RED LIPSTICK makes a statement much before the wearer opens their mouth, and the baggage lies entirely in the eyes of the beholder — confident, sexy, provocatrix, garish.

On the Internet, there are a million tutorials about how to choose the right red lipstick. There are tutorials about how to wear red lipstick if you have so far been too shy to try— a failing, which kind strangers online will help you fix.

And it goes beyond fashion magazines and GRWM reels. The ‘lipstick effect’ economic theory says that sales of red lipsticks go up during recessions, because people cutting down on big purchases cling to small joys. During World War II in Britain, wearing red lipstick to look fresh was considered a feminine duty, to keep morale up and remind men what they were fighting for. It was also a snub to the ‘natural beauty of Aryans’ craziness Hitler was propagating.…