Myth Debunked: The red colour in your lipstick comes from squashed ladybirds!

As humans developed, the initial sources of dyes used in colour, like the famous reddish purple – Tyrian purple – and blue indigo dyes of Phoenicia – came from the harvesting and destruction of thousands upon thousands of sea snails.

In the Middle Ages, cochineal, a dye made by combining parts of a scale insect growing on a prickly pear-type cactus with some salts, produced the bright red dye carmine.

Synthetic dyes flourished after this, many of which used heavy metals, while nowadays, a return to nature and the use of natural dyes prevail. In fact, red (xanthins), green (chlorophylls), yellow (carotenes) and blue (cyanins) dyes and powders in your make-up today, including the intermediate browns and purples, are largely likely to derive from cultured algae.

Ladybirds, instead, bring much value to our gardens and agricultural land as they eat plant-eating pests such as aphids.