Lip colour has never been just decoration. Across thousands of years it has signalled wealth, rebellion, respectability, glamour and sometimes scandal. Its history is written not only on faces, but in laws, advertising and changing ideas about who gets to be seen.
Colour from the ancient world
People in ancient Mesopotamia used ground minerals to colour their lips. In Egypt, red pigments could be made from ochre and other ingredients, with elaborate cosmetic routines belonging to men and women alike. Beauty was connected to status, spirituality and care for the body.
Centuries later, European attitudes shifted unpredictably. Lip colour moved in and out of fashion, sometimes associated with the court and at other times condemned as deceptive or improper.
Red as rebellion
In the early twentieth century, lipstick became easier to carry and apply. The modern tube helped turn it into an everyday product. Red lips also acquired political force: suffragettes wore vivid colour as a visible statement of confidence and modernity.
During the Second World War, cosmetics were promoted as morale-boosting symbols, even while ingredients and packaging were restricted. By the post-war era, Hollywood had made the carefully painted lip one of glamour's most recognisable signatures.
Today, lipstick can be armour, play, tradition or simply a colour someone loves. Its history is small enough to fit in a handbag and large enough to tell us how beauty and power have always overlapped.