Definitive : Paint the Frown Red and Things Will Turn Up
Pucker up and kiss your lips with color.
Fall is on the red alert: Brown reds adapt to most skin types, blue reds give cool color to a pale complexion, orange reds warm-up to the olive-skinned and the dark skin-tones counter the brightness on almost any red for a rich hot combination.
Red lips are nothing new. Ancient Egyptian men and women colored their lips with a red ointment, as did the Assyrians and Babylonians in the Middle East. Containers with earth creams for lip color were found in what is now Pakistan from a culture that existed 5,000 years ago.
Fashionable women of the Roman Empire applied carmine, a crimson pigment made from cochineal (prepared from dried scale insects) to the lips to accent a cultivated pale complexion.
Cosmetics were used sparingly during the Middle Ages, when the natural look was encouraged by religious factions and excessive use of rouge or carmine for the lips was said to be reserved for women of ill-repute.
European men, women and children of the late 18th Century practiced face painting using a ceruse base (white lead) that was brightened with heavy rouge for lips (and cheeks). By the 19th Century, the natural look was back in style, and lip rouge was out, so women were advised to bite their lips with vigor before entering a room.
In the early 1900s, lip-biting gave way to tolerance for those who wished to “make-up.” Red pencils and tube lipsticks became available. The cosmetics industry flourished in the United States, and by 1925 “kiss-proof” lipsticks were on the market.
Bright red was the color family of choice during the ‘30s, and it is still the leader in the ‘90s, with the addition of deep, brownish reds for the contemporary fall look.
Lip finishes: Go for mattes, demi-mattes and cremes and save the frosts for another winter. For a hip trip in color, M.A.C. (available at Nordstrom) is a matte leader with 100% matte or 80% matte (satin) finish lipsticks.
Lip-service: Lipsticks deliver more than just color. Elizabeth Arden’s Lip Spa lipstick boasts a patent-pending water-emulsion formula with Vitamin E, liposomes and soothing botanicals such as chamomile extract to revitalize and re-texturize the lips in weeks.
Origins offers a politically correct vegetable-based lipstick to nurture the lips. La Prairie’s Cellular Complex Lip Colour nourishes with caviar extract, and Lancome’s Rouge Superbe gives an opaque matte finish with sunscreen protection.
Lip-schtick: Reds are exacting. If you mess up, it shows. A lip liner of the same shade or one that is close in color must be applied with precision. For definition, outline the lips and fill in with color. For a double color blast with long-lasting intensity, outline and fill-in the lips with liner first and then apply lipstick on top. Liners also help with feathering and fading problems.
Favorite colors include Yves Saint Laurent’s Rouge Intense 5 (a favorite with make-up artists available only at Nordstrom South Coast Plaza) and Rouge Flamme 80, M.A.C.’s Russian Red (Madonna’s signature lipstick) and Chili, Chanel’s Super Hydrabase in Image Rose and Coco Red, Christian Dior’s Tres Tres Dior, Estee Lauder’s Exactly Red (matte), Prescriptives’ Red Red, Clinique’s Earth Red, Elizabeth Arden’s Poppy and Loreal’s British Red Coat.
