The Redlip Effect

Red lipstick is powerful, provocative, and deeply personal. Here, how (and why) a swipe of scarlet remains as timeless as ever

- EMILY LISTFIELD

I was sitting in a movie theatre 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 travelled 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.