The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #77092   Message #1380638
Posted By: Auggie
17-Jan-05 - 11:25 AM
Thread Name: BS: Useless Trivia
Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
Lipstick

Never 'Banned in Boston', but once the New York Board of Health considered making it illegal (the year was 1924) because at the time its composition, mainly beeswax for stiffness, olive oil for flow, and crushed, dried insect corpses for color was thought by some to be a health hazard, and not to just the wearer, but even to those who were kissed.

Still ache to kiss those ruby red lips? Well, Fear Not. By the late 20th century, Modern Science had completely reformulated the product.

Today's product contains a weak acid which actually reddens the lips, castor oil to carry the acid, animal &/or vegetable oils and soap to allow the first two to be smeared around, petroleum based wax to make it rigid enough to be sold as a stick rather than a cream, food preservatives to keep the oils from going rancid, perfume to mask the caster oil smell, and synthetic dyes (often aluminum and coal tar among others)to color the product itself.

Oh yeah, one more thing. The shiny iridescent quality? It's from dried, ground fish scales soaked in ammonia.

Ain't modern life grand?