A colorful history

The earliest known use of colored cosmetics was in Mesopotamia 5000 years ago, where precious and semi-precious gems were ground and applied to lips and eyelids. In Ancient Egypt, much of the population used cosmetics both for beauty enhancement but also to protect themselves from the sun and desert wind. Lipsticks became part of their daily routine, except for the poor who could not afford cosmetics.

Early lipsticks were made using a toxic combination of ingredients extracted from seaweed, iodine, and Bromine Mannite. They eventually found the way to extract carmine color from beetles and ants. Cleopatra (51 – 30 BC) was often depicted with red lips.

In the 1500 years after Cleopatra’s time, cosmetic products were almost nonexistent in Europe until the start of Renaissance. The actual term "lipstick" wasn't used until 1880 and not popularized until the late 19th and early 20th century. During the 1920s, lipstick and other types of cosmetics became fashionable, a trend that has continued to present day¹.

Lipstick in modern times                                                      

The first modern cosmetic lipstick was introduced at the World Exhibition in Amsterdam in 1883 and became broadly available by 1884 when Parisian perfumers begun selling lipsticks. By the late 1890s, the Sears Roebuck catalog started to advertise and sell both lip and cheek rouge².

Packing for early lip cosmetics varied, from silk paper, to paper tubes, to small pots. Two inventors are credited with inventing the tube lipstick and made lipstick a portable item for women to carry.

In 1915, Maurice Levy invented the metal tube container for lipstick, incorporating a small lever at the side of the tube for lowering and raising the lipstick. Levy called his invention the "Levy Tube". In 1923, James Bruce Mason Jr. patented the first tube with a swivel mechanism².

The types of lipsticks can be classified as moisturizing, satin and sheer, matte, cream, pearl and frosted, gloss, long wearing and transfer resistant lipsticks³. Typical lipsticks are composed of:

• Emollients (also can help disperse pigments): 41-79 percent
• Structuring agents: 15-28 percent (usually a mixture of two to five ingredients)
• Pigments: 3-10 percent
• Pearls/luster agents: 0-10 percent
• Matting agents: 0-5 percent
• Wear ingredients: 0-5 percent
• Fragrance/flavor: 0-0.3 percent
• Preservatives/Antioxidants: 0.2-0.5 percent

Lipstick structuring agents

The types of structuring agents used in lipstick formulations include waxes, polymers, particles (e.g. silica, organo clays) and fiber network forming agents. The most common structuring agents used include:

• Ozokerite
• Carnauba
• Candelilla
• Beeswax
• Polyethylene
• Microcrystalline

It’s critical to use a blend of crystalline and amorphous waxes that provide a small crystal size on cooling, which creates good oil binding/compatibility and stick strength. Common combinations include:

• Ozokerite/Microcrystalline
• Polyethylene/Microcrystalline
• Polyethylene/Ozokerite
• Beeswax/Candellila/Carnauba

Lipstick emollients

Emollients are important lipstick ingredients that impact product application, color, spreading, and shine. The best emollients are normally high molecular weight, viscous ingredients that don’t spread quickly on skin. This can help prevent bleeding, and feathering or wicking of product into the skin creases around lips.

Emollients that provide shine normally are viscous to provide cushion and have a refractive index over 1.49. Examples of commonly used emollients include:

• Lanolin
• Castor oil
• Bis-Diglyceryl Polyacyladipate-2 (synthetic Lanolin)
• Shea Butter
• Polybutene
• Hydrogenated Polyisobutene
• Triisostearyl Citrate

Formulation tips⁴

• Lipsticks are usually formulated in three stages: a pigment grind, a wax base, and a dilution oil blend.
• Use pigment grind premixes that have been high-shear processed in a viscous emollient like castor oil, via roller mill or Kady mill. Also include a good dispersing agent.
• Use blends of crystalline and amorphous waxes to get good oil binding. Most sticks contain three to five structuring waxes.
• Slight variations in the formulation can sometimes produce big differences in hardness, crystal size, and appearance.
• Lipsticks should harden quickly and easily come out of molds.
• Waxes that produce adequate shrinkage of the lipstick on cooling must be incorporated for good mold release. It is helpful to include a small amount of wax which melts above the molding temperature, to give faster nucleation during the cooling process.
• It can sometimes be difficult to produce a lipstick which is stable across a wide range of temperatures. Materials which liquefy or solidify within the stick under different temperature conditions can alter the texture and surface appearance of the stick over time. Cocoa butter, which melts at body temperature, is a good example of a material which can produce this type of effect.
• The oils and waxes used should be close enough in polarity to readily mix when the lipstick is melted, before the stick is formed. Problems can occur if excessively high levels of a microcrystalline wax are used in a high castor oil containing lipstick, the microcrystalline wax only having limited solubility in polar castor oil.
• Use materials which produce a small crystal structure. Larger crystals can reduce gloss characteristics of the stick. Microcrystalline waxes can help form smaller crystals.
• Use fumed silica in the formulation to improve payoff, reduce pigment settling and reduce oil bleeding.

Further reading:

• Then and Now: Shampoo Formulations through the Years
• An Overview of Emollient Technology
• Natural Based Emollients
• When Small is Big: Nanomaterials EU Regulation 1223/2009 Update

References

1. http://www.historyofcosmetics.net/history-of-makeup/history-of-lipstick/
2. http://inventors.about.com/od/lstartinventions/a/Lipstick.htm
3. http://www.lipstickhistory.com/lipstick-facts/types-of-lipsticks/
4. Harry's Cosmeticology, 9th Edition