Red lipstick is without question the most celebrated lipstick colour for virtually every woman on earth, so why is it that so many women are on a continual and seemingly never ending search for the perfect red? Why is it that so many others have come to the conclusion that red lipstick just doesn’t suit them?

The reason finding the perfect red is so damn hard is that you have to pick through dozens of shades across a plethora of different brands before you even find one or two that seem ok. Who has time for that?! And even if you’re miraculously blessed enough to find that perfect shade of red, so often the formulation turns out to be terrible. Dries your lips out, bleeds everywhere, doesn’t last.

The reason so many women are convinced they can’t do red is simply because so many brands lead women to believe that their “signature” shade of red suits every woman. Which of course is completely untrue.

Solving these two problems is at the very core of Red Cosmetica’s raison d’être and the solution was surprisingly simple: create an entire range of moisturising, long-lasting, non-bleed red lipsticks. Just reds.

So in 2014 we launched Red Burlesque, the world’s first ever red lipstick brand, with a mission to make damn sure every woman, anywhere in the world, could find her perfect reds in a heartbeat. The Red Burlesque range boasted 21 shades or red, each hand picked by and named after 21 world-renowned Burlesque performers from all corners of the globe.

Over the next couple of years we realised two things: one, that 21 shades was too daunting a number to be able to choose from, and two, other lipstick brands had begun to attach the word Burlesque to some of their shades of red. So we rationalised the range to 15 shades and re-branded under the name Red Cosmetica.

From the outset we’ve always been a brand of firsts.

We were the first to launch a mobile app that enabled you to take a selfie and virtually try on each of our shades. We followed that with Instagram filters that let you try, snap and share red lipstick selfies and even click through to buy.

We are the first to name our shades by a code that makes is easy for you to find your perfect reds by skin tone and lipstick finish.

We are the first to launch a What’s My Shade service – an online red lipstick matching service that connects you with our beauty team to recommend the perfect Red Cosmetica shades for your skin tone, colour, complexion and lipstick preferences.

And there’s more firsts to come.