In the collective imagination, Cleopatra remains the queen of beauty. She is credited with a thousand secrets for preserving the radiance of her skin, and among them, perfumed baths hold a legendary place.
History and legend blend together here, as they so often do with the great figures of antiquity. What we know for certain is that body care was an art of state among the Egyptian sovereigns. Precious oils, milks, honey, flowers and rare plants made up a refined cosmetic tradition, where every ingredient was chosen for its virtues and for what it said about the rank of the woman who used it.
Wine, an ingredient fit for a queen
In the ancient world, wine was no ordinary drink. It was associated with the gods, with banquets and celebration, but also with beauty and health. Rare and precious, it embodied luxury. To use it in a bath, to blend it with milk and honey, was to treat oneself to the rarest of things. Tradition tells us that Cleopatra cared for her skin thanks to these sumptuous baths, where the softness of milk met the richness of wine.
She was not alone. Other great ladies of antiquity are said to have shared a taste for baths of milk and wine, the absolute symbols of refinement. Behind the gesture lay a sound intuition: the grape and its derivatives are good for the skin. What these queens sensed, science would confirm much later.
A queen's beauty is cultivated like a vineyard: with patience, sunlight and constant care.
Between myth and truth
Should we take all these tales of wine baths literally? The share of myth is real, and it would be dishonest to deny it. Ancient accounts have been embellished over the centuries, and the image of the queen bathing in wine owes as much to legend as to the archives. But beyond the anecdote, one thing remains true: since time immemorial, the grape has accompanied the beauty rituals of the civilizations that cultivated it.
This ancient bond between the vine and self-care has never disappeared. It passed through the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, when wine was already credited with virtues for the skin. It would take until the end of the twentieth century for it to finally find its scientific expression.
From legend to vinotherapy
The modern story begins in France, in the Bordeaux region. It was there that the meeting between the world of wine and research on grape polyphenols gave birth to vinotherapy, the discipline that puts the active ingredients of the vine to work for the skin. The ancestral gesture of the ancient queens became a measured, controlled treatment protocol.
Today's wine spa is the direct heir of this long history. When you slip into a bath with a deep garnet hue, you reconnect, in your own way, with a gesture that Cleopatra might well have recognized. To discover what science has confirmed of this royal intuition, read our feature on the benefits of wine for the body, and to understand how this legacy became a beauty industry, explore vinotherapy.