Text and Image: Siyang Dai
My first lipstick was made of candy. Imagine you could have a lipstick that is sweet and edible. For me at that time, a kid in kindergarten, candy lipsticks were the best toy ever. I usually didn't directly lick the candy, because then the candy lipstick lost its meaning. For me, it was a cosmetic rather than a candy. You could choose different colours, with different flavours. The strawberry flavour is red, the pineapple is yellow, and the grape flavour is purple. Sadly, my lip didn’t turn yellow with pineapple flavour. To use a candy lipstick, you first need to wet the candy (with saliva), then put it on the lip, or lick the lip to taste the sweet flavours. Even though I stopped using the candy lipsticks, every time that I tried to wear the lipstick, I just couldn’t help the desire to lick it.
My mother bought me a lipstick when I was in junior high school. I didn't remember if I ever told my mother that I wanted lipstick, but she brought me one when she came back from a business trip. Maybe she just wanted me to start paying more attention to my appearance. The colour of that lipstick was weird, from my current point of view. There is a particular name for this type of colour: Barbie Death Pink. I’m sure you can tell something from this name: common outfits for daily lives cannot handle such a colour. Wearing Barbie Death Pink is like a bull's-eye which people can easily hit for a score of 10 because it’s too outstanding. Until today, this gift from my mother is still sitting near my other makeup supplies. If you open it, you’ll see I’ve hardly used it.
The most fascinating thing about lipsticks is that they accompany me growing up in different ways. I have a lipstick-shaped vibrator. Why would a vibrator be in the shape of a lipstick? Because no one would directly link it to a sex toy, right? And the lipstick vibrator is so light and tiny that I could even keep it in my pocket. It's very discreet. It can't be used for make-up, but it still brings me pleasure, just in another way. Although it is small, it's actually very powerful. I always imagine that if objects had lives and could talk, what would they say? When my lipstick vibrator lies in my makeup bag alongside my other real lipsticks, the stories this 'weirdo' would tell might be pretty entertaining.