Hare they old? do they go off do they blur? Do they get stuck somewhere? There are many questions you can ask about lipsticks. We did the test: six days, six lipsticks, six coffee mugs – and six unvarnished answers.
Red lipsticks have been important for a long time. In ancient Egypt, women and men are said to have painted their lips with red paint. In Rome, upper-class women wore their lips in red to contrast with the poor. And more than 100 years ago, lipstick helped in the fight for women’s rights: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Charlotte Perkins Gilman wore red lips to send a signal for emancipation.
The lipstick gives attitude, gives self-confidence and sends signals. It is serious and classic, attractive and erotic at the same time. As Berlin make-up artist René Koch says: “A woman wearing lipstick is viewed seven seconds longer than a woman without lipstick. And what can’t happen in seven seconds?”
Kissable and nourishing
Parisian perfumers presented the first stick-shaped lipstick in 1883 at the World Exhibition in Amsterdam: a stick made of castor oil, deer tallow and beeswax wrapped in tissue paper. This was cumbersome, the pen colored the fingers and was a slow seller. Around 1900, Guerlain invented lipstick in metal cases. Today it is available as a classic pen or in liquid form, in matt or glossy. Many are supposed to be kissable and also care for the lips.
The symbolic value of the cosmetic utensil is also revealed by the “lipstick effect”: In a crisis, people buy more lipsticks. If they don’t have the money for expensive clothes or jewelry, lipstick becomes a small luxury that is visible. The theory was made famous by Leonard Lauder, head of the cosmetics company Estée Lauder until 2009. After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, he found that his company was selling more lipstick than usual. He concluded that when the economy is unstable, sales soar because women lift their spirits with inexpensive lipstick rather than $500 strappy pumps.
Now we are in times of crisis again: the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis, the climate catastrophe. The lipstick will certainly not lead us out of the crises. But it might be useful to reapply it. Finally, just red lipstick improves the mood. And because a mood enhancer can help in the dark season, I took a closer look at lipsticks.
What is important? In addition to the color, of course, durability and wearing comfort are important. So I wore each lipstick for a whole day and didn’t stop at any food. Because we are still dealing with the corona virus, I wore a mask – even for a longer period of time – and put it on and took it off several times.
I used the lipsticks without lip liner, after all, lip liners can change the wearing comfort and, above all, the durability of the lipsticks. So that I could still apply the darker lipsticks properly, I had a lip brush at hand, cleaned the edges with concealer and then fixed them with a bit of transparent powder.
Once the lips were made up, the question arose as to whether the lipsticks were kiss-proof and, as promised, really lasted ten hours. I got to the bottom of this question with coffee-to-go cups: After enjoying the coffee, I checked whether and how much the lipsticks had left their mark on the cup.
After six days and six lipsticks, there is a clear winner for me in terms of durability: The Powermatte Lipstick from Nars rubbed off the least, lasted almost the whole day and still felt pleasantly soft on the lips the whole time. However, Gabrielle from Chanel left the most kissable lips on the mug. That makes you want more.