Kiss and Tell: Wild History of Lipstick

The first recorded lipstick devotee, Ancient Ur's Queen Schub-ad, enhances her lips with a reddish formula made from lead and iron-rich rocks.

Egyptians are wild about lipstick and use red ochre, carmine, and other dyes to create a variety of shades, from tangerine to pink to black — proving that the black lipstick trend is nothing new.

In Ancient Greece, lipstick is considered a cosmetic exclusively for prostitutes. Ladies of the evening redden their lips with formulas containing everything from red wine to mulberries and seaweed.

Roman ladies have such complicated toilettes that they require an ornatrix, or manager, for their teams of cosmetic slaves. Their lipsticks of choice are deep purple-reds. Men also wear lipstick as much as women, and different shades come to serve as social status indicators.

In 1000 CE, famed Moorish cosmetologist Abulcasis invents the first solid lipstick using specially shaped molds.

The Aztecs grind up cochineal beetles to make vibrant dye, but they also use cochineal to paint lips and faces a deep shade of incarnadine.

Queen Elizabeth I loves lipstick, and her personal recipe consists of cochineal, gum Arabic, egg whites, and fig milk. Elizabeth's court also invents the first lip liner by mixing plaster of Paris with red pigment, then leaving the stuff to dry in the sun.

Even the first first lady, Martha Washington, is fond of a cherry-colored pout. Her personal recipe sounds a little like a particularly gross tinted lip balm. It's made with beeswax, lard, sugar, almond oil, alkanet, raisins, wax from sperm whales' heads, and balsam.

With the advent of World War II, female factory workers have income of their own. Lipstick sales take off and the product loses any remaining associations it had with "low-class" women. Even patrician actresses like Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn wear scarlet lips.

In a study, the Campaign for Safer Cosmetics finds that a third of brand-name lipsticks it tested have more lead than is legal. Cosmetics companies dismiss the claims and insist their products are tested and safe. And the controversy rages on.