attention-grabbing” colored pigment. 

The pigment was made of minerals including hematite, charcoal, lepidocrocite, and pyrite, which gave it a shimmering, glitter-like appearance that the researchers believe was also used on the body due to its cosmetic effect. The oyster shells were found with holes cut in them, suggesting they might have been worn as necklaces.

The University of Bristol’s João Zilhão, who led the study, described the makeup to NPR as “something that people wear in order to convey what they are… in a world where you have a complex network of relations” — a means of self-expression rarely associated with Neanderthals. The shells, which were 50,000 years old, wouldn’t look entirely out of place today.