And may wish you never knew…
The humble lippie. It’s withstood recessions, wars and tragedies, thanks to its power to transform a woman’s mood more effectively than most things can. So much so is the power of the lippie, that you’re likely to find it in at least seven different shades in a woman’s handbag at any one time, and the great Liz Taylor herself once famously said, “Pour yourself a drink, put on some lipstick and pull yourself together,” an adage many of us swear by in tough times.
But what exactly is it about the mystique of such a small and simple beauty product that’s seen it withstand all odds? And where did this magical tool come from? You may be surprised to learn some little-known facts about your favourite makeup bag item…
1. It was originally the symbol of working girls
And we’re talking the Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman kind. In Europe’s Dark and Middle Ages, wearing lipstick was a sure-fire way to tell the world you were a prostitute or woman with loose morals. For reals.
2. It’s ended marriages
Believe it or not, in the 1700s, the British parliament declared that a husband could actually annul his marriage to his wife if she was proven to have falsely lured him using the witchcraft-like power of lipstick. Seriously.
3. It’s powerful stuff
In a study into the effects of makeup by the University of Manchester, it was found that when women wore red lipstick, men spent an average of 5.1 seconds longer gazing at them than when they wore nothing on their lips at all. Neat!
4. Its ingredients list may shock you
It may gross you out to learn that the pigment used in red lipstick is typically made from a species of insects which live on cacti and are essentially crushed up to produce the colour your favourite statement lippie imparts. It usually appears on a product’s ingredients list as ‘carmine red’, so look out for it if you’re vegan. You may be additionally disgusted to know that most shiny lipsticks take their sheen from fish scales, which are a common ingredient in many pearlescent lip products.
A recent study by the University of California, Berkeley, also found that 32 brands of lipstick contained tiny amounts of lead, aluminium, chromium and manganese. Though you can breathe a sigh of relief here, as the levels were found to be too insignificant to cause any health effects.
5. It ends up in your digestive system
It shouldn’t come as any surprise that each time you wear lipstick you ingest small amounts of it through the processes of eating, kissing and licking your lips. But it may horrify you to learn that over the course of your lifetime, you’re likely to eat an average of 3.2 kilos of lipstick. Yes, kilos. So don’t be greedy and have it all at once!