What’s better than having a beautiful set of lips? Finding the perfect color to adorn them.
The concept of lipstick is ancient. The Egyptians used rouge made from carmine (a type of insect), crushed and applied like powder. Other civilizations used it even earlier. The cradle of all civilization, along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, was also home to the Sumer empire, which was officially the first to create lip pigment over 5000 years ago. They utilized cosmetics made from crushed gemstones local to the area, such as mica, which is an element still used today to provide shimmer to cosmetics. Other civilizations, such as those from Ur, made lipstick from red-and-white rocks or from murex shells, which was also the pigment used to produce the royal color of purple.
Lipstick for women faded in and out of popularity over the centuries, with nobility in ancient times using beeswax or far less safe bases and stains from plants such as grape wine or cherries to provide a deep, lasting color. Depending on context, lip color also denoted upper classes (such as in Ancient Egypt or in Enlightenment-age Europe) or those who serviced them, such as prostitutes (such as in Ancient Greece). Both men and women were known to use lipstick and rouge for cosmetic reasons. However, in later Victorian times, lipstick decidedly fell out of favor with the death of Queen Victoria’s consort, Albert…
