The Importance of Lipstick
Benefits of Lipstick
Women who love applying make-up before leaving the house will be very excited to hear the news. According to the experts, make-up, and especially lipstick, not only makes a woman feel more beautiful and gives teeth an extra reason to sparkle, but it can actually improve her health as well.
Even though lipstick is most commonly viewed today as a fashion accessory that can help you better achieve your preferred look, and enhance you appearance with the rest of your clothes, many today know that lipstick is very important health item that can greatly help you in maintaining your health and happiness. On surface they appear only as a tool for allowing you to look your best, but underneath, they are an important tool that can help you from inside out.
Here are some of the most important benefits of lipstick:
Beauty – No matter what style of lip color you prefer (sharp, bold and dramatic colors, or more natural and subdued shades that can be translucent), you will instantly feel more beautiful. If your goal is to stand out in the crowd, be more beautiful, or you simply need a boost in your confidence, lipstick is a perfect fashion tool for you.
Hydration – Even though some older brands of lipsticks use ingredients that can suck moisture from you lips, most of them are very conscientious about hydration and are made to preserve the natural state of your lips. New brands of lipstick can often contain some form of moisturizing additive, such as vitamin E or aloe vera.
Sunscreen – Even in early 20th century, chemist and fashion designers came to conclusion that sunscreen protection is important and that most people leave their sensitive lips up to the mercy of the sun even if they are conscious about protecting the rest of the face. Lipstick manufacturers then added sun protection ingredients to their products, enabling you to protect your lips from sun, drying, wind, and other harmful and aging effects.
Posture – Several studies have shown that women who regularly use lipstick have a better posture in the later years of their life. With long and steady tradition of standing in front of the mirror and keeping your posture and body shape in healthy conditions, women in the ages of 65 to 85 have significantly less problems with their posture and balance.
Other health issues – Lips have very different composition then the rest of our skin. It lacks melanin, substance that protects us from the harmful UV rays, and because of that wearing sun protecting lipstick can greatly reduce the chance of skin cancer. However, only matte and opaque lipsticks with SPF of 15 higher can be effective in this, but glossy and shimmery lipsticks works in totally different way, actually attracting harmful radiation and intensifying the irradiation of the lips.
What Is Lipstick Made of?
Over the last thousand years, lipstick manufacturing techniques advanced tenfold over the simple and ineffective recipes that were used in medieval Europe, ancient civilizations and prehistoric times. Even though lipstick was one (if not THE one) of the first cosmetic products to be used by humankind, it received substantial improvements over the ages. However, the reason for its use remained the same – humankind (especially female population) always needed a way to distinguish themselves in the crowd, decorate their faces for various rituals and occasions, make themselves more beautiful, and off course protect their lips from the harmful elements such as sun, wind and dry air.
We come the long way from the prehistoric times when colored berries were the only source of lip decoration. Now, modern day industry have produces standardized set of ingredients that are used in all the modern brands. One brand may differ from another with some additional substances, but let’s cover the main ingredients first.
Common lipstick ingredients
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Wax – The main ingredient of every lipstick is wax, which gives the lipstick base that is easily applied to the lips. Most commonly used types are beeswax, candelillaand carnauba wax. The last of them, carnauba wax, is extracted from the leaves of the Brazilian wax trees, making it more expensive than first two types.
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Oil – More than 60% of the lipstick weight is reserved for the very important oils. The most commonly used types are vegetable oil, castor oil, lanolin oil, mineral oil and even cocoa butter.
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Pigment – Lipsticks come in incredible variety of colors, and pigments are the substance that allows them to gain every shade of color imaginable. Women have incredible preference to even subtle color shades, which is forcing the manufacturers to produce lipsticks in wide variety of colors.
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Preservatives and antioxidants – Lipsticks are not products that can be used for extremely long periods of time. They have ingredients that degrade over time, and right mixture of preservatives and antioxidants can play a big role in the prolonging of their shelf life. One useful tactics for prolonging their life is refrigeration. If you want to use your lipsticks for a long time, store them in your refrigerator!
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Alcohol – This ingredient is used as a solvent for the wax and oils.
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Fragrance – Oils, waxes, pigments, and other ingredients that are present in the lipstick can sometimes emit their own smell, so many manufacturers add little fragrance to make it peasant to the nose.
Harmful ingredients
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Many lipstick brands use lead as one of their ingredients.Even though lead can be very harmful if ingested, regularity bodies of many countries limit the use of this element with strict rules.
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Harmful pigments – some pigments can be derived from coal tar, which is a toxic mixture that can cause nausea, headaches, skin irritation and attention deficit if ingested. Another pigment called Carmine can cause skin irritation.