In all of makeup history, never ever has there been anything that’s wielded as much power as red lipstick.

Heir to a pretty tumultuous history, the ancestor of the lovely tube that you can now find in almost every woman’s makeup arson was none other than a mixture of crushed gems which was used to decorate the lips and eyes of both women and men in ancient Sumer. Never one to shy away from a possibly sticky situation, the great Cleopatra crushed insects to colour her lips an inviting, ruby red.

Fast forward to modern times and the importance of this weapon of seduction was highlighted by Elizabeth Taylor, classic Hollywood’s own Cleopatra, when she reportedly stated: “Pour yourself a drink, put on some lipstick and pull yourself together” after she had been through one of her renowned break-ups.

It’s the confidence that you will derive from feeling like you look like a million bucks that people will remember and not the fact that you ‘dared’ to wear a bold colour in the daylight

Indeed, even if you have nothing else on your face, red lipstick instantly makes you look more put together, makes even the dullest outfit pop, and if you choose to wear it with a little black dress, I dare you not to get a compliment.

Despite the fact that many women have read all the style guides and are already plugged into the fact that red lipstick can be overwhelmingly glamorous, I have had conversations with many who will only consider wearing it in the evening or on special occasions, fearing it’s too over the top, despite the fact that they like the idea of it.

My advice to these people is always the same: looking glamorous and putting your best face forward should not have a time frame. At the end of the day, it’s the confidence that you will derive from feeling like you look like a million bucks that people will remember and not the fact that you “dared” to wear a bold colour in the daylight (and let’s face it, do you really want to take advice on what colour lipstick you should wear from people that look like the last time they saw a tube was in 1997?)

If you are in the market for a red lipstick and you want to look more Marilyn Monroe than Batman’s Joker, MAC’s Ruby Woo is always a failsafe and looks amazing on the wearer, whatever skin tone they have.  I wore it almost every day for half a year when I started university and while a few people did stare, even more asked me to give them the name of the shade I was wearing.

Wearing it made me feel empowered and pretty much proved what the greatest red lipstick wearer of all time, Dita Von Teese, once said: “Heels and red lipstick will put the fear of God into people.”

So get glamorous (and scary).