White Lipstick

   I was looking at some pictures of myself when I was a freshman in high school and wondered who the hell told me that white lipstick looked good? Maybe it looked good with go-go boots. I don’t know, but it made me think of make-up and the things women go through to look pretty on a daily basis.

 I guess it all started with the Egyptians many years ago. Women used to mix a concoction of soot, almonds, lead, and copper to apply as an eye-liner. They wanted a smokey gray look, and what better than applying soot on your eye-lids. I guess you could just walk over to a fireplace nowadays and just dab some soot around your eyes and then hit the town. Fireplace Smoky Gray by Maybelline.

Queen Elizabeth I wore a white paint that contained lead.  The thought was that the whiter your skin became, the more aristocratic you looked. Only lower class people worked outside and that’s why they had a tan. So, white skin was a sign of wealth and nobility. The stuff they put on their face was poisonous. They used to also wash their face with mercury. It was like the first facial peel. I’m thinking that it peeled more than a layer of your face.

Geisha’s really had white faces. I couldn’t find any reference to poisonous applications, however. So, they were safely using different native materials, although I imagine it took forever to prepare a geisha face.

 Then along came Coco Chanel and everything changed. For years, pale women wear beautiful. After that, everyone wanted to be sun-kissed. Tans were in. It didn’t mean you worked outside and were a lower class citizen. Now it meant that you could afford wintering in Florida or summer vacations. Tan meant wealth.

 In the,19 70′s, many women decided that women should be beautiful without make-up. A natural look was what women achieved. You didn’t want to look like you were wearing makeup. Even lipstick color took a more subtle look. Then, manufacturers decided to give a healthy glow for the day, more makeup for the evening. So, then, women began buying more makeup for different occasions.

 But, then Tammy Faye Baker came into view and her industrial strength mascara. Which really should have been waterproof, but you know, whatever. Poor thing. She would make fun of herself. She was never allowed to wear make-up when she was little, so she decided that she would REALLY wear it when she got older. I’m surprised she could keep her eyes open.

 Which brings me to the present. A lot of women have decided that they want permanent makeup. Tattoo face. Are we that lazy?  

And then others are having plastic surgery to change the whole look of their face. And then they put makeup on top of it. It makes me remember a Twilight Zone episode where a girl has a surgery to look like everyone else on the planet. It was called, “Eye of the Beholder.”

Many stars have become unrecognizable because of plastic surgery and botox.

 

               And I was worried about looking silly with a little bit of white lipstick. I’m now thinking I looked pretty cool.

About these ads