The moment you finish reading this article, at least 10 women around the world will get themsleves a new lipstick. According to statistics, each of us eats more or less 6-8 pounds of lipstick in a lifetime.
Over 90% of women carry a lipstick in their bags and 9 in 10 women treat a liptstick as a therapy – they use it to feel beautiful and self-confident. It was made 1500 years before the wheel was ivented in Mesopotamia. Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce the hottest old girl in the world – here’s a short biography of a lipstick.
In Mesopotamia (around 5000 years ago) women used a powder from crushed gemstones to paint their lips.
Meanwhile Egyptian women risked their lives every day – they would put on their lips a violet mixture of toxic ingredients – bromine and iodine.
It is highly probable that Cleopatra made the mother of today’s red lipstick by mixing beeswax, crushed plants and carmine beetles.
In ancient Rome, women of high social status, used argil called ochre to colour their lips. In Poland it was a bit more controversial – snake’s blood was used for painting lips. Lovers of beautiful lips had to be careful – women wearing “make-up” were often accused of witchcraft and burnt at the stake.
In ancient Greece, red lips connoted women of easy virtue.
Queen Elizabeth I Tudor, who had a pale complexion, simply loved painting her lips intensive red – it was the revival of red lipstick.
At the time of French Revolution, red lipstick was the synonym of hated aristocracy, and fans of red lips were guillotined.
In 1883 in Amsterdam the prototype of modern lipsticks was presented. Red specific was put into paper roll and called “love pencil” (stylo d’amour) by French creators.
In 1900 lipsticks were already in sale thanks to Guerlain company but the casing that we know today was designed 23 years later by James Bruce Mason. This is how lipstick got into film and photo studios. It conquered Hollywood thanks to the way it highlighted lips in black and white photographs and films. It has become an inseparable attribute of every actress and singer.
Not only did the red lipstick make career in Hollywood but it also made contributions to the history. In 1912 Elizabeth Arden drew attention to the indepedence of women and gave away red lipsticks to suffragists, which earned her cosmetic company some renown. During War II lipsticks got some graceful names like “Patriot Red” or “Victory” and for an American woman red lipstick brought some comfort to her lips longing for her husband.
Till the end of war – this is how long the lipstick had to wait for advertising campaign. In 1952 Revlon made a brilliant slogan about playing with the fire and walking on thin ice.
Red lips is what brings celebrities more publicity and glamour whereas painting lips is the only beautifying treatment accepted nowadays according to the etiquette. I guess it’s high time to check your bag in search of a lipstick…
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