Mineral reds
Red ochre — iron oxide clay — is one of humanity's oldest pigments, used on bodies and in burials for tens of thousands of years. Iron oxides are still the backbone of lip-blushing pigment today, because they are stable, well tolerated and come in exactly the warm red-brown range lips need.
Cinnabar (mercury sulfide) gave a brilliant vermilion prized from antiquity through the Renaissance, and named the very border of the lip — but it is toxic and is long gone from cosmetics.
Carbon black
Soot and charred material provided black for eye and brow tattooing across Egypt, the Mediterranean and Asia. Carbon particles are small and migrate over time, which is part of why ancient — and mid-century — eyeliner tattoos spread and blurred.
Plant stains
Henna, indigo and various berry and bark juices stained lips and skin temporarily. They are not tattoos, but they set the aesthetic expectation — a stain, not a coat — that modern lip blushing has circled back to.
