Researchers find 4,000-year-old lipstick and vial in Iran

Amazing stuff! Is this why they call it the Bronze age?

Next, researchers will find the lipstick was reserved for transgender individuals! Want to bet on it?

What about lipstick on pigs back then? 😊

That was Iran way before the mullahs ruled! Can you imagine the austere looking  First Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini or his successors wearing some ancient lipstick? 😊

Pardon my irreverent humor!

"Created between 1936 and 1687 BCE, the lipstick tube is about 4,000 years old. What’s more surprising is that the study authors were also able to recover the makeup material from it, even after so many years.  ...

The lipstick container is made of a mineral called chlorite and inside, it contains a red color pigment that closely matches the chemical formulas used in today’s lipsticks ...
The researchers suggest that the lipstick was used by the Marḫaši people who once ruled the eastern part of Iran. ...
It is also possible that both men and women used such lipsticks because in ancient times men also used to apply makeup. ...

The presence of vegetal fibers further suggests that the lipsticks had a fragrance. Moreover, its vial has beautiful, detailed markings, making it different than any other cosmetic packaging of that time.  ...
Ancient cosmetics are rarely found and studied because most of them fail to remain preserved for a long time. ..."

"Researchers say that a small vial of deep red paste found in Iran’s Jiroft region is likely an ancient tube of lipstick. The mineral mixture, housed in a decorated stone tube, could be nearly 4,000 years old, making it among the earliest ever discovered.  ...

Lip pigment was just one of many beauty products used in ancient Iran. Perhaps the region’s most prominent cosmetic was eyeliner, which was made of a black powder called sormeh and worn by both women and men. Ancient Iranians also wore several kinds of powders on their cheeks and eyebrows. ..."

From the abstract:

"A small chlorite vial, discovered among numerous artifacts looted and recovered in the Jiroft region of Kerman province, southeastern Iran, contains a deep red cosmetic preparation that is likely a lip-coloring paint or paste. Through analytical research involving XRD (X-ray diffraction), SEM–EDS (scanning electron microscopy-energy-dispersive spectroscopy), and HPLC–MS (high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry) analyses, the mineral components of the reddish substance were identified as hematite, darkened with manganite and braunite, and traces of galena and anglesite, mixed with vegetal waxes and other organic substances. The mixture, thus observed, bears a striking resemblance to the recipes of contemporary lipsticks. We also report the first radiocarbon date ever obtained from a Bronze age cosmetic in the ancient Near East: results place the pigment in the early 2nd millennium BCE, a date compatible with several mentions of the powerful eastern-iranian civilization of Marḫaši in coeval cuneiform texts of Mesopotamia, as well as with its currently emerging archaeological picture."

Researchers find 4,000-year-old lipstick — and it comes in the coolest packaging This luxurious Bronze Age lipstick tube has a unique design, and It was also possibly one of the earliest branded lipsticks.

Tube of Ancient Red Lipstick Unearthed in Iran

A Bronze Age lip-paint from southeastern Iran (open access)

Lipstick tube (left) and the extracted lipstick minerals (right)

Figure 1 Map of the southeastern Iranian Plateau, including the relevant investigated Bronze age sites; the alluvial basin of the Halil Rud is here marked by a rectangle.