Ancient Americas oldest manual from the 13th century "The Grolier Codex" shows two Mayan woman wearing lipstick.[1]. Ancient Sumerian men and women were possibly the first to invent and wear lipstick, about 5,000 years ago.[1] They crushed gemstones and used them to decorate their faces, mainly on the lips and around the eyes. Also Egyptians like Cleopatra crushed bugs to create a colour of red on their lips.[2] Also around 3000 BC to 1500 BC, women in the ancientIndus Valley Civilization applied red tinted lipstick to their lips for face decoration.[3]Ancient Egyptians wore lipstick to show social status rather than gender.[4] They extracted the red dye from fucus-algin, 0.01% iodine, and some bromine mannite, but this dye resulted in serious illness. Lipsticks with shimmering effects were initially made using a pearlescentsubstance found in fish scales.[5]
During the Islamic Golden Age the notable Andalusian cosmetologist Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi(Abulcasis) invented solid lipsticks, which were perfumed sticks rolled and pressed in specialmolds, and he described them in his Al-Tasrif.[6]
In Australia, Aboriginal girls would paint their mouths red with ocher for puberty rituals.
