Lipstick, Lip Gloss, or Lip Balm?

Before we can decide what types of lip products to use, we must first know what makeup is. Makeup products are special products that are applied to the face (The Free Dictionary). Makeup that we use today was not created recently. Modern day makeup was used back during the Egyptian era, but in a different way (History of Cosmetics). It may have even been used way before that.

There are many different types of makeup products including: powders, gels, suspensions, sticks, ointments or pastes, lotions, capsules, tablets or cakes, primers, foundation, and concealers (History of Cosmetics). Women tend to wear makeup a lot more than men, according to Ilia Schuchard “Women don’t have to.” They are just socially told to, women are told to look good in whatever it is they work as. They are judged for their looks more than men, just by society” (“Why Do Women “Have to”).

Some makeup consists of animal substances for example, the lining of whales stomachs is used to make perfumes smell good (“Disgusting Ingredients In Cosmetics”). Makeup serves many purposes in our society today. It can be used for almost anything including, making people look good, acting out plays, halloween costumes, and many other things (“What Is the Purpose of Makeup?”).

One of the makeup products that a lot of stores sell is lipstick. Lipstick is a waxy-like substance that is used for the lips (Merriam Webster). Lipstick was made over 4,516 years ago, and the ancient mesopotamian women of that era used crushed gemstones to decorate their lips (“History of Lipstick”). The company who invented lipstick of this era was Guerlain, a french cosmetic association. Lipstick is usually used to make the lips pop out and is represented by dark, majestic colors, or bright and bold colors (“Genius Lipstick Hacks Every Woman Should Know”). The ingredients of lipstick mainly consist of wax, oils, antioxidants, and emollients (“Lipstick”). There are several brands of lipstick but, here are just some of them: MAC, L’Oreal, Revlon, CoverGirl, Bobbi Brown, Oil of Olay, and Wet ‘N Wild (“Something You Should Know: In the Cosmetic Industry, Who Owns Whom?”).

Now that we learned some background information on lip makeup, I will tell you how I did my experiment. I didn’t know what I needed to start so I decided to look at a few websites, so I could figure out how to make lip gloss. I also didn’t know how many materials I needed. Therefore, I created the following list:

• Maybelline Purple Lipstick
• Clinique Pink Lipstick
• Revlon Red Lipstick
• Petroleum Jelly
• Honey
• Beeswax
• Burt’s Bees Lip Balms
• Various Flavorings and Powders
• Various Colorings and Powders

Once I bought all the materials needed, I started my experiment. First, I created my homemade lip gloss by melting some petroleum jelly in a microwavable safe-bowl in the microwave. Then, I mixed in some light pink coloring, along with some glitter. After this, I let it sit for five to six minutes to let it harden. I made another one with bubble gum flavoring and dark pink coloring, along with one where I melted a red crayon in a pre-heated oven at 275° for ten minutes. I added that to melted petroleum jelly, along with peppermint oil and pearlescent glitter. Then, I put one out of the three lipsticks on my lips and I blotted my lips on a piece of paper to see if that was the one to stay on my skin the longest. I did this same thing with the other three lipsticks, my three homemade lip glosses, and my colored lip balms.

After I made all the lip glosses, I put them in little, plastic pots. I also put labels on them to show what flavor and color they were. For example, I made my homemade peppermint/crayon lip gloss Peppermint Shine Lip Gloss.

An observation that I made on this project was that the bubble gum scented lip gloss came out lighter than the Sunset Sparkle lip gloss. I think this is because the bubble gum flavoring canceled out the darker pink coloring that I used and made it lighter than the Sunset Sparkle Lip Gloss. The flavorings came out very nice and they smelled absolutely amazing. The sparkles that I added to most of the lip glosses gave them a fresh, “pop” look. When I put the lip products on, the one that felt the best on my lips was probably the lip gloss because it had that moisturizing touch. The taste of the products on my lips was very sweet and soft.

My results were very different from my original hypothesis. The lip gloss came out as the winner of the three lip products, and in the lip gloss category the one that stayed on the longest from my blot test observations was the Sunset Sparkle Lip Gloss. In the lipstick category the one that stayed on the longest was, the Maybelline Purple Lipstick. In the lip balm category the one that stayed on the longest was, Burt’s Bees Pomegranate Lip Balm. I did not like the waxy feel of the lip balms. The black lip gloss that I made did not look very good on the lips, but at least it felt nice and had a nice flavor to it. I named this one Dark Soul Shimmer Gloss just for one of my friends. The major thing that went wrong was that we broke our microwave trying to heat all that stuff!