Lipstick Art History

Lipstick has already been used for over 5,000 years. Recorded history teaches us that it was applied in ancient Babylon where women would grind up semi-precious stones, mixed it with a paste, and used it to adorn their lips.

Women in ancient Egypt would combine bromide mannite and iodine to fabricate a lip color, but that was highly toxic, caused a lot of health problems, and became known as the 'kiss of death'. Cleopatra used henna, ant eggs, and crushed beetles for coloring her lips and for a special glitter extracts derived from fish scales were added.

The first solid lip color in the shape of a stick was invented by the Arab -Andalusian healer Abu Al-Kasim Al-Zahravi around 900 A.D., who used wax to form the base, added fragrances, and then pressed it into a mold.

The popularity of lipstick declined in Europe during the Middle Ages due to being banned by the church as an 'incarnation of Satan' and also because it was mainly used by lower class women and women of disrepute. It gained popularity again when in 16th century England Queen Elizabeth I introduced the look of bright red lips and an extremely white face.

Lipstick was met with a strong opposition again in England in 1653 by a movement led by pastor Thomas Hall, who declared that wearing cosmetics was the 'Devil's Work'. This eventually resulted in a law against cosmetics by the Parliament of England in 1770 which stated that a woman who wore lipstick was to be tried and judged as a witch.

Almost throughout the entire 19th century the use of cosmetics was frowned upon as being unacceptable in Britain for women of high society. It was in the late 1890s when the use of lipstick surged again and became more and more popular over time, to reach the point where almost every woman nowadays owns at least one, if not more!