More Than Makeup: Red Lipstick from Antiquity to WWII

Apple  | Audible |  Spotify  |  RSS  | YouTube (captioned)

Red lipstick is one of the oldest cosmetics on earth. From its oldest archaeological documentation in Bronze Age Iran, to women in the military being issued 'Montezuma Red' lipstick to spite Hitler. This episode of Footnoting History explores the history and impact of this famous cosmetic. 

Host: Jessica

Help keep Footnoting History going, click here to find out how

Further Reading

Ilise S. Carter, The Red Menace: How Lipstick Changed the Face of American History, Prometheus, 2021. 

Einav Rabinovitch-Fox, "Common Threads: The History of Lipstick", The Saturday Evening Post, 2026.  

Meg Cohen Ragas, Read My Lips: A Cultural History of Lipstick, Chronical Books, 1998.
​
Music: "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin Macleod (www.incompetech.com)