The History Of Red Lipstick, From Ancient Egypt To Taylor Swift & Everything In Between

The history of red lipstick is a winding tale of power, death, rebellion, and bawdiness. Some smeared it on despite the stigma, while others literally poisoned themselves with toxic lipstick formulas in order to look beautiful. Powerful women used it to assert their space, and others used it to build courage and flirt with the idea of coming out of their boxes.

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The Co-Founder of ColourPop on Working With Hello Kitty, the FBI and Kylie

This week, indie makeup brand ColourPop launched a limited-edition collection with Hello Kitty. As you would expect from the world’s cutest anthropomorphic cat and the internet’s buzziest makeup brand (3.5 million Instagram followers), it’s already selling out. Laura Nelson, the president and co-founder, assured me at a launch event that products would be restocked continually. Read more at Racked.

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More Than Half of Women Want ‘Green’ Beauty Products Now

When it comes to unwanted, unregulated chemicals found in so many beauty products, 2016 has been the year of revolt: The Senate held its first hearing on a proposed law to improve cosmetics regulation, and sales of organic beauty products continue to climb. Now a survey has found that more than half of women over 35 — and a whopping 73 percent of millennial women — believe it’s important to buy all-natural cosmetics. Read more at Yahoo Beauty.

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Gwyneth Paltrow Surprise-Drops Her First Fragrance

Gwyneth Paltrow, the Oscar-winning actress turned online lifestyle guru, is in a familiar environ: the promo junket. Except the project she’s hocking today isn’t a new feature film; it’s Goop’s first-ever fragrance, simply called Edition 01 Winter. My first question: What is more grueling, forging a career in Hollywood or an online business in the tech world?  Read more at Vanity Fair.

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Beauty Goes Sci-Fi

There's a quiet love affair brewing between the beauty industry and the world of sci-fi. We saw it this season at the Chanel runway show, where models walked through a server room accompanied by Robo Coco robots. There was also the alien-like glittery shapes tattooed on the models' faces at Giamba. Read more at Harper's Bazaar.

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CoverGirl's New Brand Ambassador Is Muslim Beauty Blogger Nura Afia

Fresh off the heels of CoverGirl's groundbreaking announcement of makeup artist James Charles as its first male spokesmodel—a huge win for gender inclusivity—the brand is giving us yet another YAS-worthy appointment. The brand's latest beauty ambassador is makeup artist Nura Afia, a Muslim beauty vlogger known for her makeup tutorials. Read more at Glamour.

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Inside Milk Makeup's Formula for Success

In March 2016, Milk Makeup launched in 50 Sephora stores in the US with dedicated, six-foot gondolas and a “rager” featuring musical performances by Salt-N-Pepa and Santigold. It was an audacious beginning for an upstart company, whose founders had little experience in the cosmetics industry. Milk Makeup is the latest venture hatched by Milk Studios, the photo studio-cum-creative agency that sold another concept, MADE Fashion Week, to WME-IMG in 2015. Read more at Business of Fashion.

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Why This Entrepreneur Believes Risks Are Key to Building Your Brand

Beauty entrepreneur Jennifer Walsh has been a veteran in the retail and beauty space for almost two decades. As the creator of the Beauty Bar, a revolutionary retail concept which spanned brick and mortar stores, e-commerce and also included a weekly TV program, Walsh helped create, market, and launch some of the most popular beauty brands in the U.S. and overseas. Read more at Forbes.

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Is Skin Care the New Designer Collaboration?

The “skin-care collab” is officially a thing. Cleansers, creams, and even skin gadgets are coming from all corners of the celebrity hemisphere: Tyra Banks, Robin McGraw (you may know her as Dr. Phil’s wife), and, of all people, Smokey Robinson (yes, the Motown singer-songwriter famous for “My Girl,” “Cruisin’,” and “I Second That Emotion”). Read more at Allure.

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