A History of Red Lipstick
The Color of Power
In the course of time, societal standards for the perfect hairstyle, the highest fashion, and the ideal female form change. The practice of women wearing red lipstick, however, remains constant in the history of beauty and traces back to ancient times; “Seventy-thousand-year-old fragments of cosmetic rouge have been found on sites of Neanderthal settlements in East Africa.”1 Women “shopped” for their perfect shade of red lipstick before cosmetic counters gained popularity in the 1920s, all in the hopes of increasing their allure. They wore red lipstick and continue to do so in order to appear more attractive, secure a mate, or maintain desirability. Yet the history of red lipstick reveals a duality: the image of the “classic beauty” and straightforward, “acceptable” sex vs. the “temptress” and forbidden seduction. Countless civilizations throughout history held the notion that a woman who wears red lipstick increases her sexual desirability; but why is that? By looking at ancient, contemporary, and scientific history, we discover why this particular color and cosmetic stands the test of time and comes to symbolize female empowerment.
Ancient History
Some of the earliest records of red lipstick originate from the ruins of early Sumer, an ancient Babylonian civilization from the fourth millennium BC. Women who could afford luxury commodities opted to include several pots of lipstick in their coffins, as custom dictated. Archeologists discovered one of Sumer’s Queens interred wearing red lipstick. This emerges as one of the first recorded times that scholars see red lipstick as a consistent and popular cosmetic trend within a society:
“Lipstick's appropriately colorful history began with Queen Schub-ad of ancient Ur. Circa 3,500 B.C., this Sumerian queen used lip colorant made with a base of white lead and crushed red rocks. The Sumerian [*166] people apparently adopted the practice with gusto, as Sir Leonard Woolley's excavation of Ur's ‘Royal Cemetery’ revealed that those who could afford to do so had themselves buried with their lip paints stored in cockleshells.”2
This discovery informed archeologists that red lipstick not only functioned as a luxurious commodity within Sumerian society, but it also served as a status symbol for a higher class of powerful women — those more desirable and difficult to obtain.
Red lipstick likewise thrived as a popular cosmetic trend in ancient Egypt. Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, favored red lipstick according to historical analysis. “Red also remained a fashionable option, and, in fact, the use of carmine as a primary red dye in lipstick initially came from Egypt's 50 B.C. avante garde, such as Cleopatra.”3 Her decision to wear red lipstick resulted in multiple interpretations within Egyptian society. She seemed undoubtedly powerful, yet public opinions of the time voiced uneasiness towards her due to precisely her favoritism towards the boldly colored cosmetic.
“Cosmetics and magic are qualitatively the same, since they both can be used to entrap. This idea finds its ultimate personification in Cleopatra, the symbol par excellence of dangerous knowledge in antiquity. The ancient (and modern) fictions of her as a vampire seducer and erotomaniac are well known. But hand in hand with her physical knowledge of sex, acquired through long experience, went a knowledge of all the arts of the whore. Cleopatra is supposed to have known about scents, contraceptives, abortifacients, cosmetics, medicaments and even alchemy, and pseudonymous treaties on these subjects were attributed with her.”4
Cleopatra, perceived as powerful and dangerous, wore red lipstick leading men to find her attractive, yet threatening. There exist many documented accounts of red lipstick’s history and connection with symbolizing sexual desire during Cleopatra’s reign.
Furthermore, archaeologists find the leading red trend to hold true within the Roman Empire. Men in Roman society preferred women who wore makeup, but did not like when worn in excess or in unnatural colors. Red lips represented sexual appeal, and the color seemed socially acceptable because it denoted a color commonly found in nature and on the body; which may explain why red lipstick developed as a trend that flourished in this empire. People may favor red as a lip color for dissimilar reasons in Rome than in Egypt, but a woman who wore it still appeared powerful in both. Additionally, this may shed light on why some Roman Queens insisted on painting their lips red. For example, “Poppaea Sabina, the wife of Roman Emperor Nero, experimented with ochre, iron ore, and focus.”5 The physical act of applying or painting red onto one’s lips held an esteemed position in Rome as well:
“Empress Poppaea Sabina, ‘the crazy wife of the crazy emperor Nero,’ retained no less than one hundred attendants to ‘maintain her looks and keep her lips painted at all times.’ Indeed, most wealthy Roman women had designated, specially trained makeup and hairstyling slaves, cosmatae, who were overseen by a headmistress of the toilette, the omatrix. Following Poppaea's lead, [*168] Roman women tended to use a red or purplish lip paint made out of ochre, iron ore and fucus.”6
Again, this further underpins that red lipstick proved highly sought after by women and enticing to men in the Roman Empire.
After the fall of the Empire, Western Europe descended into the dark ages.7 The women who painted their lips ruby red found themselves harshly ridiculed through the negativity lashed out at them by the Christian revolution, which swept through Europe simultaneously.
“Most information on lipstick from this period comes from the writings of churchmen, who objected to its usage, although to only moderate effect. As Christianity and bad weather concomitantly took hold, ‘there was a gradual but distinct shift in favor of a rather plainer, and possibly slightly less washed existence.’ The Roman Empire's fall rendered trade routes precarious, and so also likely hurt cosmetics commerce.”8
Religious criticism of women wearing red lipstick reached its peak as Europe entered the Middle ages: “…religious criticism of lipstick finally gain widespread hold in some countries, most notably England. In England, ‘a woman who wore make-up was seen as an incarnation of Satan,’ because such alteration of her given face challenged God and his workmanship.”9 During the Dark and Middle Ages, the popularity of this ornamentation dimmed as society maintained that a woman who donned red lips represented a temptress, and her association with the devil developed into perceived reality. “Pictures of devils putting lipstick on women appeared often, and women frequently had to address their lipstick use at confession.”10 Red lipstick did not regain the status it held in ancient Sumer, Egypt, or Rome, however, until Queen Elizabeth I returned it to its position of power and the leading cosmetic trend. “England, which grew increasingly powerful throughout the century, embraced lipstick on the eve of Queen Elizabeth I’s coronation. A lip rouge devotee, Elizabeth usually made her own crimson color with a combination of cochineal, gum Arabic, egg whites and fig milk.”11 Queen Elizabeth needed a color that would exemplify her status, which possibly explains why she choose red as her signature lip color.
Contemporary History
The 1920s represents the first time the world saw red lipstick commercialized and mass-produced for consumption on a worldwide scale. The cosmetic industry transformed due to modern technology and global trading policies. Women around the globe, from any social class, could now afford to purchase red lipstick. Prior to this revolution, the crimson-colored cosmetic appeared only on the lips of the wealthiest of women from various societies; now, the masses too wore red. Then, during World War I, the still popular red lipstick became more difficult for women to obtain as factories turned their attention to producing weapons and supplies for the war effort. Women experienced a time when they felt less feminine, powerful, and desirable. However, soon after World War I ended, cosmetics availability and sales increased. Women celebrated its reemergence and in painting their lips red regained a feminine identity.
“At the beginning of the 1920s lipstick began to be mass-distributed, perhaps because of a desire to display the gender differences that World War I had suppressed in fashion, uniform and the workplace: the elastic girdle had done away with the hourglass figure, hairstyles were a la garconne, clothes were cut straight, hiding the body’s curves, the figure was androgynous. Lipstick became the last, and almost only gender marker.”12
The ‘flappers’ of the 1920s – rebellious women who pushed social boundaries and fought for gender equality – appear as one of the most notorious groups of women to sport red lips after the war. “Flappers took a page from earlier women's rights advocates, and wore scarlet lipstick ‘in a deliberate and, it seems, successful attempt to shock their elders.’ Simultaneously, the ‘New Woman,’ a more faithful reincarnation of previous feminists, also adopted lipstick as a badge.”13 Women sought respect and equality, but remained proud to be women. They used red lipstick as a symbol to demonstrate to the world they indeed embodied femininity and power, and therefore could equal the men in their society. The women of the post-World War I era employed red lips to make them feel more powerful than sexual.
The demand for red lipstick continued to grow in the 1940s. Leading starlets graced the Hollywood silver screen and pin-up girl posters went away to war with the men. All these ladies wore the perfect scarlet lip. Rosie the Riveter – the American poster girl for war efforts during World War II14 – arose as a cultural symbol who sported the crimson lip trend. The women of the 1940s — who worked and succeeded within previously male-dominated fields — could seemingly feel like social icons when they applied their very own red lipstick. Women began to define themselves as more than sexual objects, wives, or mothers. They developed strong, independent, and sexy attitudes every time they carried red lips and as a result, sales of red lipstick climbed sharply:
“Demand for cosmetics was holding firm. In 1941, the New York Times reported that American women purchased $20 million worth of lipstick per year. Manufactures still spent 20 percent of their income on advertising, but they responded to wartime austerity by shifting the emphasis from glamour and romance to ‘the importance of keeping war workers looking their best.’ Rosie the Riveter, the American poster girl for the war effort, was shown dressed in denim work clothes and a tool belt – but nonetheless wearing lipstick.”15
The meaning of red lipstick continued to evolve through the 1950s and 1960s. Women painted their lips red with the intention of engaging its value as an artistic and emotional expression. They still employed its use to help them feel more enticing and powerful, but with the growth and expansion of the cosmetic industry, women began to instead match their red lips to their outfits, rather than their complexions.16 “Lipstick was reborn. Trends leaned toward heavily painted, brightly colored lips in pink or red; a perfectly defined silhouette was a necessity. Suddenly, if you didn’t wear lipstick, you were an outcast. More females in the workforce resulted in increased cosmetics use as women strived to enhance their public appearance and, in turn, their private vanity.”17 The women of the twentieth century no longer wore red lipstick only as a means of enticing and pleasing men; now, they wore it for their own pleasure and self-expression, as well. They seemed to feel increasingly beautiful, sexy, and strong. Additionally, the color red previously persisted as a classic standard of beauty for royalty but now everyday women could embrace it in order to share in the experience of power, mystery, and sensuality.
Since the 1980s, another shift in red lipstick’s history, purpose within society, and reasoning for women’s decision to wear it developed. Women continue wearing lipstick for the same reasons Queen Schub-ad, Cleopatra, Empress Poppaea Sabina, Queen Elizabeth I, and countless other women did, but recent advocates add a new motivation that is entirely their own: activism. In the mid-1990s, cosmetic companies sought to give back to their communities and they elected this special product to achieve this end. They did so because these companies believed red lipstick possessed an allure and symbolic meaning that could help raise proceeds better than any other product; “Of all the cosmetics, lipstick has emerged as the poster product for charitable causes ranging from AIDS research to breast cancer awareness…Probably the leading ongoing cosmetics crusade is M.A.C.’s Viva Glam lipstick campaigns. ‘They’ve raised over $10 million for the M.A.C. AIDS Fund, which distributes the money to various AIDS organizations.”18 The first lipstick used in M.A.C.’s Viva Glam campaign was red and fittingly so. No other color represents courage, power, and compassion so beautifully.
Scientific History
Why does red continue to prevail as the principal lipstick color for nearly seventy thousand years? Because the human eye is irresistibly drawn to it. One argument states that natural resources made the red pigment so readily available which provides logic in regards to its popularity during ancient times. However, historians wonder why red still perseveres as the most popular color, even after the industrialization of cosmetics in the 1920s when a rainbow of hues ensued. The answer is that, biologically, both men and women could not resist looking at the color red; they seemingly gravitate to it. Scientific studies show men are specifically drawn to red lips because it signals a sexually mature and fertile woman with a healthy blood flow. When a woman dons the color red on her lips, she transforms one of the most sensitive areas of the body to indicate a perception of sexual readiness:
“During erotic arousal, lips become swollen, much redder, and more protuberant… Thus, painted lips flash like neon signs advertising a woman’s sexuality – they cry out exuberantly, ‘I’m ripe, I’m ready, I know what I’m supposed to do, and I’m willing to do it.’ (Furthermore, the ritual of applying a phallic-shaped tube to the lips, the most delicate and sensual part of the face, should not be lost on anyone.)”19
Lips, additionally, suggest kissing, which leads men to think of intimacy when looking at a woman’s red lips. This when combined with the emotions provoked by the color, culminates in sexual temptation. “Few colors have been so heavily freighted with symbolic resonances as red. In the Indo-European languages this may have been because ‘red’ has been seen as the colour par excellence of life-giving blood.”20 The biological phenomenon of women enticing men with their red lips, also represents a gender phenomenon, where men blame women for the attraction and bringing them into the forbidden sexual territory associated with it.
Historical Significance
There exists no other makeup trend more popular than the donning of red lipstick within cultures worldwide. For instance, applying black kohl eyeliner or a pale face remains interesting, but neither of these practices carries the significance or symbolism of the painted ruby lip. It manages to prevail as the leading lipstick color because it reinvents itself through every century, symbolizing new and different views pertaining to a woman’s sexuality and place within society; it survives through time, connecting women across thousands of years. The most exceptional facet of red lipstick, arguably remains that historians can study the changes in gender roles, women’s rights, and sexuality through numerous civilizations — past and present —by simply looking at the women wearing red lipstick and the time in which they wore it.
Ancient civilizations required women to marry and produce children; the use of red lipstick aided them in attracting a mate and providing for themselves security within their society. However, the allure of red lipstick seems to allow women the opportunity to manipulate but not dominate; no matter how desirable, a woman could never surpass the power of a man. Thus, historians again pose the question, did men act wrongly in labeling women as “tricksters” or “temptresses” when these only played the hand presented to them by society? Women throughout history frequently find themselves the victims of a male-imposed double standard. Historical literature provides evidence reflecting this: “Red, the color of blood, expresses the presence or permanence of life. It is also a sign of sin: In the twelfth century, Mary Magdalene buys rouge with the admitted aim of seducing young people, and a devil brings Mary a mirror to help her put on her make-up.”21
Finally, the history of red lipstick reveals a duality: the image of the “classic beauty” and straightforward, “acceptable” sex vs. the “temptress” and forbidden seduction. This dual perception of the countless women who wore red lipstick is what has given this cosmetic trend’s history so provocative. At times, it merely represents a standard of beauty, however, the red-stained lips of a woman came to assume so much sensuality that their power and influence over men developed the characterization of “sinful”.
In the twentieth century, women used red lipstick to push the boundaries of how society viewed them. Women were tired of society classifying them as second best, and after taking the place of men in the workforce during times of war, they felt they had proven their worth and were ready to demand equality. This symbolized the first use of red lipstick as a badge of power and it continues to be worn for the same reason even today; remarkably, the converse view of a made-up woman as an untrustworthy temptress still holds true, as well.
Additional Red Lipstick History Sources
The Makeup Historian Podcast - How Do You Feel When You Wear Red Lipstick?
The Makeup Historian Podcast - Jennifer Keil: Red Lipstick Research
Sylvia Plath Always Wore Red Lipstick. Does It Matter? The Kit
We Tested (Almost) 100 Red Lipsticks to Find the Best One - The Kit
Rustenholz, Alain. Make Up. Heron Quays, London: Octopus Group, 2003. Print. Pg. 126.
Schaffer, Sarah E. "Reading Our Lips: The History of Lipstick Regulation in Western Seats of Power." The Food and Drug Law Institute Food and Drug Law Journal (2007): n. pg. Web.
Ibid.
Montserrat, Dominic. Sex and Society in Graeco-Roman Egypt. London: Kegan Paul International, 1996. Print. Pg. 69.
Karen Kozlowski, and Ragas, Meg C., Read My Lips: A Cultural History of Lipstick. Canada: Raincoast Books, 1998. Print. Pg. 13.
Schaffer, Sarah E. "Reading Our Lips: The History of Lipstick Regulation in Western Seats of Power." The Food and Drug Law Institute Food and Drug Law Journal (2007): n. pg. Web.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Rustenholz, Alain. Make Up. Heron Quays, London: Octopus Group, 2003. Print. Pg. 126.
Schaffer, Sarah E. "Reading Our Lips: The History of Lipstick Regulation in Western Seats of Power." The Food and Drug Law Institute Food and Drug Law Journal (2007): n. pg. Web.
Karen Kozlowski, and Ragas, Meg C., Read My Lips: A Cultural History of Lipstick. Canada: Raincoast Books, 1998. Print. Pg. 50.
Ibid. Pg. 52-53.
Ibid. Pg. 30.
Ibid.
Ibid. Pg. 71.
Karen Kozlowski, and Ragas, Meg C., Read My Lips: A Cultural History of Lipstick. Canada: Raincoast Books, 1998. Print. Pg. 76.
Cage, John. Color and Meaning: Art, Science, and Symbolism. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University O California, 2000. Print. Pg. 110.
Rustenholz, Alain. Make Up. Heron Quays, London: Octopus Group, 2003. Print. Pg. 128.