The Power of The Red Lip — Dames that Dish

Dear Friends and Readers,

We are all in need of something these days - whether it is a new outfit, a new attitude, or some type of magic talisman to keep the mean reds at bay. Emotions are running high - and some times a gal just needs a little extra fire power to help her get out the front door and face the day!

My magic bullet of choice is the red lip! As many of you may know I love a red lip and am always searching for that perfect shade -so here is a list of some of my favs as well as some thoughts on the power of red lipstick and how we all need some magic juju to to help us over the hump that is the remainder of 2020….

So here here we go, some thoughts and facts all about red lipstick and it’s mythical, magical powers:

Famous ladies throughout history have worn a red lip: think Cleopatra who reddened her lips with crushed beetles called ‘cochineals’, Queen Elizabeth I who wore a red lip believing it would ward off evil spirits and Queen Elizabeth II who for her coronation in 1952 commissioned a custom crimson shade of lipstick that perfectly matched her coronation robes. Today we have Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who wears a red lip to do battle most days on capital hill. And of course let’s not forget Dita Von Teese the unofficial Queen of Red Lipstick, who even has a red lipstick from M.A.C. named for her.
Here are some thoughts below from various writers on the power of this little tube of lip magic:

Red lipstick is powerful in the way no other makeup item or piece of clothing can be. It's unavoidable and potent; it's also simultaneously unquestionably, unabashedly feminine. That makes it unlike pretty much every other cosmetic or garment: it embodies strength and womanliness in equal measures. - Good Housekeeping 2019

Red is the color of women’s empowerment in our country:

In 1912 thousands of supporters of the suffrage movement marched past the New York salon of Elizabeth Arden. The cosmetics brand founder, who had just opened her business two years earlier, was a supporter of women's rights, and she aligned herself with the cause by handing out tubes of bright red lipstick to the marching women. Suffrage leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Charlotte Perkins Gilman loved red lipstick for its ability to shock men, and protesters donned the bold color en masse, adopting it as a sign of rebellion and liberation. - CNN Style

Red helps us to be bold to manifest our feelings on the outside so the world can see what it happening inwards:

For a trans girl, wearing red is a defiant choice—red refuses to be invisible. Before I even open my mouth, my red lips echo the color of blood, declaring: I am alive. They assert my sexuality—and yours, daring you to desire, to admit desire for what is often cast off as undesirable. My red lips are a manifestation of my rage, a reminder that I will no longer contain my anger inside my body, that I will not be silent about misogyny and white supremacy. - Elle Magazine article Vivek Shraya

Red Lipstick was a symbol of victory over the fascists in WWII

During World War II, red lips had their bold second act of defiance. Adolf Hitler "famously hated red lipstick," In Allied countries, wearing it became a sign of patriotism and a statement against facism. ... "It allowed women to retain a sense of their own self-identity from before the war." -CNN Style

Red lipstick has also been a survival tool both mentally and physically:

I knew from researching Ravensbrück that beauty products had been strictly forbidden at the camp. Prisoners caught wearing anything other than the baggy, blue-striped uniform shift and regulation kerchief were severely punished. Yet the more the Nazis tried to dehumanize the women, the harder they fought to find ways to feel beautiful. The prisoners who worked in the vast warehouses where the military stored the spoils of war could sneak a scrap of silk or a tiny perfume bottle back to the block to share with their camp family. But the greatest prize by far was a tube of red lipstick, in some ways more precious than food. If a prisoner was lucky enough to find one, she could help a sickly-looking woman at risk for a death selection rouge her pale cheeks. For others, the simple, familiar pleasure of applying lipstick raised their spirits and steeled their resolve to survive. Seeing Wanda in her red lipstick, I knew her choice was not about looks or fashion. For her, it said, “I triumphed”: a celebration of her survival, of beating the odds.- Elle Magazine article Martha Hall Kelly

AND

One story was about Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany that was liberated by the British Army in 1945. “As the camp was being liberated, the British RedCross sent in cartons of red lipstick, so the women who had been tortured, and endured so much, could begin instantly to inch back to normalcy.” - Women’s Hour - BBC Radio 4

Red can embolden you to realize there was things inside of you, you didn’t know existed:

I began to understand that there was something behind red lipstick. It makes you feel things. It makes you different somehow - Medium. com

And an added benefit the opposite sex seems to be drawn to it:

Research has reasserted a strong link between males' perceptions of female attractiveness and red lipstick. Specifically, men are not only most drawn to a woman's lips, but, they spend the most time (7.3 seconds) fixated on a woman's lips when she is wearing red lipstick (as reported by the Daily Mail). Other research has similarly asserted perception of power is related to lipstick, again with red in particular. So if you can withstand the added attention: Go red and wear it well. - Psychology Today

So here is a list of my favorite reds - try one out and let me know your favorite:

Ilia…Bang Bang - $28.00 One of Ilia’s lip conditioner as it says on the description: an easy red

RMS…Rebound - $28.00 RMS’s Wild With Desire Lipsticks - a ruby red

Kari Gran…Suji Lip Whip - (On Sale: $19.20) A buildable ruby hue

All of the colors above make me happy - and we need that now more than ever!!

And finally Katey Denno gives a green beauty tutorial on how to get your lipsticks to stay put: