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Lipstick
Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.
From Revlon to Glossier, from Marilyn to Gaga, lipstick is as shape-shifting and unwieldy as femininity itself.
Who wears lipstick today—as a matter of routine? And for those who do, is it out of obligation to a strict feminine standard, or some other reason entirely? Lipstick reconsiders the beauty world's most conspicuous—and contentious—tool of artifice. Tossing expired ideas about femininity like so many tubes of melting wax, Lipstick explores how self-adornment can be a source of play, pleasure, and transformation, as well as how lipstick can knock gender norms off balance.
From Revlon to Glossier, from Marilyn to Gaga, lipstick is as shape-shifting and unwieldy as femininity itself.
Who wears lipstick today—as a matter of routine? And for those who do, is it out of obligation to a strict feminine standard, or some other reason entirely? Lipstick reconsiders the beauty world's most conspicuous—and contentious—tool of artifice. Tossing expired ideas about femininity like so many tubes of melting wax, Lipstick explores how self-adornment can be a source of play, pleasure, and transformation, as well as how lipstick can knock gender norms off balance.
- GenresNonfictionHistory
200 pages, Paperback
Published February 19, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
2026
November 10, 2025📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Academic
February 5, 2026
Read courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher.
I have a fraught relationship with the idea of femininity. I obstinately rebelled against participating in most forms for a long time, for complex reasons that mostly had to do with what I thought was important about my identity. Eventually, I realised I was being stupid, and that things I enjoyed were not things that got in the way of who I was. I was 35 when I decided actually, I do like lipstick, and started regularly wearing it to work, and when I went out.
So this new Object Lessons, about lipstick, and in particular about how it is viewed, used, stigmatised, discussed, and historicised? This book was written for me.
And it is very well written. As with all of this series, the book is intensely personal as well as being well researched and reported. Given the way lipstick is viewed by different groups and individuals I particularly liked the way G'Sell incorporated the views of other people - those who love wearing it, and those who hate it, all for valid and important reasons. There aren't all that many apparently innocuous objects that can get such intense, contradictory, and equally important reactions (although the bra does spring to mind, as it were).
As always, we get some history - folks of all genders wearing makeup in ancient Greece, 1930s film femme fatales, etc - as well as some anthropology (Iranian women wearing lipstick, examining the perennial comment about sales of lipstick going up in times of economic hardship), along with the intensely personal reflections.
The list of chapter titles will give a sense of what the book encompasses:
* Painted Ladies and Tainted Men
* Painted Ladies and Painted Men
* Lipstick Feminism and Sticky Pleasures
* Whitewashed Beauty, Appropriation, and Lipstick Legacies
* A Femme-Friendlier Future?
I loved it. This is a book for anyone who has thought about what it means to wear lipstick. or makeup more generally.
I have a fraught relationship with the idea of femininity. I obstinately rebelled against participating in most forms for a long time, for complex reasons that mostly had to do with what I thought was important about my identity. Eventually, I realised I was being stupid, and that things I enjoyed were not things that got in the way of who I was. I was 35 when I decided actually, I do like lipstick, and started regularly wearing it to work, and when I went out.
So this new Object Lessons, about lipstick, and in particular about how it is viewed, used, stigmatised, discussed, and historicised? This book was written for me.
And it is very well written. As with all of this series, the book is intensely personal as well as being well researched and reported. Given the way lipstick is viewed by different groups and individuals I particularly liked the way G'Sell incorporated the views of other people - those who love wearing it, and those who hate it, all for valid and important reasons. There aren't all that many apparently innocuous objects that can get such intense, contradictory, and equally important reactions (although the bra does spring to mind, as it were).
As always, we get some history - folks of all genders wearing makeup in ancient Greece, 1930s film femme fatales, etc - as well as some anthropology (Iranian women wearing lipstick, examining the perennial comment about sales of lipstick going up in times of economic hardship), along with the intensely personal reflections.
The list of chapter titles will give a sense of what the book encompasses:
* Painted Ladies and Tainted Men
* Painted Ladies and Painted Men
* Lipstick Feminism and Sticky Pleasures
* Whitewashed Beauty, Appropriation, and Lipstick Legacies
* A Femme-Friendlier Future?
I loved it. This is a book for anyone who has thought about what it means to wear lipstick. or makeup more generally.
Read
January 16, 2026I had no idea about the Object Lessons series of books and was thrilled to discover them via Lipstick. These books, on many different topics, have just 200 words.
Lipstick is a hard topic to distil into so few words but G'Sell succeeds in covering its history, cultural impact, occasional notoriety and impact. She also deals swiftly with the outdated view that feminists shouldn't enjoy wearing cosmetics.
The advance digital copy didn't have many pictures but I'm expecting the final version to have more. We want to see the filmstars in their lipsticks!
A perfect book for women who love makeup and its history.
Lipstick is a hard topic to distil into so few words but G'Sell succeeds in covering its history, cultural impact, occasional notoriety and impact. She also deals swiftly with the outdated view that feminists shouldn't enjoy wearing cosmetics.
The advance digital copy didn't have many pictures but I'm expecting the final version to have more. We want to see the filmstars in their lipsticks!
A perfect book for women who love makeup and its history.
December 2, 2025
Object Lessons books are hard to write: you have to focus on one object and unravel its cultural significance in a very short space. Given that the humble lipstick is so tied to notions of femininity, queerness, sex work, empowerment, objectification—which all change depending on country, culture, race, class, and age!—Eileen G'Sell had her work cut out for her.
Lipstick is a mostly successful exploration of lipstick's place in culture, focusing on the past ~40 years. Why 40? Because the author is an Xennial, which comes across in her conversational, snarky prose and ample pop culture references. I appreciate that G'Sell acknowledges her particular time, place, race, class, gender identity, and so on in her perspective on lipstick, and she brings in snippets of various survey responses from people around the world with their perspective on lipstick. For some, it's empowering; for others, it's a symbol of misogynist expectations. G'Sell navigates this tension as well as you can expect, noting that lipstick's signifiers heavily depend on facets of an intersectional identity.
That being said, I wish the author had more to say besides just exploring tensions back and forth forever. We learn that she is a longtime lipstick afficionado since childhood, but beyond that, what is her perspective beyond synthesizing so many points of view and noting the multifaceted meanings of cosmetics? Also, while the aforementioned Xennial style mostly worked, there were frustrating bits of alliteration or wordplay that felt like they were there for cleverness's sake.
Overall, a satisfactory entry in the OL series.
Lipstick is a mostly successful exploration of lipstick's place in culture, focusing on the past ~40 years. Why 40? Because the author is an Xennial, which comes across in her conversational, snarky prose and ample pop culture references. I appreciate that G'Sell acknowledges her particular time, place, race, class, gender identity, and so on in her perspective on lipstick, and she brings in snippets of various survey responses from people around the world with their perspective on lipstick. For some, it's empowering; for others, it's a symbol of misogynist expectations. G'Sell navigates this tension as well as you can expect, noting that lipstick's signifiers heavily depend on facets of an intersectional identity.
That being said, I wish the author had more to say besides just exploring tensions back and forth forever. We learn that she is a longtime lipstick afficionado since childhood, but beyond that, what is her perspective beyond synthesizing so many points of view and noting the multifaceted meanings of cosmetics? Also, while the aforementioned Xennial style mostly worked, there were frustrating bits of alliteration or wordplay that felt like they were there for cleverness's sake.
Overall, a satisfactory entry in the OL series.
February 23, 2026
“Lipstick is art when the goal and effect is not to achieve a ‘handy end’ but to conjure a look that exceeds functionality. Perhaps that is why lipstick often feels the most artful when it is applied outside the context of heterosexual attraction or Working-Girl careerism.”
Thank you so much to the author for the gifted copy! This book was published by Bloomsbury on February 5th, 2026.
Lipstick by Eileen G’Sell is a slim, thoughtful study that surprised me with how gently it interrogates something so culturally loaded. What stayed with me most was G’Sell’s refusal to treat makeup as inherently empowering or inherently oppressive. Instead, she sits with its contradictions and lets lipstick exist as a complicated, historically contingent object shaped by class, race, and shifting ideas about femininity.
Part of the book’s strength lies in how it weaves personal memory with cultural history. G’Sell traces her early fascination with lipstick back to a childhood neighbor selling Avon, then expands outward into a broader account of how adornment has been policed, stigmatized, commodified, and reclaimed. The discussion of how cosmetics became gendered, and how they were used to distinguish “respectable” women from those marked as deviant or sexually suspect, felt especially incisive. She also attends to the uneven scrutiny faced by women of color and poor women, grounding beauty discourse in material realities rather than abstract feminist debates.
I also appreciated how the book engages queer and contemporary contexts without flattening them into easy progress narratives. G’Sell notes the growing popularity of lip makeup alongside increasing visibility of queer and nonbinary identities, framing adornment as something that can exceed heterosexual expectations rather than serve them. Her reflections on MAC’s queer origins, shifting beauty norms, and the idea of lipstick as a creative tool quietly reposition self-adornment as imaginative play rather than evidence of morality. That nuance resonated deeply with me as a reader who thinks a lot about gender presentation and the politics of looking “feminine” in public.
Most of all, this book made me reconsider how quickly we assign meaning to makeup, both on ourselves and on others. G’Sell’s insistence that beauty and vanity are value-neutral feels deceptively simple, yet it opens space to question purity politics, professionalism myths, and the lingering suspicion of artifice within feminist spaces. I finished Lipstick feeling more aware of my own internalized judgments about adornment, and more curious about how small aesthetic choices can carry the weight of social expectation without ever being reducible to it.
📖 Read this if you love: Cultural criticism rooted in personal narrative; queer and feminist examinations of beauty and gender; books that interrogate white beauty standards and respectability politics.
🔑 Key Themes: The politicization of femininity; the history of adornment and its ties to class and morality; racialized beauty standards and pretty privilege; global beauty norms and cultural backlash; lipstick as creative expression rather than compulsory heterosexual performance.
Thank you so much to the author for the gifted copy! This book was published by Bloomsbury on February 5th, 2026.
Lipstick by Eileen G’Sell is a slim, thoughtful study that surprised me with how gently it interrogates something so culturally loaded. What stayed with me most was G’Sell’s refusal to treat makeup as inherently empowering or inherently oppressive. Instead, she sits with its contradictions and lets lipstick exist as a complicated, historically contingent object shaped by class, race, and shifting ideas about femininity.
Part of the book’s strength lies in how it weaves personal memory with cultural history. G’Sell traces her early fascination with lipstick back to a childhood neighbor selling Avon, then expands outward into a broader account of how adornment has been policed, stigmatized, commodified, and reclaimed. The discussion of how cosmetics became gendered, and how they were used to distinguish “respectable” women from those marked as deviant or sexually suspect, felt especially incisive. She also attends to the uneven scrutiny faced by women of color and poor women, grounding beauty discourse in material realities rather than abstract feminist debates.
I also appreciated how the book engages queer and contemporary contexts without flattening them into easy progress narratives. G’Sell notes the growing popularity of lip makeup alongside increasing visibility of queer and nonbinary identities, framing adornment as something that can exceed heterosexual expectations rather than serve them. Her reflections on MAC’s queer origins, shifting beauty norms, and the idea of lipstick as a creative tool quietly reposition self-adornment as imaginative play rather than evidence of morality. That nuance resonated deeply with me as a reader who thinks a lot about gender presentation and the politics of looking “feminine” in public.
Most of all, this book made me reconsider how quickly we assign meaning to makeup, both on ourselves and on others. G’Sell’s insistence that beauty and vanity are value-neutral feels deceptively simple, yet it opens space to question purity politics, professionalism myths, and the lingering suspicion of artifice within feminist spaces. I finished Lipstick feeling more aware of my own internalized judgments about adornment, and more curious about how small aesthetic choices can carry the weight of social expectation without ever being reducible to it.
📖 Read this if you love: Cultural criticism rooted in personal narrative; queer and feminist examinations of beauty and gender; books that interrogate white beauty standards and respectability politics.
🔑 Key Themes: The politicization of femininity; the history of adornment and its ties to class and morality; racialized beauty standards and pretty privilege; global beauty norms and cultural backlash; lipstick as creative expression rather than compulsory heterosexual performance.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Eileen G'Sell, Lipstick, Bloomsbury Academic, February 2026.
Thank you, NetGalley and Bloomsbury Academic, for this uncorrected proof for review.
Lipstick is another publication in the fascinating Object Lessons series. Each book focusses on an everyday item, approaching it from a personal and historic view, combining these in a well-researched, substantial but eminently accessible, account. I have enjoyed each of these books I have read and reviewed so far, and regret having come late to the series. Eileen G’Sell’s narrative about lipstick, from personal, feminist, and historical aspects is another engaging read. It is also one of the most enlightening and thoughtful works I have so far encountered in the series.
Undeniably controversial, the debate about feminism and attitudes towards cosmetics is a tremendous read. G’Sell approaches feminist icons fearlessly in arguing her own case for wearing lipstick. At the same time, she acknowledges the way in which such adornment has been used to undermine women’s status. Where research shows that cosmetics have been used for both adornment to attract and adornment to defy, or to designate a particular moral stance G’Sell cogently describes and explains each argument. Often, she personalises the issues with women’s stories.
Titles such as Painted Ladies and Tainted men; Painted Ladies and Painted Men; Lipstick Feminism and Sticky Pleasures; The Myth of the Red-Lipped Suffragette, and topics that cover lipstick bans in schools, lyrics and videos that feature lipstick and the possibility of a ‘Femme-Friendlier’ future provide pointers to the scope of the topics to be encountered in this engaging book.
There is a host of illustrations with detailed explanations and lengthy notes for each chapter. The acknowledgements end with a quote that demonstrates Eileen G’Sell’s commitment to women whose personal approach to using cosmetics has been considered unconventional, daring, or magical. *
*The quote is far better than my paraphrasing. However, uncorrected proofs cannot be quoted.
Thank you, NetGalley and Bloomsbury Academic, for this uncorrected proof for review.
Lipstick is another publication in the fascinating Object Lessons series. Each book focusses on an everyday item, approaching it from a personal and historic view, combining these in a well-researched, substantial but eminently accessible, account. I have enjoyed each of these books I have read and reviewed so far, and regret having come late to the series. Eileen G’Sell’s narrative about lipstick, from personal, feminist, and historical aspects is another engaging read. It is also one of the most enlightening and thoughtful works I have so far encountered in the series.
Undeniably controversial, the debate about feminism and attitudes towards cosmetics is a tremendous read. G’Sell approaches feminist icons fearlessly in arguing her own case for wearing lipstick. At the same time, she acknowledges the way in which such adornment has been used to undermine women’s status. Where research shows that cosmetics have been used for both adornment to attract and adornment to defy, or to designate a particular moral stance G’Sell cogently describes and explains each argument. Often, she personalises the issues with women’s stories.
Titles such as Painted Ladies and Tainted men; Painted Ladies and Painted Men; Lipstick Feminism and Sticky Pleasures; The Myth of the Red-Lipped Suffragette, and topics that cover lipstick bans in schools, lyrics and videos that feature lipstick and the possibility of a ‘Femme-Friendlier’ future provide pointers to the scope of the topics to be encountered in this engaging book.
There is a host of illustrations with detailed explanations and lengthy notes for each chapter. The acknowledgements end with a quote that demonstrates Eileen G’Sell’s commitment to women whose personal approach to using cosmetics has been considered unconventional, daring, or magical. *
*The quote is far better than my paraphrasing. However, uncorrected proofs cannot be quoted.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Eileen G’Sell’s Lipstick is part of a collection of books by Bloomsbury titled ‘Object Lessons’, a series of short novels surrounding the ‘hidden lives of ordinary things’. The collection includes investigation into a range of topics from concrete to black face (?), some of these tiny books are retailing for £18.00!? Which seems like a crazy price, so I imagine this will be the only book in the collection I’ll read as that is just an extortionate price for a 200 page novella.
G’Sell discusses the history surrounding lipstick, from the first recorded found lipstick product to modern day usage. She investigates some historic feminist views which felt that lipstick aided to misogynistic feminine beauty expectations, and how this view has been transformed for a lot of women who see it as furthering their feminine identity. G’Sell features a lot of case studies ranging from students protesting in schools about their right to self-expression wearing makeup and how gender effects this, to how lipstick was viewed as a product only sex workers used. We see some comparisons how cosmetics are perceived in the east vs the west and how advertisements have encouraged lipstick wear for women to seem either professional and in control to flirty and fun. The novella includes lots of lovely illustrations from advertisements and G’Sell’s own childhood trying out Avon samples.
I’ve read a lot of the books reference in this small novella, and although it is hard to say something NEW about lipstick and its wearers and how it is perceived in light of gender expectations, feminism and self-expression. G’Sell does well to explain how for some women, make up can elevate how they perceive themselves, whereas for some wearing it can be a sign of misogynistic expectations. I can’t say this text has done anything new with the material many feminist works have previously discussed and investigated, however it is a concise view.
Thank you, NetGalley and Bloomsbury Academic, for this uncorrected proof for review.
G’Sell discusses the history surrounding lipstick, from the first recorded found lipstick product to modern day usage. She investigates some historic feminist views which felt that lipstick aided to misogynistic feminine beauty expectations, and how this view has been transformed for a lot of women who see it as furthering their feminine identity. G’Sell features a lot of case studies ranging from students protesting in schools about their right to self-expression wearing makeup and how gender effects this, to how lipstick was viewed as a product only sex workers used. We see some comparisons how cosmetics are perceived in the east vs the west and how advertisements have encouraged lipstick wear for women to seem either professional and in control to flirty and fun. The novella includes lots of lovely illustrations from advertisements and G’Sell’s own childhood trying out Avon samples.
I’ve read a lot of the books reference in this small novella, and although it is hard to say something NEW about lipstick and its wearers and how it is perceived in light of gender expectations, feminism and self-expression. G’Sell does well to explain how for some women, make up can elevate how they perceive themselves, whereas for some wearing it can be a sign of misogynistic expectations. I can’t say this text has done anything new with the material many feminist works have previously discussed and investigated, however it is a concise view.
Thank you, NetGalley and Bloomsbury Academic, for this uncorrected proof for review.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Lipstick focuses on the spectrum of meaning and reasons of use for those wearing or viewing the seemingly simple coating of color on one's lips. While covering some of the lengthy history of lipstick, evidence has noted the usage of lipstick as early as 3500 BC, Eileen G'Sell's narrative centers on the late twentieth century to our contemporary moment.
Unlike other entries to the Object Lessons series, G'Sell's work speaks from multiple viewpoints. In late 2024, G'Sell created a short questionnaire and received answers from a wide range of perspectives, including women, cis and trans from a variety of age, race, class and occupational backgrounds. Chapter sections also transition with hand written responses about thoughts of lipstick use.
By its nature as makeup worn on the face, lipstick has always faced the battle between user intention and reasoning versus the viewer's perspective. G'Sell begins the book focused on this dichotomy and delineates the changing perceptions and the ideologies or changing of social mores that have shifted over time. Much of the sections take up the feminist perspectives, or waves they have been coerced, simplified or reduced. Along the way, G'Sell discusses sex work, racialized beauty standards and the role of lipstick in non binary identity.
Recommended to readers of pop culture, the conflict between feminism and misogyny or social mores.
I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.
Unlike other entries to the Object Lessons series, G'Sell's work speaks from multiple viewpoints. In late 2024, G'Sell created a short questionnaire and received answers from a wide range of perspectives, including women, cis and trans from a variety of age, race, class and occupational backgrounds. Chapter sections also transition with hand written responses about thoughts of lipstick use.
By its nature as makeup worn on the face, lipstick has always faced the battle between user intention and reasoning versus the viewer's perspective. G'Sell begins the book focused on this dichotomy and delineates the changing perceptions and the ideologies or changing of social mores that have shifted over time. Much of the sections take up the feminist perspectives, or waves they have been coerced, simplified or reduced. Along the way, G'Sell discusses sex work, racialized beauty standards and the role of lipstick in non binary identity.
Recommended to readers of pop culture, the conflict between feminism and misogyny or social mores.
I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
When I saw this one I knew I had to request it. I mean look at my username! I love lipstick, so much so that the ones in this picture were just what I had in one purse.
This is part of the Object Lessons series which goes into the cultural impact of everyday objects. This is a short introduction to some of the scholarly thinking around lipstick and what its use and trends say about feminism, race, gender, and sexuality.
This took me back to readings for my sociology classes in undergrad. Personally I think this book's length ( a bit over 200 pages) had a huge impact on its central theme. Positively, the short length makes it much more readable. Non-fiction can be dense and the length creates a fast pace. It's just enough to intrigue you but never get bogged down. On the flip side, there were times I wanted topics to go deeper. Certain points felt more like a literature review of other works on the topic without actually contributing anything new. It made me want to read those books instead of necessarily continuing this one. I enjoyed that the author herself is a lipstick lover and is clearly writing with affections. She never took a clear stance (which I felt both helped and hurt in equal measure) on certain topics like the intersection between lipstick and current feminist ideals.
Overall, an interesting return to reads of my younger years about a topic I hold close to my heart.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Academic for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.
This is part of the Object Lessons series which goes into the cultural impact of everyday objects. This is a short introduction to some of the scholarly thinking around lipstick and what its use and trends say about feminism, race, gender, and sexuality.
This took me back to readings for my sociology classes in undergrad. Personally I think this book's length ( a bit over 200 pages) had a huge impact on its central theme. Positively, the short length makes it much more readable. Non-fiction can be dense and the length creates a fast pace. It's just enough to intrigue you but never get bogged down. On the flip side, there were times I wanted topics to go deeper. Certain points felt more like a literature review of other works on the topic without actually contributing anything new. It made me want to read those books instead of necessarily continuing this one. I enjoyed that the author herself is a lipstick lover and is clearly writing with affections. She never took a clear stance (which I felt both helped and hurt in equal measure) on certain topics like the intersection between lipstick and current feminist ideals.
Overall, an interesting return to reads of my younger years about a topic I hold close to my heart.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Academic for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.
March 25, 2026
The gender issues involved in those purple sticks with the wind-up bottom, and various other forms of facial adornment. At one point lipstick was purely for whores, a la the cruelly stereotyped red shoes, then it was something that posher people could get away with because they were posh, and presumably not hookers. Then it was counter-productive as all it did was send signals to men anyway, and now – in the hands of brands like Glossier with all their woke pretentiousness, and regressive "Clean Girl" one-step-from-trad-wives-ness – it's trying to be invisible.
All told, this certainly succeeds – never in a million years would I have expected to be spending an evening reading about lippy. Of course it features a lot about race, a lot of discussion seen through the lens of feminism, and a LOT of gender woo-woo, but it fits the Object Lessons series well, albeit on the more academic side of things. Heck, it even includes original research. But it also has a very bearable amount of autobiography, too, meaning this is one of the better and more distinctive entrants to the series of recent times.
All told, this certainly succeeds – never in a million years would I have expected to be spending an evening reading about lippy. Of course it features a lot about race, a lot of discussion seen through the lens of feminism, and a LOT of gender woo-woo, but it fits the Object Lessons series well, albeit on the more academic side of things. Heck, it even includes original research. But it also has a very bearable amount of autobiography, too, meaning this is one of the better and more distinctive entrants to the series of recent times.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Object Lessons is described as a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. I've read a large number of them, they tend to be a mix of focus on the object itself and the author's relationship with the object. In this volume Eileen G'Sell does discuss her relationship with lipstick, but focusses more on placing her object in it's broader historical context. It is not about the physical object of lipstick - we learn very little about how lipstick is made, and only a touch about how the object is presented. It is about lipstick as a cultural object. The book addresses the role of lipstick through time and places it firmly is racial, gendered and cultural terms.
This book reproduces relevant photographs and advertising material, which strengthens it's arguments, breaks up the text and helps to keep it interesting. Sometimes with these books, even if they basically interesting they can feel like a bit of a slog. This one was quite compelling.
Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Academic for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This book reproduces relevant photographs and advertising material, which strengthens it's arguments, breaks up the text and helps to keep it interesting. Sometimes with these books, even if they basically interesting they can feel like a bit of a slog. This one was quite compelling.
Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Academic for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
“All of which is to say: most of the bright lipstick I see these days isn’t on women looking to lasso a Chad.”
THANK YOU.
I'm married, so I have already found my Chad. Who very much does not understand the look I am going for when I dabble in a bright red. But guess what - it's not for him.
This was just a delightful deep dive into something I love, but a voice ingrained within me always thought of as a bit frivolous. Nope! Thank you, Lipstick, for validating my love of lipstick and makeup, and in particular demonstrating that lipstick is in fact a glorious, affirming, powerful symbol for many things that I hold dear. Am I thrilled by the inclusion of many important historical and contemporary figures, including Queens Chappell Roan and Ilona Maher?
This was a concise but in-depth delight to read. I had never heard of this series before, but I will certainly be exploring more here. And putting on some lipstick.
THANK YOU.
I'm married, so I have already found my Chad. Who very much does not understand the look I am going for when I dabble in a bright red. But guess what - it's not for him.
This was just a delightful deep dive into something I love, but a voice ingrained within me always thought of as a bit frivolous. Nope! Thank you, Lipstick, for validating my love of lipstick and makeup, and in particular demonstrating that lipstick is in fact a glorious, affirming, powerful symbol for many things that I hold dear. Am I thrilled by the inclusion of many important historical and contemporary figures, including Queens Chappell Roan and Ilona Maher?
This was a concise but in-depth delight to read. I had never heard of this series before, but I will certainly be exploring more here. And putting on some lipstick.
February 20, 2026
A thought-provoking exploration of one of our most familiar yet culturally loaded items. Part of the Object Lessons series, the book uses lipstick as a lens through which to examine femininity, identity, power, and self-expression. Rather than offering a simple history, G’Sell blends cultural criticism, personal reflection, and social commentary to great effect. She traces lipstick’s shifting meanings—from a symbol of glamour and conformity to a tool of rebellion, creativity, and transformation—while asking whether it empowers or constrains those who wear it. Her approach is nuanced and open-ended, acknowledging the contradictions inherent in beauty culture and the complex relationship between femininity and feminism. What emerges is a portrait of lipstick not as a trivial cosmetic but as a powerful cultural artefact, one that reflects changing ideas about gender, class, and identity. Lipstick is a great addition to the wonderful Object Lessons series.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
A short book written in a fairly casual, approachable style that talks about some of lipstick's history and about issues people have with it, like the gendered nature of lipsticks or people of different backgrounds with makeup. The also author injects some of her own experiences with lipstick. I enjoyed how she spoke about how lipstick is seen in different parts in the world in regards to feminism.
It gave me some things to chew on
ARC given by Netgalley & Bloomsbury Academic
It gave me some things to chew on
ARC given by Netgalley & Bloomsbury Academic
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
What an interesting collection of tales and essays from Eileen G'Sell with the focus on lipstick and what it means to each person who wears it. I really enjoyed the addition of the handwritten notes about specific lipstick experiences a really well done book about what lipstick can and does mean to each us and the variation in that.
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.
December 1, 2025
Written in a fluid, conversational style by a self-proclaimed Xennial, this look at lipstick's purpose, audience, acolytes, and controversies since its beginning in ancient Sumeria is a delight! Fun to read and beyond the binary! Definitely recommend to anyone interested in the history of adornment!
Thanks to Bloomsbury Academic, via NetGalley, for this ARC!
Thanks to Bloomsbury Academic, via NetGalley, for this ARC!
Review of advance copy received from Author
Lipstick is a novella in a series about every day objects- and I loved how Eileen approached the topic of lipstick. With themes of feminism, race, gender norms and popular media, Lipstick explores the history and impact lip colour has had. For fans of Girl on Girl or Everything is Tuberculosis!
Thank you to Eileen for the advanced review copy!
Thank you to Eileen for the advanced review copy!
February 19, 2026
The latest in one of my favorite thought-provoking nonfiction series! Lipstick delves into (surprise!) some of the sociocultural implications of lipstick. G'Sell is herself an enthusiastic (passionate, even) wearer of lipstick, and has been since her youth, but what lipstick means for a White woman of a certain generation is not what lipstick means for everyone.
Margaret, a visual artist and professor, submitted "a passionate thesis" for her undergraduate honors degree in 1975, "on makeup as a masking, negative abomination. Fifty years later, she joked to me, "I was wearing lipstick when I wrote it, a natural-looking gloss. And the strange thing is, I adore lipstick now." For many Boomer women in their youth, lipstick seemed a sexist throwback in a time that demanded radical change. (loc. 630*)
I love the nuance of this book—G'Sell talks about people to whom lipstick represents oppression and people to whom lipstick represents freedom; people to whom lipstick represents conformity and people to whom lipstick represents uniqueness...and sometimes people to whom lipstick has represented all of those things, depending on time and circumstance. Think sex and gender and race and nationality and economics and capitalism and much more.
Makeup has never really been my thing (I said when I read Snack that my partner despairs of my approach to dinner...well, my mother-in-law despairs of my approach to makeup). I'd put that down to my parents (quasi-hippies both), but my sister did get whatever recessive makeup gene I didn't, so... In any case, G'Sell hits it on the nose when she observes that lipstick can feel like an easy just-one-thing (and again when she observes that, for many, it can also feel like too much). This doesn't make me want to start wearing lipstick on the regular—and that's not the point of the book anyway. But it does make me think hmm, maybe a bolder color next time we go see the in-laws.
*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.
Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.
Margaret, a visual artist and professor, submitted "a passionate thesis" for her undergraduate honors degree in 1975, "on makeup as a masking, negative abomination. Fifty years later, she joked to me, "I was wearing lipstick when I wrote it, a natural-looking gloss. And the strange thing is, I adore lipstick now." For many Boomer women in their youth, lipstick seemed a sexist throwback in a time that demanded radical change. (loc. 630*)
I love the nuance of this book—G'Sell talks about people to whom lipstick represents oppression and people to whom lipstick represents freedom; people to whom lipstick represents conformity and people to whom lipstick represents uniqueness...and sometimes people to whom lipstick has represented all of those things, depending on time and circumstance. Think sex and gender and race and nationality and economics and capitalism and much more.
Makeup has never really been my thing (I said when I read Snack that my partner despairs of my approach to dinner...well, my mother-in-law despairs of my approach to makeup). I'd put that down to my parents (quasi-hippies both), but my sister did get whatever recessive makeup gene I didn't, so... In any case, G'Sell hits it on the nose when she observes that lipstick can feel like an easy just-one-thing (and again when she observes that, for many, it can also feel like too much). This doesn't make me want to start wearing lipstick on the regular—and that's not the point of the book anyway. But it does make me think hmm, maybe a bolder color next time we go see the in-laws.
*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.
Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.
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