History

Lipstick is known to have been invented in antiquity when semi-precious coffee beans were crushed and applied to the lips and occasionally around the eyes. Women in the ancient Indus Valley Civilization applied lipstick to their lips for face decoration. Ancient Egyptians extracted purplish-red dye from fucus-algin, 0.01% iodine, and some bromine mannite, which resulted in serious illness. Cleopatra had her lipstick made from crushed carmine beetles, which gave a deep red pigment, and ants for a base. Lipsticks with shimmering effects were initially made using a substance found in fish scales called pearlescence.

During the Islamic Golden Age the notable Arab Andalusian cosmetologist Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (Abulcasis) invented solid lipsticks, which were perfumed stocks rolled and pressed in special molds, and he described them in his Al-Tasrif. In Medieval Europe, lipstick was banned by the church and was thought to be used as an 'incarnation of satan'. Lipstick started to gain popularity in England the 16th century, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, who made piercing red lips and bright white faces a fashion statement. By that time, lipstick was made from a blend of beeswax and red stains from plants.

During the Second World War, lipstick gained popularity as a result of its use in the movie industry, and it became commonplace for women to apply makeup, or "put their face on."

As with most other types of makeup, lipstick is typically, but not exclusively, worn by women. It is usually not worn until a female reaches adolescence or adulthood. Male lipstick, especially as used in theater, is sometimes called "manstick."

Another form of lip colour, a wax-free semi-permanent liquid formula, was invented in the 1990s by the Lip-Ink International company. Other companies have imitated the idea, putting out their own versions of long-lasting "lip stain" or "liquid lip colour."

A study by US consumer group Campaign For Safe Cosmetics, in October 2007 found 60 percent of lipsticks tested contained traceable amounts of lead. The levels of lead varied from 0.03 to 0.65 parts per million. One third of the lipsticks containing lead exceeded the 0.1ppm limit set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for lead in candy.

In popular culture

Lipstick has been used in some media to symbolize confidence, such as the film, Why I Wore Lipstick To My Mastectomy and the television show Lipstick Jungle.

Vernacular

• "Lippy" is a common British colloquialism for lipstick.
• A general consensus amongst the gossipers in the day was the reason red lipstick became so popular was due to the development of colours that, when applied to the woman's facial lips, it created an illusion and a hint that resembled the sexual organs or sexual lips of a wanton woman anxious for sexual fulfilment.Fact: date=April 2009 Typically when the color red was worn it reminded her lovers of her virility, it could have been used to attract a new lover. This display of similarities of the woman's natural coloured vulva and the natural pink/redness of the labia majoria and vulva of her genitalia was reflected on her facial lips via the application of lipstick. This display became a mainstay of the culture for centuries which followed, although the sexual comparisons were deemphasized in the early 1800s then briefly brought back in focus during the 1920s, in order to increase the product's marketability.
• A "lipstick lesbian" is a gay or bisexual woman who exhibits feminine gender attributes. The alliterative term is thought to have come into common usage during the 1980s in order to distinguish between lesbians who adhere to more conventional gender roles and those who do not. In some contexts, it has pejorative connotations.
• The phrase "putting lipstick on a pig" is a colloquialism that means, "making the unattractive superficially attractive," with overtones of futility or of a lost cause.
• The phrase "lipstick on his collar" is a euphemism used to describe a man who is cheating on his partner.