Lipstick Lifesaver -
Multi-Sensory Design Project
A speculative design project focusing on beauty technologies and corporeal sensations. This product is titled 'Lipstick Lifesaver', a concept designed to combat the social wrongs of the spiking epidemic that started in 2015 (rising by 108% from then to 2018), and continued to rise into 2021 at the time of this project.
How can we create protective makeup? How do we protect individuals who are at risk with cosmetics?
Research.
When considering the concept of spiking and how to combat it physically with makeup, my first thought was of course lipstick; due to the nature of ingesting the substance through the mouth. The history of lipstick is long and saturated with culture and women’s strength. Alongside connotations of witchcraft, sex work, sexuality and women’s defiance. Therefore, one can see that lipstick is the most appropriate product to combat this never ending war on women; as it is a product women have historically used to convey our identity and sexuality. Whilst also protecting those that have been notoriously devalued by society thought history, and within today’s world.
With recent bills being changed by Western governments, one can see that the value of a women’s choice and sexuality is still being diminished. In 2022 The US Supreme Court decided that Roe v. Wade, the monumental 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion up to 23 weeks, should be overruled. Before this, it was only legal to have an abortion to save the mother’s life by a medical professional.
The solution I proposed to combat the problems of spiking we face in society today is the Life Saver Lipstick. This concept is a smart lipstick that will release a strong taste in the wearers mouth if their food or drink has been spiked. The lipstick taste would be activated when a chemical is present that shouldn’t be in what the wearer is drinking/ eating. This would then allow the person to leave the situation and assailant and get help quickly, or alert someone of the spiking.
