My Favourite Things: Make Up Forever

I started using make-up in adolescence. I remember we were all, as a school, going to watch George Orwell’s Animal Farm being played out in some drama centre. Our Literature teacher had given us permission to dress up and be a little different that night although on hindsight she might have used it more as an incentive to ensure that we all attended the event.

Being in an all girl school has its pressures. Especially when you know that all your other well-to-do classmates are going to dress up to the nines. There was a compelling need to match up. So there I was in my then little black dress, wearing heels, a little black handbag and make-up. Lipstick in pastel pink to be precise and that was it.

And it’s interesting that most girls would start with the lipstick.

But I have since progressed to be an avid collector of make-up of every kind. Eye shadows, eyeliners, blushes, concealers, foundations, mascaras, different shades of lipsticks,  lip balms. You name it, I’ve got it.

Ancient Mesopotamian women were possibly the first women to invent and wear lipstick. They crushed semi precious jewels and used them to decorate their lips. Cleopatra had her lipstick made from crushed carmine beetles, which gave a deep red pigment, and ants for a base. Weird.

Lipstick has come a long way since and in 16th century England, it started to gain popularity during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, who made piercing red lips and bright white faces a fashion statement. By that time, thankfully, lipstick was made from an edible blend of beeswax and red stains from plants. Only upperclass women and male actors wore makeup.

Interestingly, did you know that in 1770 a British law was proposed to the Parliament that a marriage should be annulled if the woman wore cosmetics before her wedding day? In fact, When Queen Victoria took the throne in 1837, she banished lipstick and deemed that it was brazen and uncouth to wear makeup. Then of course the whole evolution of lipstick wouldn’t be complete without reports being published in the 1850s warning women of the dangers of using lead and vermillion in cosmetics applied to the face. Then as a solution to those problems reported, at the end of the 19th century, a French cosmetic company, began to manufacture lipstick. The first lipstick was invented in 1884 by perfumers in Paris, France.

This week on My Favourite Things, my special guest is Liza Haron, National Trainer from the professional make-up company Make Up Forever and they’ll be launching their super-sexy, red, hot Moulin Rougelipstick on 1-7 October atSephora at Ion Orchard.

So want to learn makeup tips from the professionals?

Tune in to Evening Drive Mondays to Fridays 5 to 8pm only on Symphony 92.4fm to win makeover vouchers from Make Up Forever.