The ideal lipstick is finally here!

When we ask women about the ideal lipstick, three functions are always on top—adequate moisture, gloss, and smudge-proofness so there are no cup stains. At the time of this award, there were products for adequate moisture and gloss, while it was difficult to develop a lipstick that was long-lasting and cup stain free, with no products available to satisfy this demand.

Although there was a boom in long-lasting lipstick in the 1990s, the products back then used film forming agents that hardened with the evaporation of oil after application. This caused the problem of dry and rough lips, resulting in the lack of gloss. This award-winning technology combines two oil components that do not mix and allows a clear oil layer to form on top of colored oil. This was the key to successfully developing a lipstick with all the three functions considered ideal by women.

The major difference between this award-winning technology and the previous long-lasting lipsticks is that it does not use film forming agents. Among various oil components, we chose liquid crystal forming oils that are softer than film forming agents but have the appropriate hardness. Next we considered the gradual seeping of the clear oil component to the top after simply applying the product, eventually forming two layers. As a result, only the clear oil comes in contact with the cup and the color does not smudge. In fact, two-layer application type products had existed before, where clear, top-coat lipstick was applied on top of the colored lipstick. However, many women found it troublesome because they had to wait for the first lipstick to dry before applying the second one. This is why we wanted to achieve long-lasting effect with a single lipstick.

This concept of separation into two layers and the technology for achieving this with a single lipstick was highly commended and led to the receipt of this award. This technology is used in MAQuillAGE Perfect Gloss (liquid type) marketed in 2009, and MAQuillAGE Lasting Perfect Rouge (stick type) marketed in 2010. The technology has advanced since then with the appearance of even longer lasting three-layer type products. The scope of application keeps growing and is now present not only in MAQuillAGE brand but also in other lipsticks of Shiseido’s main makeup brands.