I was sitting in a movie theater next to my mother when, as the lights were about to go down, she turned to me and said, “Don’t you want to put on a little lipstick?” She didn’t mean just any lipstick. She meant red. Bright, bold red.
My mother had an almost religious belief in the power of red lipstick to alter your life. Growing up poor in the Bronx with deaf parents who didn’t speak English or know any sign language, she had to advocate for her family from a very early age. She grappled with government agencies, teachers, and landlords on her own and had to exude confidence to ensure she was seen and heard. By the time she was 16, she had a ritual: She squared her shoulders, applied a deep-red lipstick, and stepped out into the world. She wore red lipstick when she went to work right after high school and while she took night classes, determined to get an education. Eventually, she married and traveled the globe, but red lipstick remained her talisman, a signal to herself and the world that she was worthy of attention. And when, in her 60s, she went in for cataract surgery, she painted her lips before being wheeled away, certain the doctors would pay extra care. The first thing she said in recovery: “All the nurses love my lipstick.”
My mother knew instinctively what numerous researchers have shown. One influential study published in Cogent Psychology in 2017 discovered that women who wore makeup scored higher on a test, confirming a connection between using cosmetics and better cognitive performance. “The symbolism you attach to items like red lipstick can change how you experience the world,” says Samantha Boardman, a New York psychiatrist and author of Everyday Vitality. “It falls under the umbrella of power posing. The act of putting it on penetrates your sense of confidence and competence. It changes how you feel, which can change how people react to you and thus reaffirms your choice.”
Throughout history, women have chosen red lipstick as a way to signal their power. “Using red will affect your mood, sense of mastery, and agency,” says evolutionary psychologist Julia Robertson, a senior lecturer at Buckinghamshire New University in the U.K. and coauthor of the study “Behind the Façade: Motivations for Cosmetic Usage by Women.” “The color red can have a profound psychological impact on both the user and the observer. It says, ‘I am powerful, strong, and vibrant.’ ”
Cleopatra was said to have mixed red lip tints from crushed beetles. Suffragettes wore red lipstick as part of their uniform. And during World War II, servicewomen were issued a tube of Elizabeth Arden’s Montezuma Red in their military kits.
As with so much of history, however, the story of red lipstick is fraught with inequity. The suffragette movement and the military in the 1940s were largely segregated. For women of color during that period, wearing red lipstick could mean running the risk of drawing unwanted attention.
“While I don’t think we have fully arrived, I do think things have improved,” says Alex Klein, who launched the company WYRL (Wear Your Red Lips) Beauty with three red lipsticks that work for all skin tones. “As a Black woman, my aha moment came from saying no to the idea that wearing red lipstick was unsafe or would send the wrong signal. Red lipstick means no more hiding. It’s about going after what you want and creating moments of action, impact, and courage.”
Makeup artist Carolina Gonzalez, who works with Gigi Hadid and Alessandra Ambrosio, opts for red lipstick when she wants her clients to be noticed. And while Hollywood stars of yore, from Marilyn Monroe to Hedy Lamarr, turned to red lipstick for sex appeal, Gonzalez says wearing the color today “is more about owning the room.” Her pick: Armani Beauty’s Lip Power in 400. “It’s the perfect universal red shade for anyone and everyone.”
Other notable women who’ve employed the power of red: Rihanna, who owned the stage at this year’s Super Bowl halftime show in Fenty Beauty’s the MVP; Taylor Swift, who tours in her signature Nars Dragon Girl; the late singer Selena Quintanilla, who sang Tejano songs through brick-red lips; actress Tracee Ellis Ross, who is loyal to M.A.C’s iconic Ruby Woo; and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who speaks truth to power in Stila’s shade Beso.
Even women who prefer a more understated look can harness a hint of red’s boldness. Bobbi Brown, founder of her eponymous beauty line and more recently Jones Road Beauty, is responsible for one of the most memorable lip looks of the ’90s. “Carolyn Bessette Kennedy was by far the chicest, coolest, most inspirational dresser I knew, but she didn’t really wear makeup,” she says. “When we first met, I was studying old movie stars and wanted to do a red lip in a toned-down way. Ruby Stain was the result, and Carolyn loved it. It became her trademark shade.”
My mother continued to wear red lipstick her entire adult life. After a series of falls immobilized her, she spent her last months in a rehab center on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Though she was down to 95 pounds and could no longer walk, she insisted on wearing lipstick to the center’s gym every day for physical therapy.
On the morning I got the call that she had died, I raced uptown. When I got to my mother’s room, the physical therapists were gathered by her bed. They told me how they admired my mother’s fierce optimism and felt honored that she put on lipstick to see them every day. When they left and my cousin Jimmy and I were alone with my mother, waiting for my daughter to arrive, he turned to me and said, “We have to send her out with her lipstick on.” And so we did.
Later that week, at my mother’s shiva, her friends laughed and traded stories about her determination, resilience, and gift for reinvention. As they left, I encouraged each to take a tube from a silver bowl filled with red lipsticks.
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