Lip service: peer into the makeup kits of Queen Nefertiti and Marilyn Monroe.(Chemfusion)(lipsticks, history, usage)

Canadian Chemical News, July, 2004 by Schwarcz, Joe

I don't know if Marilyn Monroe ever made it into heaven. St. Cyprian, a 3rd-century Christian writer, surely would have argued that her chances were slim. God looked unfavourably on women who showed up at the Pearly Gates wearing lipstick, he maintained, because humans were created in God's image and altering this image was sinful. The Creator, presumably, did not wear lipstick. But Queen Nefertiti, who ruled Egypt with her husband Akhenaten from 1379-1362 B.C., did, and would undoubtedly have had a different view oil the matter.

How do we know that the Egyptian queen, who lived over 3,000 years ago, used lipstick7 It's pretty obvious if you visit the Egyptian Museum in Berlin. The museum's prime attraction is a bust of Nefertiti, one of the most celebrated...