Lipstick taboos and temptations

Perhaps you don't know, at the beginning of the birth of lipstick , many people think that lipstick is low. Only "inferior women" will use lipstick. Women in high society can only think of other ways to decorate their lips. They will go to the crimson crepe paper, bite the lips and let the lips suffocate, and apply lip balm or wine to the lips. But these seem to be difficult to resist the temptation of lipstick.
In order to get lipstick and not be discovered by the outside world, British ladies have even developed a secret trading system. People who want to buy lipsticks are going to a special store, and the guides are taken to a private private room. The goods must be taken home quietly. Ladies will also privately trade their lipstick formulas secretly and secretly make them together with girlfriends. This situation continued until the end of the 19th century. As the public exposure of star actresses increased, lipsticks once again returned to the mainstream society.
Just as the British struggled to limit the use of lipstick, the Americans quickly surpassed them. In 1867, the B. Altman department store in New York opened, the first department store in the history to have a cosmetics sales center. In the same year, Harriet Fisher of New York obtained an invention patent, a tool that can color lips and cheeks. Its color comes from carmine, strawberry juice, beet juice and the roots of hollyhock. Using lipstick as a regular commodity, Americans have been more than 30 years older than the British.
In the 20th century, lipstick won its best time. Although it still bears the heavy responsibility of the status symbol, the lipstick no longer means “no reputation” or “immorality”, but is closely linked with women’s liberation. The leaders of the feminist movement, Elizabeth Katy Stanton and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, have publicly stated that lipstick is a woman’s right and a sign of liberation. In 1912, in the parade held by American women for the right to vote, lipstick was used as a permanent symbol of the participants in the movement. At this time, both the United States and the United Kingdom, women who dare to fight for their rights, use lipstick as a "resistance badge."
Just as the symbolic meaning of lipstick is constantly changing, its manufacturing process is also improving day by day. Guerlain invented the first tubular lipstick, and the lipstick pattern we are familiar with today has finally been determined. In 1915, the Scooville Manufacturing Company in Waterbury, Conn., produced the first metal tube lipstick. This lipstick quickly became a popular makeup product because of a slider device that is convenient for people to use.
In 1923, James Bruce Mason invented a twisting lipstick. From the appearance, this lipstick is no different from today. At that time, the lipstick did not reach perfection. For example, the insect powder, beeswax, olive oil, butter, lard and other ingredients in the lipstick formula were too easy to deteriorate. After using it for a few hours, it lost its effect, causing many women to cry. .
But this little difficulty can't stop the enthusiasm of the ladies. Throughout the 1920s, nearly 50 million women used lipstick and used more than 3,000 kilometers of paste every year. The US Patent Office issued hundreds of patents on lipsticks; cosmetics became the United States after cars, movies, and private wines. The fourth largest industry; when the word "generation gap" first appeared, it refers to the difference between the mother and daughter two generations of choice of lipstick.
In the Great Depression of the 1930s and the following World War II, the lipstick did not disappear, but instead steadily improved its social status with the crisis. Especially during the war, the government and the media encouraged women to apply lipstick to the factory or the army, and a bright red color between the lips became a magic weapon to boost morale. Due to the large conversion of large factories to combat materials, various fashion companies have taken on the task of lipstick production, which guarantees the supply of lipstick during the war. The US Navy has specially set up training courses to allow female soldiers to learn how to make makeup quickly and perfectly. It also stipulates that the color of the women's lipstick must match the red armbands on their uniforms and the red string on the hat. So cosmetics company Elizabeth Arden specially developed a red called Montezuma for lipstick production to meet the needs of the military.
After World War II, the relationship between women and lipstick became simple, and there was no longer any additional social status symbolic responsibility. Lipsticks have changed from a logo to a badge into the most common and common appliance in women's lives. From the representation of women's special identities to the mirror of aesthetic tastes, from the superposition of various taboos to the free choice of the masses, the lipstick has been entangled for thousands of years: "Beauty or taboo, choice or fall ", finally, there is finally a clear answer.