Red Lipstick Is So Much More Than a Makeup Shade in 'Too Much'
Beauty
TSS Talent
Cynthia De La Rosa
Beauty
TSS Talent
Cynthia De La Rosa
The classic beauty staple is more than just a statement lip in the Netflix series—it’s making a statement.
In “Too Much,” a seemingly frivolous swipe of red lipstick does more than add a pop of color to the small screen and the protagonist, Jessica Salmon's, pout. The high-impact hue visually brings home some of the show’s very real-world themes of love, acceptance, identity, and the power of female friendships. Set against the backdrop of Hackney, in East London (among other areas, but this is where actor Megan Stalter’s Jessica live on her “estate”), Jessica’s life in the Big Smoke is one of pinks and pastels, ruffles and frilly nightgowns.
Throughout the series, however, this candy-floss world is interrupted by episodes of real-world trauma and shocking shades of red lipstick, all meticulously chosen by the hair and makeup head of department Cynthia De La Rosa. Linnea, played by Adwoa Aboah, wears it in episode two while arguing with Felix at the pub (MAC Retro Matte Liquid Lipcolour in Dance With Me). Felix, Jessica’s London love interest played by Will Sharpe, wears it when playing on stage with his bands (a discontinued Morphe Lip Crayon). Jessica’s coworker Kim (Janicza Bravo) breaks it out on a bougie night in Notting Hill (Isamaya Lips Lipstick in Cardinale). In episode four’s epic dinner party held by Jessica’s boss (Richard E. Grant), nearly all the guests show up wearing some version of the crimson hue (Jessica is wearing Etude Dear Darling Water Gel Tint in Dracula Red).
Red lipstick becomes a prop throughout the series, with the characters sharing intimate moments and tubes fished from their purses. “A lot of the moments when they're applying lipstick is when they're sharing information,” explains De La Rosa.
We see this happen between Kim and Jessica in the bathroom in episode two. Kim takes out her Isamaya Lipstick and offers it to Jessica. “It's a bonding moment — the first time they’re learning anything about each other,” says De La Rosa. We see it again at the dinner party between Naomi Watts’ character Ann and Jessica, this time with a tube of Westman Atelier Lip Suede Lipstick Matte Lipstick in Pip — a beautiful shade that De La Rosa describes as the perfect pure red for fair skin. “Naomi takes out her lipstick, applies it on herself and then applies it on Jessica,” adds De La Rosa. “It’s a very intimate experience because Naomi has just offered to give Jessica guidance in London. They're sharing information and they’re sharing lipstick.”
Meg Stalter in "Too Much."
Throughout the series, we often see women pitted against other women (Jessica against Emily Ratajkowski’s character Wendy Jones, and against Felix’s plethora of past love interests) or women trying to assert themselves against the men in their lives (we see this with Jessica at work, or with Naomi Watts’ character in her marriage). These very intimate, feminine-coded moments offer an opportunity for the women in the show to put their guard down; to feel safe and empowered. “It’s also very instinctual,” says De La Rosa. “You’re in the bathroom and you're having a conversation with someone, you're probably putting lipstick on or you're washing your hands. Lena [Dunham] is a girl who knows her beauty. She loves her products and I think that it makes sense for her that some part of her is sprinkled into these women that we see on camera as well.”
Red lipstick also provides a way for the characters to explore their identity. A nude lip girlie in New York, Jessica begins wearing red lipstick in London after meeting Kim at the office. “Her aesthetic kind of changes and wanes with the people that she is environmentally influenced by,” explains De La Rosa. Felix wears smudged red lipstick when performing with his band, something Sharpe proposed for his character. “We created a backstory that his ex, Linnea, was putting on her red lipstick and then he put it on, too, which then became his signature look for gigs,” explains De La Rosa. As a character who is working through past trauma, and trying to balance his posh upbringing with his current reality of recovering from drug addiction, working through sexual assault, and living on his friend’s couches, his red lipstick and on-stage persona is a bit like his armor,” says De La Rosa. “It’s not just the women that are playing with their identities through makeup. It's also the men.”
Starting with the American Suffragettes in the 1920s, red lipstick has always been a symbol of female empowerment, and it continues to do that in the made-up world in "Too Much." Whatever the characters are experiencing, whether it’s heartache or loss, impostor syndrome or a life-changing move, they greet the world with a statement-making shade of red lipstick when they need it. “When we as women want to be heard, we often put on lipstick—I find that for myself,” says De La Rosa. “And I think it goes back to instinctively, women wanting to feel empowered by color and also by something that makes them feel secure. And sometimes it happens to be lipstick.”
