Sex sells?that’s a fact. According to excellent academic source Wikipedia, sex has been selling since at least 1871, the year Pearl Tobacco first featured a “naked maiden” on its package cover. “Good idea,” said everyone, and so the advertising industry was never the same.
Predictably, the world of sex and the world of beauty products have always overlapped?women have used cosmetics to enhance their perceived attractiveness for mating purposes since, like, the actual dawn of time. And so the beauty industry has long harped on that connection, starting with subliminal suggestions (take, for example, Herbal Essences) and working allllll the way up to overt sexuality. That’s how we got products with names like Orgasm and Foreplay and Lost Cherry, and even less conspicuous mentions such as Rule34, which is an Urban Decay lip gloss as well as an Internet “rule” that states, “If it exists, there is porn of it, no exceptions.” MORE: 20 Tips and Tricks to Boost Your Sex Appeal Instantly
Some of the biggest brands out there consistently overlook the chaste in favor of becoming repeat offenders, with a significant portion of their products given names you’d be embarrassed to say in front of your dad. NARS has Orgasm to thank for its surge in popularity, Too Faced‘s Better than Sex mascara is a perennial best seller, and Urban Decay has basically made a brand out of being risqué. Sex?and any mention of it in mark...