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On the right, Boy George wearing a red lipstick as he performs at
a concert. ©Lynn Goldsmith/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images

A cylindrical case, rotating it reveals the most powerful to not deny themselves lipstick, women ingeniously diversified
and immediate of cosmetics: a red stick. Although over time it the hues between nudes and deep pinks. It would take the lavish
has been faded into thousands of nude hues, shocking pinks or intervention of Elizabeth I Queen of England to restore value to
increasingly culturally crazy colors, red is its identity color, as its the red lipstick: the mix of cochineal, egg white and fig juice with
very name in Italian, rossetto, says. which she painted her lips was not only representative the women
Its nature is philologically made explicit by the English of her court, who would also be the first codifiers of the lip pencil,
lipstick, lip stick, which traced the very ancient gesture of but above all, power. Centuries later, another of Britain’s most
spreading natural pigment by means of, precisely, a wooden famous sovereigns would ban red lipstick, deeming it vulgar,
stick. The history of red lipstick begins exactly like this, with the but Queen Victoria could not have known that the distinctive
primordial decision to intensely color the most irresistible spot on cosmetic had already withstood endless attempts to make it
the face. The earliest traces go back to the Sumerian queen Pu– disappear. After being waved on the lips of the suffragettes, in
Abi who, around 2500 B.C., dyed her lips with a mixture of white World War II lipstick was the only cosmetic to record an increase
lead and crushed red rocks. And then to Cleopatra’s Egypt, who, in sales and baptize an economic theory, the lipstick effect.
unlike Elizabeth Taylor’s peach in the movie of the same name From beeswax to make it more manageable to new
would have suggested, opted for a raw red made from beetle moisturizing and hyperpigmented mixes designed by cosmetic
and ant pigments. Even the Roman Empress Poppaea favored a technology, red lipstick today is an essential in the beauty case.
rudimentary red lipstick made from ochre, iron ore and sea oak, And it’s still a rite of passage from innocence to adulthood,
probably inspired by the mixtures that in ancient Greece were a canvas of shades depending on mood, style and personal
used exclusively by prostitutes, who had to put it on precisely to inclination, ranging from deep oxblood tones for more mysterious
be identified as such. evenings, to lip tints that harken back to adolescence, to mellow
It was from here that the history of lipstick bifurcated into long–lasting mattes that wear with placid sensuality. And among
a double standard: considered essential for the enhancement of the great contemporary red lipsticks, following in the wake of
beauty and at the same time an indication of a woman’s lack of Guerlain’s historic Rouge G, Dior’s 999 and MAC’s Ruby Woo,
seriousness. So much so that in Italy, red lipstick became the mark are now the vibrant reds of Dolce and Gabbana’s The Only One
of women of low social status and would take centuries to free itself line, of which #DGAmore640 seems to encapsulate the deepest
from the accusatory gaze and become the most powerful symbol essence of red lipstick: a decisive, round trace like a kiss that
of female independence. The Church, meanwhile, was ready to lasts a second too long, long lasting until dreams are troubled by
condemn all women who wore the color of the devil. So, in order even redder lips.

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