First Invented Lipstick
Posted in: General info, Lipstick related by weddingcometrue | March 2nd 2010 | no comments
If you are a woman who uses lipstick on a daily basis you might have asked yourself about the first invented lipstick. I did, so I have done some research and the things that I have found out are rather surprising. Although Max Factor is thought to be the father of modern cosmetics the truth is that cosmetics have been around since the ancient times.
Some say that lipstick was invented by the Egyptians and this statement is based on the fact that there were hieroglyphs found that showed some people whose faces were detailed with color around the mouth while the mouth of others wasn’t detailed. According to scientists they used vegetable substances such as cinnabar, plant dye, iodine and bromine.
They did not know that two of these were poisonous. Regarding Egyptians, some say that it was Cleopatra who invented the lipstick. Her lipstick was made of crushed carmine beetles. There might have been earlier civilizations that used lipstick, but the Egyptians were the ones who kept records and recipes. While other civilizations used colors for religious purposes, Egyptian women used lipstick strictly for cosmetic purposes.
Even women in the ancient Indus Valley Civilization used lipstick-like substances to color their lips. In Japan geisha-s were wearing very prominent makeup: white powder on the face, eye makeup, blush on the cheeks and bright red lipstick. The solid lipstick we know today was invented by an Arab Andalusian cosmetologist during the Islamic Golden Age. The lipstick he created was perfumed and the stocks were pressed in molds.
The first grease based lipstick was used by the French in the time of Louis the 14th. Later, during medieval times, the church banned lipstick saying that it is a work of the devil, ‘an incarnation of Satan’. In this period makeup was used only by prostitutes.
Lipstick became popular again in the time of Queen Elizabeth I. I think you have seen paintings from that period and you observed the white faces and the red lips. In her time lipstick was made of beeswax and red stains made of plants. Later Queen Victoria banned makeup saying that it was only worn by prostitutes and actresses.
The first mechanical lipstick tube was created in 1920. During the Second World War lipstick became popular again mostly due to the development of the movie industry. The lipstick as we know it today was created by Hazel Bishop in 1949.
I don’t think we can point out who really invented the lipstick but many people throughout history added a little something to it for it to become the lipstick we know today, not just a piece of beeswax or a drop of vegetable oil. Still we must say that the idea of lipstick was created by ancient civilizations, regardless of which one of them. I hope that my article helped you formulate your own ideas about the first invented lipstick and that you found it useful, although it didn’t give a precise answer because there isn’t one.