Everyday Things: Lipstick

We take a look at the life and times of lippy - it's been around a while.

LIPSTICKS FIRST APPEARED in the ancient city of Ur, near Babylon, about 5000 years ago. At that time, semi-precious stones such as lapis lazuli and malachite were ground up, and used as pastes.

It is claimed that Cleopatra’s lipsticks were made from finely crushed red carmine beetles mixed with ant eggs as a base. Henna, and other dyes were also used in ancient Egypt.

Cleopatra wasn't the only queen to like her lippy. During the era of Queen Elizabeth I, lipsticks were usually a blend of cochineal and beeswax, or dark red plant dyes. After the French revolution, make up was considered uncouth and didn't make a revival until the 1800s.

“A woman who doesn’t wear lipstick feels undressed in public. Unless she works on a farm.”
- Max Faktor, lipstick legend

It has not always run smooth of course. Thomas Hall, an English churchman, led a movement in 1653 declaring that women who put paint on their lips were trying to “ensnare others and to kindle a fire and flame of lust in the hearts of those who cast their eyes upon them.”

In 1770, the British Parliament passed a law condemning lipstick, and that “women found guilty of seducing men into matrimony by a cosmetic means could be tried for witchcraft.”

It wasn't until the end of the 19th century that the French re-initiated the revival in cosmetic use. And it wasn't long before enterprising citizens realised that cosmetics weren't just for the aristocracy.

Companies grew rapidly, Max Faktor, a Polish pharmacy apprentice during the 1870s, moved to the USA in 1904 and became the father of modern make-up.

In 1915, the Maybelline Company was founded by T.L. Williams, named after his sister, Mabel. The world’s biggest cosmetics group is now L’Oreal, founded by French chemist Eugene Schueller in the early 1900s.

In 1949, chemist Hazel Bishop created a smear-proof lipstick that stayed on the lips longer than any other product at the time. She had made over 300 different attempts before getting it right.

“Lipline” by Gala, the first lipstick in a tube, appeared in 1957. Before then all liipies had to be brushed on.

Marilyn Monroe wore bright lipstick in the film “Some Like it Hot”, and created a new trend in 1959. Then, in 1966, Mary Quant declared that pale gloss lipstick was “in”, and thus it became very fashionable.

Lipstick: the ingredients

Lipstick contains a variety of waxes, oils, pigments, and emollients. The wax gives it the shape, texture and ease of application, the oils form a hard layer after application, and the pigments give it the array of colours.

More recent additives have included moisturisers, vitamin E, Aloe Vera, collagen, amino acids, and sunscreen, which keep lips soft, moist, and protected from the elements.

The waxes used in lipsticks include beeswax, carnauba wax (from the leaves of Brazilian wax palm trees), and candelilla wax (from the candelilla plant in Mexico). Commonly used oils are olive oil, mineral oil, castor oil, cocoa butter, lanolin, and petrolatum. More than 50% of lipsticks made in the USA contain considerable amounts of castor oil, which may explain why heavy users have more frequent trips to the bathroom!

Lippy gets its colour from a wide range of added pigments. The more common dyes that are used are: D&C Red No. 27 (which incidentally is 2',4',5',7'-tetrabromo-4,5,6,7-tetrachlorofluorescein) and insoluble dyes called lakes, such as D&C Red No. 34, Calcium lake, and D&C Orange No. 17. Shades of pink are made by mixing titanium dioxide with various shades of red.
Lipsticks come in a variety of styles: frosted, matte, sheers, stains, and long-lasting colour to name but a few.

Matte lipsticks are heavy in wax and pigment, and have more texture than shine. Glosses have more shine and fewer pigments. The Extra sparkle of shimmer lipsticks comes from mica or silica particles, or bismuth oxychloride - synthetic pearl - which gives it a frosted look. Long-lasting colour lipsticks contain silicone oil, which seals the colour to your lips. Finally, lip gloss contains the same ingredients as lipstick, but has less wax and more oil to make the lips shinier.

Max Faktor once stated: “A woman who doesn’t wear lipstick feels undressed in public. Unless she works on a farm.” According to a 1996 survey by Shisedo Cosmetics, Tokyo, 87% of American women admit to having left traces of lipstick in unwanted places.