The 1920's and Rouge Lipstick

This article is by Fredrick Lewis Allen, from ‘Only Yesterday’ published in 1931, shows how times changed in the 1920's by 'Rouge' lipstick becoming popular.

‘Perhaps the readiest way of measuring the change in the public attitude towards cosmetics is to compare the advertisements in a conservative periodical at the beginning of the decade with those at the end. Although the June 1919 issue of the Ladies’ Home Journal contained four advertisements which listed rouge among their products, only one of them commented on its inclusion, and this referred to its rouge as one that was “imperceptible if properly applied”. In those days the woman who used rouge – at least in the circles in which the Journal was read – wished to disguise the fact……In the June 1929 issue, exactly ten years later, the Journal permitted a lipstick to be advertised with the comment, “It’s comforting to know that the alluring note of scarlet will stay with you for hours.”’