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Confidence in a Lipstick Tube
How makeup empowers India’s younger generation
I bought my first lipstick when I turned 30. Blood red, it brightened my face. That same year, a Bollywood movie, “Lipstick Under My Burkha,” narrated the lives of four women in a mid-size Indian town for whom wearing lipstick was a metaphor for how they sought a spoonful of freedom and a pinch of sensuality.
As a child, I would wake up to the distinct scent of my mother’s Lakme moisturizing lotion and the sight of her drawing on her nonexistent eyebrows. The only extra minutes spent before the mirror to apply glistening light pink lipstick and some face powder would be when Maa stepped out of the house for a gathering with friends or for a wedding.
Women across Indian cities and towns have always had a date with the nearest beauty parlor (salon), which offered a comfortable, home-like space, to wax their body hair, get a facial, a hair trim, and manicures and pedicures. But now women and girls in India are wearing makeup every day, flaunting their eyeshadow blends and contoured faces outside the burkha and on the streets. As manufacturers eye the potential for increased cash flow, the color cosmetics industry — comprised of both Indian and international brands — has soared.
