What are lipsticks made of

What are lipsticks made of

Lipsticks are smooth, creamy sticks used for lip make-up. Basically lipsticks are a blend of waxes and oils with coloring substances. Other ingredients such as fats, pigments dyes and perfumes etc. may also be incorporated.

Waxes are used for hardening purposes - the more wax the harder the lipsticks.

A variety of waxes viz beeswax, paraffin wax, carnauba wax or spermaceti are used in lipstick manufacture.

Usually oils derived from natural 1 sources such as castor seed oil extracted from the seeds of Paddua (Palma Christi) is used to dissolve the pigments and to impart the desired consistency. Sometimes other oils such as wheat germ oil or almond oil are used to incorporate their natural lip-care attributes in the lipstick. Alternatively, fats — fatty acid esters of glycerol and polyethylene glycol — may be used as substitutes for oil.

The colouring agents in lipsticks are dyes and pigments. They are added to manufacture lipsticks of different shades. The most commonly used non-toxic skin staining dyes certified as safe for cosmetics are the bromoacids, eg, tetrabromofluorescin.

Coloured lakes or salts of organic dyes are also used for this purpose. The metallic compound ferric oxide is also used to impart subtle shades of bright pink, red and orange.

Other ingredients used in lipstick manufacture consist of cocoa butter and lanolin that serve as soothing emollients. Mineral oil is used to impart lustre. Particles of titanium dioxide are added if a pearly finish is desired.