LIPSTICK LOVIN....

So every now and then I like to express my total passion for the greatest  beauty invention EVER..................... yes you got it....LIPSTICK!      To say I LOVE it would be a great understatement....I think it is singularly the most effective beauty item out there  (mascara being a close second). It gives the face a total pick me up and colour burst bringing facial features to life and with the right hue the skin tone glowing too. ......Whats not to love ......... 

I've tried many many brands over the years and I would be embarrassed to admit to  just how many Lippies I possess........Hmmmm.....Even to myself.....Ha Ha!  My love of this great invention goes way back to my childhood when at around the age of seven I decided to explore for myself what exactly it felt like to sweep this amazing twist up colour stick across my very young lips...........

Now this would have been all well and good had I not chosen my mothers most expensive and treasured lipstick brand at the time.......It was Lancome and she adored it and as cheaper brands weren't as plentiful as they are today  she didn't have a lot of them as they were quite expensive at the time.........I think she probably wouldn't have been quite so cross with me had I not broken it after drawing giant hearts on both my cheeks and then covering my entire nose with the coral pink colour........She interrupted my very enjoyable experiment in the bathroom after looking for me for almost thirty minutes......To say she was upset was an understatement......

Despite the trouble I got into coupled with the fact I still had a bright coral face the next day in school I didn't really regret the experiment and thus a love affair had begun....Ha Ha!

The history of Lipstick is a quirky and interesting one and I'll try to give you a quick condensed version of what I've discovered..... Here's the facts...   

Most historians regard the Ancient Sumerians to be the inventors of lipstick after discovering cosmetic cases dating back to 3500 BC while others like to credit the Ancient Egyptians where both men and women rouged their lips using a mixture of red ochre , carmine , fat or wax.          In Ancient Greece women didn't fare as well in the cosmetics battle and so it was only prostitutes that were allowed to wear lipstick in public (they actually had more legal power than the average female at the time and so wore the red scarlet lip paint to their hearts content). However it was generally made up of red dye , sheep sweat and crocodile pooh!!!!!!! Hmmm....well these ladies suffered for their art.......Unfortunately this also led to the first law relating to lipstick which ordered that prostitutes would be punished for NOT wearing lipstick in order to distinguish them from "REAL LADIES" who were forbidden to wear it.

I would have been burnt at the stake  back in the day.....................

Throughout the Medieval period (400s-1400s A.D) lip colour was in and out of public favour depending on various religious groups opinion of it etc. Lipstick was also used to distinguish class difference too and ladies of higher birth wore bright pink whereas the poorer class females donned an earthy red tone to denote their inferior status. (Bet they looked better anyway as this tone would have generally suited a wider variety of skin tones that bright pink.....!!!!!!!!!) ...........Ha Ha ha!!!

In the 1500's despite the fact that the religious orders were trying to ban lipstick deeming it "The Devils Work".....steady on fellas!!!!  Ha HA HA! they didn't figure on the new Queen Elizabeth adoring it. She used a mixture of gum Arabic , egg white , cochineal , and fig milk that made crimson lips a vital part of Elizabethan fashion ... 

Nothing as uplifting as a good Red Lippie...LOVE

In the 1600's it was much the same and saw the clergy trying to ban it at every turn. However,   it was still used to distinguish between social classes and was even worn by men...                          The 1700's saw a tougher attitude towards the wearing of the sinful red hue and so a law was passed that condemned the wearing of lipstick.........the reason.......wait for it..........WOMEN FOUND GUILTY OF SEDUCING MEN INTO MATRIMONY BY COSMETIC MEANS COULD BE TRIED FOR WITCHCRAFT.......................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HELLO........                                                        If this wasn't bad enough just like England some American states followed suite and "Protected" men from the "enchantment" of Lipstick by allowing a marriage to be annulled if the wife had used lip colour during the couple's courtship.......... (Not making this up folks...) UNREAL!!!!!!!!!!!

In the 1800's Queen Victoria reigned and she hated cosmetics so lip painting fell out of fashion. However , during the mid 1800's a revival of lipstick took place in Europe and Guerlain produced its first commercially successful lipstick in the 1880's. The first public lipstick application  caused a huge scandal and was applied in public by stage Actress Sarah Bernhardt in the late 1880's .......GOOD ON YOU GIRL.....

Recent purchase for my birthday 3 mac lipsticks ......left to right ..........lovely neutral shade mehr , viva glam   by ariana grande and a dazzling red called red rock. these are all great shades and strong pigments as you would expect from mac. my only negative is i find them quite dry as these are all in matte formulas.

In the 1900's make-up and lipstick had become socially acceptable. This was augmented by the New York suffragettes taking to the streets in 1912 wearing bright red lipstick. After centuries of male authority banning women's use of lipstick for moral and religious grounds red lip colour had truly become a symbol of female rebellion.                                                                               1915 saw the inventor Maurice Levy introduce the first ever sliding metal lipstick tube which gave way to the lipstick as we know it today.......I COULD KISS THAT MAN........

The 1920/30's saw the invention of motion pictures and Hollywood and the popularity of Lipstick grew to great proportions.  It had silent movie starlets featured on film wearing red pouts and the public adored them and tried to copy their pouts. Clara Bow a very well known actress of the silent movie era had perfect "Cupid" shaped lips and so the expression "Cupid Bow" lips was born...

In 1933 Vogue declared "LIPSTICK" as the most important cosmetic for women of all time  and even during the great depression in America it continued to sell well. It even inspired  a financial term used among the New York trader called  the "LIPSTICK EFFECT" which meant that even in times of great hardship consumers would still save to buy  small frivolous goods like lipstick to lift the moral during times of emotional and financial hardship......... I can relate to this ...the amount of times I've bought myself a new lipstick when I'm feeling down are too many to mention..........How about you guys... Have you ever purchased a lipstick as a quick pick me up??????............ Love to know the answer to this in the comments..... Anyway back to the conclusion ......

Now my post wouldn't be complete without a bargain or two thrown in. These fab cosmetics are from dealz ........a discount store here in ireland. The volume mascara is great and the lipsticks have a strong pigment and are also moisturising.   i choose the shades naked brown and fuschia pink. the mirror compact is super cute too. all these retail at €1.49 each............ whats not to love.........

During World War 2  women were encouraged to wear lipstick and look their best as a symbol of a fighting and victorious attitude and even the cosmetic companies gave the different shades patriotic names like ...Victorious Red etc.

In 1953 Revlon introduced its "Fire and Ice"  advertising campaign which was to become one of the most powerful in cosmetic history. They used Hollywood actresses like Marilyn Monroe to showcase their shades making red lipstick more desirable  than ever before.

The 1960's and 1970's saw a huge decrease in the popularity of red lipstick due to the nude lips favoured by Mary Quant and the mod fashion of the time. The 1970's saw the rise of the Hippie movement and they carried a preference for an overall natural beauty... which didn't include red lipstick.

The dealz cosmetics range "make-up gallery" have a wide range of colours and products

In the 1980's/1990's the celebration of feminism and sexuality was encouraged and saw the emergence of Madonna sporting a bright sexual pout...  Nudes were still popular in the more conservative 1990's and saw a lot of new brown based tones of lip colour being introduced. As the new millennium approached women were sick of being told which colour was fashionable now and tended to wear a lipstick colour to suit their moods and lifestyle.

dealz stock very impressive variety of cosmetics including a full range of brow products. All €1.49.

As for today in 2017 well I'd say its safe to say that anything goes....... and judging by the hard fight we made as females to get the right to wear Lipstick at all down through  the ages we more than deserve that right. The right to wear what we want on our face anytime that we want.....the right to be ourselves and to freely express ourselves through our make up and clothing .... A big THANK YOU to all those brave women who made it possible for us to express ourselves freely through our style and make up in 2017.... XXX

Hope you enjoyed my Lipstick Lovin post.                   Talk again soon  XXX VIOLINKIT