The Process of Lipstick

Lipstick was seen as long as five thousand years ago in the city Ur, near Babylon. The process of making lipstick and the ingredients used have changed dramatically over the years. Today lipstick is the most popular cosmetic and according to the April, 2006 issue of “Ladies Home Journal,” sixty five percent of women use lipstick daily and twenty five percent won't leave their homes without it. I’m not sure how they got these statistics, but they’re interesting. Lipstick is made of many different ingredients. The four main ingredients are pigment, wax, oil, and alcohol, and they make up sixty percent of lipstick. The wax consists of candilla, beeswax, and the more expensive oil camauba. When camauba oil is used the more expensive the product is. The oils used to make lipstick are lanolin, minerals, easter, and vegetable oil. Always, fragrance is added but only makes up one percent or less of the mixture. Also, many other ingredients can be added to the mixture to help improve its quality. The process of making lipstick consists of the following: the raw ingredients such as waxes, oils, and solvents are melted separately in stainless steel or ceramic containers. Next, the oils and solvents are ground together with the wanted use of color pigments. Next the mixture that was made is mixed with the hot wax. The mixture is stirred for several hours, and when the stirring is done the mixture is agitated to free it from any air bubbles. Some producers use a vacuum equipment to take all the air out. Then the mixture is strained and ready for molding, or it may also be poured into pans and saved for future use. Different color pigments are used to make lipstick therefore the lipstick needs to be prepared in different batches. Depending on how popular the lipstick shades are will tell us how much to make of that certain product, the size of the batch, and the quantity of tubes to produce at once. (Julyne Derrick, Beauty Guide) The next step in producing lipstick is