Today, lipstick is one of the most affordable cosmetic products available with research suggesting that as many as 80% of women use it regularly with many owning up to 20 lipsticks in different colours or shades. Cosmetics company, Avon, sells four lipsticks every single second.

The South African lipstick market is quite distinct with an overall value of over R420-million. In this segment, mostly mature women opt for lipstick over lip gloss with many using a combination of the two to get the desired results. Most women use lipstick for its colour and the fact that it can last longer. A recent study conducted with renowned colour psychologist, Angela Wright, reveals that different shades of lipstick are perceived very differently by women. Wright, who is an expert on the effective properties of colour and a lecturer at the London College of Fashion says the study highlighted that approximately 70% of women judged women who wear dark shades to be unfriendly while 85% of women said that women who wear pale shades are shy. Women who consistently wear bright colours are unanimously perceived as being confident. Likewise more than 50% of women said they felt more confident when wearing a bright hue.

Maggy More, an independent Avon Representative in Soweto recalls her very first lipstick sale a few years ago. “The customer insisted on a lipstick in a bright but fashionable peach shade despite the fact that there were other shades available that were on special at almost half the price. She was going to a wedding and just had to have that specific colour,” she says. More, who worked at a shoe manufacturing company before being retrenched, sold fat cakes in the dusty streets of Soweto before deciding that the beauty industry was her passion. “I never thought I would make a good living selling lipsticks but it is working for me and I’m loving every minute of it,” she adds.

“One of my long-time customers always said to me, a woman should always have lipstick and that has stuck with me. So I not only sell lipsticks I am a serial buyer,” says Alice Mthini, another independent Avon Representative. Mthini worked as a domestic worker for 21 years before discovering Avon’s earning opportunity. Selling lipsticks has enabled Mthini to put food on the table, take her two children and her sister’s child to private schools and buy a brand new car.

For many women a lipstick is an essential component in their make-up bags, some can’t leave home without it but for these independent Avon Representatives, it is their livelihood. Avon works with approximately six million independent representatives worldwide most of whom are women and use lipsticks themselves but more importantly, understand what their customers need in a product of this nature.