It is common knowledge that lipstick is a staple in every makeup user’s wardrobe, but did you know that it originated in ancient Mesopotamia, as early as 3700 BCE! Its first known user was Queen Schub-ad of ancient Ur. However, this small but significant tube of cosmetic paint did not always enjoy the popular status that it currently does. Over the ages, the use of lipstick has been regulated by social status, religion, gender, and health concerns. 

Scandalous history

The earliest known records of creating lipstick were in ancient Mesopotamia, where women would grind precious gems to dust and use it to adorn their lips. It became a popular trend and people started experimenting with other ingredients to perfect the crude formula. It reached Egypt around 2000 BCE, where it started being widely consumed by both men and women from the royalty and clergy.  

Different shades became known as status symbols, with the classic red being used only by women of power and status, including Queen Cleopatra. Lipstick’s popularity suffered a fall in ancient Greece, when it came to be regarded as artificial and a potential deception for men and class divides. According to legal scholar Sarah E. Schaffer, laws were passed allowing only sex workers to use lip paint, and consequently, they would be punished if they appeared in public without makeup, improperly posing as ladies of society. There was again a rising trend during the Roman civilisation, becoming quite chic among men, who used it to indicate social standing, and wealthy women, who used it for fashion.

Lipstick went out of fashion in Western Europe during the Middle Ages, due to religious regulations. The church mandated that women who used any kind of cosmetic enhancers were in league with the devil, as it challenged God and his workmanship. Around the 1700s, restrictions became even harsher, making anything that altered women’s appearance, including wigs, false teeth, and even high-heeled shoes, grounds for annulment of marriage, or allegations of practicing witchcraft. Even though these legislations were overtly sexist, they indirectly saved many lives, since the ingredients used to make lipstick back then were poisonous and often deadly. The negative view on lipsticks took a turn again during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, who, like Cleopatra, frequented bright red lips and paid no heed to the church.

Shocking ingredients in the earliest samples

The earliest known lipsticks found in Mesopotamia were made of white lead and crushed red rocks. As the formula evolved over the ages, the ingredients started getting more diverse and often fatal. In ancient Greece, the red lipsticks used by sex workers have been recorded to contain sheep sweat, human saliva, and even crocodile excrement!

It is incredible the extent to which humans were willing to go for facial adornment and social status. In Egypt, two common toxic components were bromine mannite and iodide, which when fused, produced a purple hue. These lipsticks became dubbed as the ‘kiss of death’ since they managed to kill several users. Even as late as the 1850s, lipsticks were found to contain toxic metals like lead and mercury.

20th century America saw the rise of lipsticks being used by Suffragettes to claim emancipation; however, these had a tendency of turning rancid, several hours after application, as they were made with crushed insects, beeswax, and olive oil. It was not until 1938 that the US passed the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act, which finally introduced safety standards.

Evolution of the commercial lipstick

Somewhere around 8 to 12 AD, a man named Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi became the first person to create a product similar to what we know today as the modern-day lipstick. He rolled perfume sticks in a special mold to create the first-ever solid lipstick. In 1884, a French cosmetic company called Guerlain used deer tallow, beeswax and castor oil, rolled in a silk paper package, to create a product most similar to commercial lipstick, as far as ingredients were concerned. In 1923, Maurice Levy created the first swivel-tube lipstick, which was both portable and easy to apply, and the design took off from there.

A French chemist in the 1920s named Paul Baudercroux, attempting to create a lipstick that was long-lasting and smear-proof, manufactured the ‘Rouge Baiser’ which was supposed to be kiss-proof. However, it got banned soon on the grounds that it could not be removed without serious damage. There were several other attempts at creating a smear-proof lipstick, but the first successful one was by Hazel Bishop in the 1950s. Other experimentations with formula gave birth to the first lip gloss in 1920.

As a more long-lasting formula hit the market, various shades started emerging. Earlier, the most popular shades were red and purple, as they were the easiest to make. Around the 1950s, shades like pinks, whites and even black started being manufactured. During the counter-culture movement, off-beat shades became popular among certain groups, such as the goths owning black. However, red has retained its status as a classic, being the signature shade worn by the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor back then, to Taylor Swift’s classic red lip in recent times.

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