Coco Chanel believed that red lipstick should accompany women throughout their lives. But the red lipstick decided to act on a larger scale and its trail stretched through the entire world history.
According to historians and archaeologists, women began to paint
lips in ancient times. Queen Nefertiti preferred to wear lipstick made from the mother of pearl of clam shells. Cleopatra, on the other hand, was a little easier in her choice of cosmetics. For her, the cosmetologists of Ancient Egypt made lipstick with an extract of formic acid, which painted the lips red.
During the Middle Ages, the position of red lipstick deteriorated. It was believed that women who paint their lips in scarlet are on short legs with the devil. For lipstick, they could be accused of witchcraft and, with peace of mind, sent to the fire. The only thing left for women to do was bite their lips a little so that they naturally blush.
With the onset of the Renaissance and the accession to the throne of Queen Elizabeth I, red lipstick has become a current beauty trend. The queen painted her lips with a mixture of ground cochineal grains and fig juice, and her courtiers repeated after her.
By 1770, red lipstick was falling out of favor again. The British Parliament passes a law that the marriage can be dissolved if it is suddenly found out that a woman dared to paint her lips before marriage. In France, during the Great French Revolution, lipstick on the lips was regarded as a manifestation of sympathy for the aristocrats. For such liberty, Parisian women of fashion were sentenced to the guillotine.
In 1870, Guerlain launched the first pencil-shaped lipstick. The face of their invention was actress Sarah Bernhardt, who was not afraid to appear in public with scarlet lips and thereby again change the attitude towards red lipstick.
It is said that another great actress, Elizabeth Taylor, was so fond of red lipstick that she refused to act in films if there were heroines with the same tint on the lips.
In 1953, The Balmoral Lipstick was invented especially for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The ruby red color with soft tints referred to the Scottish estate of Balmoral.
Christian Dior believed that red is the color of life. In 1963, the fashion house Dior launched the iconic red Rouge lipstick, which remains the leader among lipsticks of this shade to this day.
