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Before sticks of red lipstick were in the cosmetics section at Wal*Mart or sampled at Sephora, ancient Egyptians crushed ants and carmine beetles in beeswax to create a high pigmented color for their lips. Cleopatra most famously started a red lipstick trend among her subjects, sporting red lips while accompanying paramour Mark Antony around the world. Upper class ancient Romans under the rule of Emperor Nero, started rouging their lips and the trend caught on. Popularity of the lipstick started to decrease during the Middle Ages when women who wore red were stigmatized as lower class harlots or prostitutes. However, during the Elizabethan era, it once again gained notoriety as Queen Elizabeth I, believing it had health benefits, wore red lipstick with her pale white face makeup. The British Parliament eventually passed a law in 1770 denouncing the use of lipstick stating, “women found guilty of seducing men into matrimony by a cosmetic means could be tried for witchcraft.” But that didn’t stop the resurgence of red lipstick. In France, Queen Marie Antoinette posed for a portrait by Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun in 1783 with burgundy colored lips. In the 19th century, precisely painted bright red lips were a mandatory part of a Japanese geisha’s wardrobe. And in the 1920s, it was dark red lips paired with a short bob that easily identified a new kind of women, flappers. It was during World War II when red lipstick started to gain real power. Women from housewives to factory hands were often encouraged to put on a “good face” for the war and the red lipstick those women chose to wear became a symbol of patriotism and liberation. They imitated movie stars like Rita Hayworth and Ava Gardner in their feminine and demure behavior. And prehaps one of the most iconic wearers of red lipstick, Marilyn Monroe, inspired women all over the world with her voluptuous figure, platinum blond hair and sexy scarlet pout. Red lipstick has become a symbol of pow-