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Discover the Colorful World of Lipstick: Top 7 Fun Facts You Never Knew!

illustration of lipstick
Pucker up and get ready to be amazed by these lip-smackingly fascinating tidbits about the colorful world of lipstick!

1. Parisian Lipstick Origins

Pucker up and travel back in time, lippy lovers: the first commercial lipstick debuted in Paris in 1884, made from a fabulous concoction of deer tallow, castor oil, and beeswax, applied with a brush and swaddled in silk paper, eventually gaining vivacious hues from crushed Cochineal insects, no less, which in turn produced carminic acid that mingled with aluminum for that glorious shade of carmine.
Source => competitivepestcontrol.com.au

2. Witches of Crimson Pouts

Lipstick or witch's brew? Pucker up, Witches of Eastwick fans, because once upon a time in 18th century England and the US, rouge was all the rage, but not just for painting the town red: Red lipstick was once so notorious for its ties to witchcraft and seduction that it was outlawed, and donning a scarlet pout during courtship could annul a marriage; however, when the right to vote sprouted wings, so did crimson's reputation, transforming it from devilish to daring - with suffragettes paving the way for a symbol of rebellion and femininity that has dazzled and delighted for centuries.
Source => axiologybeauty.com

3. War-time Rosy Resilience

In the midst of the world's biggest "make-do and mend" initiative, ladies of war stayed valiantly rosy, armed with their fierce tubes of femme fatale charm: During World War II, red lipstick served as a symbol of unwavering femininity and resilience, free for female factory workers looking to brighten up the days on the home front, as well as gracing the US Army's Women's Auxiliary Corps and British Armed Forces' lips, albeit without compulsory regulations.
Source => babel.ua

4. Medieval Lipstick Innovations

Long before Kylie Jenner's lip kits dominated the lipstick scene, a medieval doc from Spain had everyone puckering up in style: Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi, a physician from Cordoba, invented solid lipstick around 1000 CE using medicinal and cosmetic products, eventually leading to the creation of the metal lipstick tube by Maurice Levy in 1915, and the swivel-up tube by James Bruce Mason, Jr. in 1923, for even smoother application of our favorite shades.
Source => medium.com

Roaring Twenties' Secret Stash

5. Roaring Twenties' Secret Stash

Who needs Mary Poppins' magical bag when you've got lipstick? The Roaring Twenties blessed us with more than just flapper fashion and Gatsby glamor: In those days, resourceful women transformed their empty lipstick tubes into secret storage devices, stashing away pills and bobby pins with style and grace.
Source => hair-and-makeup-artist.com

6. Mesmerizing Men with Red Lipstick

Lipsticks: the ultimate wing-woman, turning heads and breaking hearts since the beginning of time! Their enchanting powers have been the talk of the town, or more specifically, the gaze of many a smitten admirer: A study by the University of Manchester discovered that men spend an average of 7.3 seconds staring at women wearing red lipstick and 6.7 seconds at those donning pink lipstick, contributing to the mind-boggling 800 to 900 million lipsticks sold annually around the globe, with a staggering 300 million tubes flying off the shelves in Europe alone.
Source => stylecaster.com

7. Patriotic Pucker-up

From painting the town red to tangoing with Uncle Sam: During World War II, red lipstick became a symbol of women's patriotism and independence as they wore it to their factory jobs, with some factories even distributing free tubes of lipstick to their female workers.
Source => babel.ua

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