Glimmering candles. A low chatter envelops the room. Salivating, you dig into the juicy steak on your plate and take a big bi—
“You’ve got lipstick on your teeth!” Your friend suddenly whispers in your ear. She gestures towards your mouth.
“Oh…thanks,” you say. Eager to avoid the embarrassment of sporting a lipstick-stained grin, you wipe it off and turn back to your steak. The conversation resumes, and you quickly forget the mishap.
But others remember.
With a swipe of your napkin, you’ve single-handedly obliterated the blood, sweat, and tears of countless engineers, chemists, and employees. Isn’t it fair that we honor that legacy? Now, then! Let’s take a look at one of the most heroic stories of all time: the fascinating Life of Lipstick.
Despite the persistent stereotype among some parts of society that a liking for lipstick, along with other cosmetics, signals frivolity or immaturity, lipstick is a testament to human achievement in the realms of science, history, and social justice.
It is as old as some of our greatest ancestors. Created thousands of years ago in civilizations like Greece, Egypt, and Persia, lipstick started off on a somewhat rocky foot. The first models were incredibly toxic. In 700 BC, Greeks slathered delightful ingredients like sheep sweat and crocodile feces on their lips, while Romans preferred to use algae containing poisonous mercury! Centuries later, the Middle Ages marked slightly safer methods of lip pigmentation but heightened social stigma. Lipstick was seen as a symbol of witchcraft, since it “changed” the face God gave humans. This trend was still present in the 1800s, where it was thought that only promiscuous women wore lipstick!
Luckily for lipstick lovers, however, makeup as an industry gained social acceptance in the 1900s. These years brought not just tides but entire oceans of social change. Bright, bold lip colors grew influence as a representation of rebellion, quickly becoming associated with the women’s suffrage movement in particular. Today, lipstick is seen as a harbinger of empowerment and inclusivity: something everyone is encouraged to experiment and find their true selves with. Even with the influx of COVID-19 and its shock to the global economy, followed by temporary corporate shutdowns and shortages of ingredients crucial for lipstick, such as wax, lipstick has bounced back with a vengeance and asserted itself as one of the most popular makeup products in the world once more.
But wait! If it’s such a power product, how is lipstick actually made?
For that, we turn to science. Some of the most important scientific entities involved with the birth of lipstick are manufacturing, petroleum, and chemical engineers. [1]
Raw ingredients are first melted separately. Then, the mixtures are combined and rolled into a mill, grinded for a smoother feel. Hot wax is added for a good consistency. Then, it is poured into a mold for shaping and cooling. Finally, the lipstick is flamed to improve the finish and remove air or other blemishes. [2] This is all the responsibility of the manufacturing engineer, who focuses on designing the systems that make it possible to produce lipstick. The mill that grinds pigment and oil mixtures, for instance, is designed by manufacturing engineers in an assembly system of sorts. [3] Or consider colorimetric equipment (also designed by our manufacturing engineer), which controls lipstick shades. This equipment gives a numerical reading of the shade when mixed, so that it can identically match previous batches. In short, manufacturing engineers create the machines that make each part of the lipstick and oversee the production in real time.
Let’s examine this in more detail. Lipstick is born in the form of raw materials like dyes and pigments, steeped in a fragrant base of wax and oil. For example, a common type of wax is beeswax, harvested by beekeepers. Meanwhile, common oils include mineral, lanolin, and vegetable oils. [4] This is the petroleum engineer’s time to shine. Petroleum engineers take the first step towards making your lips beautiful. They are the reason companies have access to that precious oil necessary for lipstick production. These engineers use advanced technology to not only access reservoirs but minimize the environmental impact of your lipstick as well. This includes evaluating the geological potential of a proposed site, as well as designing and supervising drilling operations to extract oil from underground reservoirs. [4] An incredible amount of planning goes into this simple first step. For instance, petroleum engineers must determine the right techniques to access a particular oil source and calculate the flow of oil trajectories. [5] Without petroleum engineers, the creation of modern lipstick would have died in its cradle.
Other basic ingredients include pigments and fragrances. Synthetic pigments are derived from coal tars and other petrochemicals, while inorganic pigments are generated using simple chemical oxidation reactions. Fragrances, meanwhile, are added to mask the scent of the lipstick’s other ingredients and prevent consumers from smelling all of that stinky oil, wax, and coal tar! [6] This is why we can open our lipsticks and smell sweet strawberry or mango instead of thick wax and fat bases.
Chemical engineers are crucial throughout this entire process: they work to precisely find the right chemical combination to make that lipstick on your mouth last long and feel good. [2] All cosmetics are made of colloids—very fine particles such as pigments and polymers. But if these colloids don’t spread the right way or stick to the proper surface, the products can be nearly useless. What good would a lipstick be if it was too clunky or kept falling off your lips? Chemical engineers prevent these sorts of dilemmas. After a final check, the lipstick is ready for sale!
But a lipstick’s life is far from over after it hits the stores. Environmental damage and sustainability is an increasing concern. The truth is, lipstick production contributes significantly to environmental pollution. The packaging it arrives in is frequently a) sent to landfills or b) rejected by local recycling centers. Even worse, packaging often contains chemicals like p-phenylenediamine, which travels from landfills into waterways and hurts the plankton that fish feed on. Ethical issues are also a consideration: many lipstick companies still do animal testing. This is extremely harmful to animals and their livelihoods. Unfortunately, animal testing is an example of a negative procedure that may happen under the direction of chemical engineers, who need to determine the correct acidity levels to use in lipstick without experimenting on real humans. Sadly, some turn all too often to animal mistreatment as a solution.
Yet all is not lost. The Life of Lipstick does not have to be a bitter tragedy! Companies are exploring the option of refillable tubes—less packaging is needed and more would be saved and reused, limiting lipstick’s environmental footprint. Social groups are also mirroring the 1900s heroes who popularized lipstick to begin with, advocating for vegan and certified cruelty-free lipsticks to be released in the mass market. By watching our waste and continually searching for more humane ways of testing, engineers, scientists, executives, and consumers can all collaborate to minimize lipstick’s environmental damage and heighten its benefits instead. Here’s one situation, at least, where “kiss and tell”—that is, mindfully using lipstick and spreading awareness of the problems associated with it—might end the story with a “Happily Ever After”.
[1] Engineering the face of cosmetics
[2] How lipstick is made – material, manufacture, making, used, parts, components, steps, product.
[4] What does a petroleum engineer do? – CareerExplorer
[5] How Lipstick is Made – Discovery UK
[6] (PDF) Lipsticks History, Formulations, and Production: A Narrative Review
[7] https://engineering.oregonstate.edu/MIME/Academics/Degrees/manufacturing-engineering