Red lipstick: Nine things you might not know
Red lipstick: It’s a make-up bag staple for many women, whether they actually wear it or not.
Cleopatra, Queen Elizabeth I and Marilyn Monroe were all fans, and new US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is keeping it in the limelight.
It’s been used as a symbol of power, affluence, femininity and glamour as well as rebellion.
But what is it made of, what is its history and why has it had such enduring appeal?
Beauty and fashion journalist Rachel Felder, and MDMflow beauty brand founder Florence (Flow) Adepoju outlined nine things you might not know about red lipstick for ±«Óãtv Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.
1. Lipstick is made up of two components
“Lipstick is actually a simple two-step formula. It’s a mixture which forms the base, and then the pigment which gives it the colour,” says Flow Adepoju, who creates and produces lipsticks for her beauty brand.
“The base tends to be oils, waxes and then other ingredients to give it the texture. So you might have a mattifying ingredient in there, or a gloss ingredient to give the lipstick a high shine.
“There are so many different types of pigment. The majority of natural pigments used now are plant-based. Back in the day, pigments were taken out of insects, but the industry is moving away from that and away from animal-derived ingredients.
“Some pigments are synthesized in the lab, so they are take from coal, or broken down carbon chains to create whatever colour is needed.
“You put together your colour, you mix the base with the pigment and you’ve got your lipstick! It’s actually a lot simpler than people imagine it to be.”
2. Lipstick wasn’t in a stick until the late 1800s
“Modern lipstick in a stick was invented in 1884,” says Rachel Felder, author of Red Lipstick: An Ode to a Beauty Icon.
She writes in her book that it was in that year that Guerlain introduced the Ne M’Oubliez Pas make-up product which came in a tube of tin. Before that, lip make-up came in a small glass tub.
She adds that the modern swivel-up lipstick was created in 1922 by Nashville-based inventor James Bruce Mason Jr.
3. Women have worn red lip colouring for thousands of years
“Red lipstick has been worn by women since about 2500 BC,” says Rachel.
“Royalty wore it a lot in that era. There was a queen in Mesopotamia, which is now Iraq, and she wore lipstick that early on. Although of course it wasn’t lipstick, she wore lip colouring that was made out of ground stones. But that was the first lip colouring.”
4. Cleopatra used red lipstick to indicate power and affluence
“Ancient Egypt’s queen Cleopatra was a red lipstick lover,” says Rachel.
“For Cleopatra, red lipstick represented beauty and beautifying, but it also represented her power and affluence because her lipstick was made out of ground beetles. It was very, very expensive to produce because you needed a lot of beetles.
“Her subjects, male and female, also wore red lipstick but their lip colour was made out of ground stones - that colour veered more rust toned.
“So you could tell that [Cleopatra] had the money, influence, power to wear the bright red lipstick, as opposed to the rust colour that the average people wore.”
5. Queen Elizabeth I used red lipstick to 'ward off evil spirits'
“Queen Elizabeth I [who ruled England from 1558 to 1603] was very into lip colouring, so much so that when she died, there was a huge thick layer of lipstick caked onto her lips,” says Rachel.
“Up to half an inch of lipstick was caked on her lips. The colour she wore was lead-based, so there is a thought that she may well have given herself lead poisoning by wearing it every single day.
“She felt that the red would ward off evil spirits. That was part of the reason she wore it so much.”
6. Suffragettes were fans of red lips
“For the suffragettes, red lipstick was a symbol of power, female power”, according to Rachel.
“The suffragettes in the UK, US and other places too, wore red lipstick literally every day as part of their virtual uniform to, without saying a word, communicate that power and that feminine power.”
7. Red lipstick was given to some WWII concentration camp survivors
“In working on my red lipstick book, I discovered all of these stories”, says Rachel.
“One of them was about Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany that was liberated by the British Army in 1945.
“As the camp was being liberated, the British Red Cross sent in cartons of red lipstick, so the women who had been tortured, and endured so much, could begin instantly to inch back to normalcy.”
8. But the Victorians didn’t like it
“The Victorian era wasn’t a red lipstick moment in history,” says Rachel.
“There have been certain times, like the Middle Ages, like the Victorian era, when red lipstick and make-up in general which focused on the mouth was shunned and not part of the zeitgeist.
“Queen Victoria didn’t wear red lipstick herself, so perhaps that was part of the reason most people then were not into red lipstick.”
9. The effect of red lipstick is scientifically proven
“One of the most interesting types of research that I did for the book was interviewing scientists, and I interviewed several about the effect of red lipstick both on the wearer and the admirer,” Rachel says.
“It’s been proven scientifically that when you wear red lipstick, you are more attractive to people’s gaze, whether that’s a sexual gaze, or whether that’s a ‘I’m paying attention’ gaze.”
Tips for wearing red lipstick
Find the shade that works best for you
“It’s about finding the shade that works best with your skin tone, it’s about finding the formulation you feel most comfortable in”, says Rachel.
“For example, I like a matte finish, but some people feel more comfortable with a glossier shade. “Then it’s about thinking about the mood, the situation, and is it a summer afternoon when you want to look casual and breezy or is it a February morning in the office?
“I suggest to all women that they have a wardrobe of reds and the best way to find the right red is to just experiment a lot.”
Mix the colour if you think it’s too bright
“If you don’t feel confident about wearing reds, there’s tips and tricks that you can do to make the process easier”, according to Flow.
“So lining your lips with a dark lip liner dulls the red a little bit if you think a red is too bright. Or only using a bit of the colour, using it as a tint, as opposed to using it for coverage. There are so many different ways you could work with red.
“If you don’t feel confident wearing a red, mixing it into a nude, so you have the red within the colour, but it’s not necessarily a bright red lip.”
Go as bright and as bold as you want
“I don’t think there’s universal rules when it comes to red lipstick, but I definitely colour outside of the lines," Flow says.
“You can go as bright and as bold as you want. Wear whatever red lipstick you want.”
You can listen to the full Woman’s Hour radio item on red lipstick here or via ±«Óãtv Sounds.
Woman’s Hour is broadcast on ±«Óãtv Radio 4 at 10am on weekdays, and 4pm on Saturdays.
All episodes are available to download via the ±«Óãtv Sounds app.
