The title takes a fair degree of artistic licence, but when you write, you take your laughs as they come.
In today’s blog, I’d like to share with you my personal journey with lipsticks (over the past three decades) and plot to where we are now:
If you a lipstick aficionado, then I don’t need to tell you that this is Huda Beauty’s power bullet matte lipstick, which for me, is a recent development.
Back to the beginning..
My first memory of lipstick was of my mother’s Helena Rubinstein beautiful burgundy-cherry coloured lipstick. My mother in her youth was extremely fair and this lipstick was made for her. I remember thinking she always looked like a princess when she wore this lipstick.
I, on the other hand, have the dark and equally beautiful complexion of my father. In London, New York and Paris, I would frequently buy the same shades of brown-pink by different brands. CHANEL, Dior, Estee Lauder, equally made lipsticks that didn’t suit me one iota.
The arrival of Bobbi Brown, MAC, NARS is nothing short of a Godsend. Fi and the recognition that women of colour wear lipstick, did I start to find colours that suited me.
Even then, a lipstick of the nineties was nothing to write home about:
- Colour pay-off was terrible
- Constant application to build colour was normal
- Lipsticks would smudge, bleed and any make-up kit without a lip pencil was incomplete
And did I mention, that you couldn’t eat, drink or smooch (yes, that Americanism) once you applied your lipstick?!
All hail our saviour
Yes, this is a Pat McGrath matte trance lipstick that is top of the game. Unlike the 90s nightmare, this lipstick (like many in the market):
- Is intensely pigmented: the colour pay-off is magnificent
- Its long-lasting
- And its smudge proof and does not transfer onto anything!
- Matte
Lipstick technology comes at a price
Its my view that there are two compromises with modern day lipsticks
Compromise one: The skin on the lips is constantly in repair mode
For women who regularly use lipsticks, common complaints include:
- Lipsticks are too drying, especially matte lipsticks and lip glosses.
- This issue, in turn causes lips to become drier.
- Lips are becoming darker in colour – especially around the corner of the mouth and the outline of the lips (called vermillion border)
Dry lips are a nightmare simply because they lose more water (broken barrier) then soft and supple lips. Also, dryness emphasizes fine lines and wrinkles, giving lips and the face a more mature look.
To read more about the structure of the lips, click HERE
Compromise two: Lipsticks do nothing for your lips’ health because the ingredients are all about the performance.
I’ll illustrate this using the ingredient list of Huda Beauty power bullet matte and what I write here, pretty much applies to most lipsticks.
The ingredient list is as follows:
In English, this is the breakdown of the ingredients by function…
The main components are: silicones, solvents, ingredients providing lubrication, imparting silk texture, thickeners, dispersing agents, emulsifiers, opacifiers and colourants.
As a cosmetic formulator, I can tell you that a modern-day lipstick is nothing short of a work of art. There are so many ingredients that are jam packed BUT they are designed to ensure that the lipstick performance is aesthetically pleasing. The function of the ingredients isn’t to hydrate the lips or make them healthier. Period.
What will your lipstick look like in the future?
It may be we go back to simpler ingredients. The rise in vegan or natural (meaningless as those words are), can be partly attributed to some of the ingredients that are used in current lipsticks. (And its just not about the synthetic nature of ingredients, there are also vegan and ethical concerns).
Carmine
Carmine, gives that intense red colour to lipsticks and is made of crushed bettles. Yes, if you are vegetarian and love red lipsticks, you are literally applying insects on your skin.
Mica
Make-up (lipsticks, eyeshadows etc) has mica, which is a natural shimmer pigment. Mica has to be mined and there are concerns about ethically sourcing of Mica, because the highest cosmetic grade of Mica comes from amongst other places the state of Bihar in India. As a consumer (and not even a skincare blogger), I am concerned that the mined Mica uses child labour practices.