Farther than stars said:
Except that wives to construction workers and miners didn't belong to the social class that wore make-up. Also, the idea that 'women would have more time' is a fairly distorted view anyway. Even in modern times, when a lot of mothers have part-time jobs, women still end up doing most of the housework. It was even worse a century ago and it wouldn't be inaccurate to say that women spent more of their time on work than men, spending most of that time on child-rearing and running the household. The idea that cosmetics became centered around women because they would 'have more time' and 'did less physical labour' is a complete misrepresentation of that era and highly sexist as well.
Well, I thought, it was pretty simple...after all, working at home without an overseer is a more relaxed type of work, especially when you have a child or two to help...then I dug around for proof but as it seems, I was somewhat wrong. Some sources indicate cosmetics were used by men too untill 1850, and some say, the state viewed cosmetics as a health hazzard, also the independance war and of course the moral crusading of the church made cosmetics "unpopular".
http://angelasancartier.net/cosmetics-western
http://www.authorsden.com/categories/article_top.asp?catid=10&id=15438
http://flawlessgl.wordpress.com/2011/09/23/the-origin-evolution-of-cosmetics/
http://www.makeup2enhance.com/history-of-makeup.html
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/worklaborunions/a/early_america.htm
The last one mentions woman working as apothecaries, which also offered cosmetics.
Also:
Except that wives to construction workers and miners didn't belong to the social class that wore make-up.
Not the expensive kind. One of these websites even says, that African slaves used cosmetics which of course, makes my argument more moot.