Before
Max Factor lend a hand to make lips shine in the entertainment scene, grease
paint was used by theater companies to make their lips glossy. However for the
big screen, this type of grease paint was not applicable. They could not use
this grease paint because not only was it too thick but the colors it was in were
just too mismatched with the actresses’ lips. This drove Max Factor to create one
of the earliest forms of lip gloss we know of today. What he did was he created
a thinner version of the grease. He gave it 12 varying shades and had it first packaged
in a jar, then into collapsible sanitary tubes. As it quickly became one of the
must haves in the film industry, Lilian Gish was the first one to use in 1928.
The first lip gloss he commercially distributed was in 1932 and he called the
product X- Rated. It promised to make
women’s lips glossy with a subtle shine that lip sticks could not just deliver.
