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LIPSTICK

 

 

Lipstick is undeniably a woman’s favorite cosmetic. Women use it as a pick-me-up, a confidence-builder, and a badge of their femininity. If you wouldn’t be caught without your lipstick, are tired of people complaining about lipstick drying their lips, and believe that lips are the ultimate erogenous zone, this is for you. 

 

 

 

                                                                                           

THE HISTORY OF LIPSTICK

 

 

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For thousands of years, women have tried to give their lips the red blush regarded as a sign of beauty in both Western and non-Western cultures. The search for the fashionable tint has inspired a wide variety of lip coloring techniques and products.

 

Women in ancient Egypt favored blue-black lip color or reddish magenta and scented ointment painted on with a wet stick of wood. Cosmetics were considered so vital during this period that they were even put in a woman’s tomb for her use in the afterlife, a pot of lip rouge was discovered in the tomb of a queen buried in 2500 B.C. in Mesopotamia.

 

In Ancient Rome a reddish purple mercuric dye called fucus (a potentially deadly poison)  and sediments from red wine were sold at the market for use in lip rouge. Popaea, the wife of Emperor Nero had no less than 100 attendants to maintain her looks and engaged in beauty rituals around the clock, religiously keeping her lips painted.

 

In Elizabethan England, coloring lips with crayons made from alabaster or plaster of Paris, tinted red, became popular. Despite the variety of artificial lip-reddeners available, women in prim-and-proper Victorian times frequently “bit” their lips to make them appear rosy. In eighteenth century colonial America a thrifty lipstick option was sucking lemons throughout the day  to give lips a real zinger redness.  Puritan settlers rubbed snips of red ribbon onto their mouths when no one was looking. Around 1770 in Britain a woman could be arrested if she wore lipstick  since it implied that she was trying to trick a man into marriage with false advertising. She could even be labeled a witch.

 

In the nineteenth century Queen Victoria publicly declared that makeup was impolite. Actors made lip and cheek rouge by mixing pigmented powder with butter or lard. The actress Sarah Bernhardt created one of the biggest scandals of the time by applying lip rouge in public. Lip rouge was spoken of as the most indecent of all makeup.

 

By the twentieth century, lip coloring had become more accepted, although it wasn’t until after World War I that women comfortably wore cosmetics in public. In the early part of the century, women kept their lip rouge in delicate glass jars on their dressing tables. The French company Guerlain introduced lip rouge in a stick

 

 

 

 

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form taking the product beyond the walls of theater and into posh shops. The Guerlain products were available to a limited aristocratic clientele. In 1915 the Scovil Manufacturing company first packaged lipstick in portable metal cartridges similar to what we use today. The first cases were simple two-inch long cylinders, in plain, nickel finish, with a sliding bar to eject the lipstick.  These new lipstick products were available to the masses and became popular with the new force of working women.

 

During the twenties, the number of women wearing lipstick increased dramatically. The new fashions of the day-short, flirty skirts, bobbed hair—called for more make up and lipstick. Silver screen actresses with the help of Max Factor gave makeup its glamorous image with women copying the shape of their favorites actress’s lips. In 1923, a writer for the Saturday Evening Post noted that as many as 50 million American women were using lipstick. Cosmetics became the fourth largest industry in America.

 

By the thirties and forties, with the advent of Technicolor, women copied lipstick color as well as shapes. Lipstick was available in a wide range of colors. By the start of World War II, lipstick was an accepted necessity. In fact, America's War Production Board determined lipstick was a “vital product” that kept up women’s spirits. Women horded their lipsticks and Nurses evacuated by submarines during the war would escape clutching only a few items, one of them always their lipstick.

 

The fifties gave the lipstick world a new consumer target with  “the teenager” influenced by such icons as Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield.

 

The sixties woman wanted a lipstick that made them look like they weren’t wearing lipstick.

 

Disco, Punk and Heavy Metal dominated the seventies and eighties and entertainers of both genders were wearing lipstick on stage and off. Purple and black lipstick shades were predominant.

 

Brown shades of all dimensions prevailed in the nineties and flavored lipsticks became the rage.

 

The new millennium has baby boomers worrying about lines and wrinkles. Lipsticks now multi-task by providing ingredients to treat, moisturize and protect as well as color.          

 

 

 

 

COLORS AND FORMULATIONS

 

The Right  Shade
There is no one “perfect” lipstick shade. Use a variety of colors to suit your mood, your activity, or the time of day. Pick colors that compliment your skin tone. 

 

Pale Skin: Pinks, Corals and Beige

Medium Skin: Reds, Berry(s) and Mauves

Dark Skin: Reds, Oranges and Plums.

 

When you select a lip color take into consideration your clothing and blush colors. The color of your clothing and blush should complement your lipstick but doesn’t have to be perfectly matched. However, the colors should be in the same intensity and range.

 

 

Different Types of  Formulation

Matte lipsticks are heavy in wax and pigment but lighter in emollients. They have more texture than shine.

 

Creams are a balance of shine and texture.

 

Glosses have high shine and low color.

 

Sheers contain a lot of oil and a medium amount of wax with a tad of color.

 

Shimmers have extra glimmer, which comes from mica or silica particles.

 

Long-lasting color lipsticks contain silicone oil, which seals the color to your lips.

 

 

 

 

 

Lipstick Around The World

When you find yourself purchasing lipstick while jet setting around the globe these translations can be helpful:

 

Italian:         Il Rosetto                      French:   Rouge à lèvres

German:      Lippenstift                    Spanish: Làpiz para los labios    

Japanese:   Kuchi-beni                    Chinese:  K’ou hung

                

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

KISSING

 

By many indicators, kissing has become the preferred form of greeting. Forget about handshakes and curt nods--kissing is “in.” All kisses, however, are not created equal, and the growing popularity of “greeting” kissing is creating new challenges. Deciding whom, when, and where to kiss forces you to make many decisions.

 

 

A Compendium of Types of Kisses and When to Bestow Them.

Type of Kiss	The Basics	The “Right Technique is Everything	Tips
The “Air” Kiss	A common social  kiss. Doesn’t  involve  skin contact.	Just pretend you are about  to kiss the person’s cheek,  but instead “kiss” the air as  close to the cheek as possible.	The cheeks come  very close, but do not  touch.
The Continental Kiss	The European-style  kiss  on both cheeks.   The  only” kiss for  Europeans.	No hands are involved.  That’s  the way the French kiss. The  Italian way is twice as good  with cheek-to-cheek kisses –  four in all.	Some non-Europeans  have adopted this  kind of kissing, so just  go with the flow and  kiss away.
The New Year’s Eve Kiss	By all means, let the  whole world see this  kiss.	Make a statement with a  fervent kiss on the lips—if you  really like your date.	Go all out. After all,  it’s a new beginning
The First Date Kiss	A “movie quality” first  kiss doesn’t often  happen  spontaneously	Far too often the kiss involves  bumping noses and nervous  giggles. Select the time and  the place carefully. Privacy is  the most important ingredient   of a “first kiss.” Be sure to  choose a time when you can  focus your attention on  each  other.	Approach the kiss  slowly and relax. It may  be an experience  you’ll want to treasure.
The Goodnight Kiss	This kiss can be  awkward, because  many men feel  obliged to kiss a date  at the end of the  evening, and many  women feel  obligated to allow  themselves to be  kissed after a  social  occasion	This ritualistic kiss does not  need to be a major source  of stress. You can gracefully  turn your cheek or skip the  kiss completely and just  thank each other for an  enjoyable evening.	Be aware that often  one kiss leads to  another and then  another.  Consider the  consequences.

 

 

 

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KISSABLE QUOTES

 

 

The decision to kiss for the first time is the most crucial in any love story. It changes the relationship of two people much more strongly than even the final surrender; because this kiss already has within it that surrender.

-Emil Ludwig (1881-1948)

 

 

There is the kiss of welcome and of parting, the long, lingering, loving, present one; the stolen, or the mutual one; the kiss of love, of joy, and of sorrow; the seal of promise and receipt of  fulfillment.

-Thomas C. Halliburton (1796-1865)

 

 

The moment eternal - just that and no more - When ecstasy's utmost we clutch at the core   While cheeks burn, arms open, eyes shut, and lips meet!

-Robert Browning (1812-1889)

 

KISSING TRIVIA

 

 

–   London, July 11, 2005, an English couple, James Belshaw (26) and Sophia Severin (23), locked lips for 31 hours, 30 minutes and 30 seconds to break a record set on television's The Ricky Lake Show, four years ago.

–   A one-minute kiss will burn 26 calories.

–   In their lifetime the average person spends 20,160 minutes kissing.

–   The first kiss ever shown in a movie was in 1896. The movie was called The Kiss.

–   The longest movie kiss was between Jane Wyman and Regis Tommey in the 1941 film, You're in the Army Now, lasting 3 minutes and 5 seconds.

–   According to legend, any person who kisses the Blarney Stone in Cork, Ireland will be endowed with the gift of eloquence and persuasive flattery.

–   Fifty percent of all people have kissed before they turn 14. 

–   Our brains have special neurons that help us locate each other’s lips in the dark.

–   The record for the highest number of people kissed is held by Alfred Wolfram who kissed 8001 people in just 8 hours, over sixteen people a minute, at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival.

                                                   

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