Beauty trends come and go, but there is one product that remains timeless: lipsticks. The history of lipsticks goes way back, more than 5,000 years ago. Lipsticks have always had a long and evolving journey through time in terms of their content, design, and meanings. Throughout all this time, it has always been associated with power, beauty, and rebelliousness.
The first use of lipsticks was traced back to the Sumerians and the residents of the Indus Valley. Approximately 5,000 years ago, the Sumerians would grind down gemstones and use the resulting powder to paint their lips and the areas surrounding their eyes. The inhabitants of the Indus Valley coloured their lips using ochre or red lac mixed with beeswax.
The Egyptians got their red lipstick from crushed insects in the form of carmine. In 3500 B.C., Queen Puabi of Mesopotamia was believed to wear her lips red after mixing crushed jewels with white lead. The Romans also favoured the use of red lipstick, but it is said that some of the lip products were made with mercury. A thousand years ago in China, lip products were made from beeswax. They were used not for the colour but to prevent them from drying out and chapping.
The application of lipsticks in Europe during medieval times was discouraged. It went against the concepts of modesty that Christianity advocated for. There came a time when the wearing of lipstick became popular once again, thanks to Queen Elizabeth I of England. This did not last long, since, after her time, lipstick became controversial again.
The Victorian age also frowned upon the use of cosmetics. If some women still desired coloured lips, then they used Guerlain's lip pomade sold only in Paris or followed their own recipes for lip cosmetics. Modern lipsticks entered the market in 1884 when Guerlain introduced the first commercially available version in France.
By the 1920s, the use of lipsticks became widespread throughout Europe and the US. The popular lipstick tube came into existence in 1923. The non-smearing lipsticks got popularized in the 1950s, thanks to Helen Bishop. By the 1970s, bold shades like blue, green, violet and navy reflected the rise of counterculture and fearless self-expression.
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