What is Lipstick Made of and Why Do I Wear It?
Would you kiss your mother with those lips?
Lipstick has been around a long time. Some say there is evidence of lipstick dating back 5000 years! Crushed semi-precious stones, henna, iodine, beetles - all of these have been used to redden the lips at some time or another. And the sheen? Fish scales!
Later, lipstick was made using bees wax and different plants to dye the wax. I would think this would be hard to get on (and off!).
Today's lipstick is made from a conglomeration of fats and oils, and petrolatum. This sounds just about as appealing as the fish scales, right ladies? When I was younger, my family owned a restaurant. All of the grease from the deep-fat fryers was poured into a vat and sold to cosmetic companies. What do you think they were making with that???
My grandfather told me stories of when he was a young man, the ladies who could not afford makeup would pencil on their "eyes" with the burned tip of a match, and redden their lips with MERTHIOLATE!
Lipstick Tidbits
- Women have a lower incidence of lip cancer. This has been attributed to the wearing of lipstick.
- England passed a law against lipstick in the 1700s, claiming it was the "Devil's work."
- Cleopatra not only ground beetles for the coloration of her lipstick, but she added them to a base made of ants.
- A woman ingests around five pounds of lipstick in her lifetime.
- Over 65 major companies produce lipstick.
- Some believe lipstick was created with a very provocative thought in mind - that the lipstick made the lips look like other anatomical parts of the female body.
Southern Women & Lipstick
As a southern lady, I don't leave the house without lipstick on. Yes, it may have gotten eaten off (I think the typical south-eastern lady ingests 5x as much lipstick as anyone else!), but it was there. And it will be there again. As soon as I'm in front of a mirror.
Yes, I am stereotyping southern women - mainly because I've seen it so much there, and nowhere else. We are taught from around the age of 12 that we should always have on our lipstick. It shows you care about your appearance. It's the absolute least you can do. You must paint those lips on!
As a young girl, I can remember so clearly my grandmother applying and reapplying (and reapplying) her lipstick. My mother still does it. I don't do it enough, but then again I wear that ColorStay Mineral Lipglaze that lasts forever.
And while I'm on the subject of the ColorStay Mineral Lipglaze, I must say that it's the best lipstick I've ever used, and probably the worst tasting. It lasts forever, but tastes like motor oil smells.