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Lipstick perfectly demonstrates what women want in those times when they cannot afford to want much. Red color returns us to basic values, gives us confidence, fills us with a thirst for life.
The flippantly named Lipstick index was created by Leonard Lauder, president and CEO of Estée Lauder, based on his own observations of lipstick sales skyrocketing during economic downturns.
It’s no surprise that in recent years, the cosmetic industry has released a whole galaxy of luxurious, seductive classic lipsticks.
The most respectable brands compete, using every possible means to turn the tube itself into a real object of desire, considering even the sound with which it will open. Why lipstick and why red?
Of course, this is the maximum external effect at a minimum cost. But there are deeper, not always conscious motives that force us to make a purchase – even if there is no opportunity (or courage) to use it.
Eternal symbols
Chanel loved red lipstick. “This is the color of our blood, there is a lot of it inside us,” she said. Wearing red for her meant expressing her inner essence, letting her out. This color is full of life, it symbolizes energy and sexual activity.
“In an economically difficult time, this is how an archaic desire to preserve the species can manifest itself in us,” explains social psychologist Yulia Fedotova. – Red lipstick on the lips is a kind of declaration of a woman about her fertility and readiness to accept a partner. Those who have not yet found a romantic passion for themselves (or do not feel support from him) begin to look for a mate. Red lipstick in this case is like a marriage announcement.
However, this “struggle for survival” has another aspect.
“The oral zone is also connected with the process of consumption,” Yulia Fedotova continues. – Such a powerful visual accent on the lips symbolizes unsatisfied desire: we cannot consume as much as we would like. It would be natural at such a time to want to increase the diet, to eat more than usual. But a modern woman, as a rule, looks after her figure, and therefore bright lipstick serves as a kind of substitute, giving alternative opportunities in order to secure her future.
More about red
You can read more about the color red in Red, Kitoni, 2009 from the All Colors of the World series. He talks about the essence and qualities of the color red, about its role in art, culture and history.
Eroticism and pleasure
It borders our mouth, the first erogenous zone, which manifested itself in infancy: the sucking reflex helped us survive and at the same time gave us pleasure.
Lipstick, more than any other medium, is associated with the sensual pleasure that women receive from cosmetics. Satiny or velvety texture, delicate fragrance, enjoyment of color application, mouth contouring.
And of course, exquisite packaging.
“The phallic shape of the tube with a column of lipstick emerging from it leaves no doubt: we have an object loaded with erotic meaning,” states Yulia Fedotova. – And many cosmetic companies use this moment in their advertising.
By the way, no matter how funny it may be, some women buy red lipstick not to really use it – they just want to have it. It is an object of desire, but much safer than its prototype: in our modern ideas there is nothing reprehensible in lusting after it, bringing it to the lips, enjoying it.”
Confidence in your strength
What is a woman who paints her lips bright red?
“I would say that this is a lipstick for confident women,” says 35-year-old Anna. “I always admire those who dare to wear it. I bought myself two tubes of red lipstick, but I have never dared to use it to go out.”
Seductive, devilish, viciously red lips evoke too powerful associations with sexual power.
“Removing the cap from a tube of red lipstick, we discover the vamp woman in ourselves, let her out like a genie from a bottle,” says 42-year-old Karina. – I love this feeling. I like red lipstick prints the same way, like kiss marks. I generally like to leave a mark where I have been.
Not surprisingly, for some men, red lipstick on women’s lips radiates danger and even aggression. She becomes a woman’s weapon and armor, at the same time attracting attention and prescribing a certain distance.
Resist Chaos
Two basic needs – reproduction and satisfaction of hunger, two sensual pleasures – erotic arousal and enjoyment of food – hold the key to our desire for red. It is in this way – through a seemingly frivolous, artificial detail – that the most ancient instinct of self-preservation manifests itself.
After all, the etymology of the word “cosmetics” goes back to the Greek kosmos – order opposed to chaos. When a woman puts on cosmetics, this manifests the desire of her being to find harmony, to triumph over disorder.
Surprisingly, red lipstick seems to really be able to give strength to withstand circumstances, to help discover the source of energy and confidence in the future.
“Women preferred red lipstick as an attribute of courage and lust for life”
Editor-in-Chief of the magazine “Fashion Theory: Clothing, Body, Culture” Lyudmila Alyabyeva
“French historian Michel Pastouro, when compiling a dictionary of colors, called red “color No. 1”. Red lipstick claims the same role in history: if there were only one shade of lipstick, it would no doubt be red.
Women have been tinting their lips for a long time, using a variety of techniques for this, but there were times when real persecution was declared on lip paint. So, in 1770, the English parliamentarians imposed a ban on the use of cosmetics, seeing in lipstick a weapon that could “induce a man to marry.”
Exactly a century later, Guerlain released the first truly red lipstick. To wear it, women needed a certain courage: in Victorian times, red on the lips was associated with the color of lanterns above the entrances to brothels. Suffragettes, who advocated gender equality, always painted their lips with bright red lipstick before going on protest marches.
The red “pen of love” was no less in demand among actresses; the legendary Sarah Bernhardt was his big fan. Cinema made red lipstick a real “weapon of mass destruction”. The stars of the “great mute” Theda Bara, Gloria Swenson, Asta Nielsen brought into fashion the legendary dramatic look: thickly lined eyes, well-defined eyebrows and dark lips.
Hurrying to work, going shopping or going to a dance, millions of women around the world, imitating screen beauties, tried to reproduce the “rosebud” mouth shape invented by Hollywood make-up artist Max Factor – of course, in red.
During the years of the Great Depression, during the Second World War and after the events of September 11 in America, women invariably preferred red lipstick as an attribute of courage and lust for life.
About expert
Ludmila Alyabyeva – Candidate of Philological Sciences, Editor-in-Chief of the journal Fashion Theory: Clothing, Body, Culture.