Why in the USSR TV presenters were colored with green lipstick and blush: the reason will surprise you

Television presenters, or as they were then called, newscasters in the early days of television had to use makeup in a rather unusual way. All women had to apply green lipstick and green blush.

Back then, television was quite different: only a few channels worked, and the picture was black and white. OBOZ.UA analyzed why in the USSR TV presenters painted with green lipstick and blush.

Famous Soviet presenter Anna Shatilova, who led the program "Vremya", "News" and "Blue Light", recalled that in that era without green makeup was impossible to go on the air.

The thing is that back then the cameras had red filters that actually ate up all the red color. Therefore, in the days of black and white screens, the presenters painted with green lipstick and used green blush. This color looked natural and expressive in the picture.

This idea, like many others, was stolen by Soviet television from its Western counterparts. In particular, in the United States, a special makeup technique for black-and-white movies was developed back in the 20s and 30s by Max Factor, the founder of the eponymous company.

The special green makeup created by Factor included green shades for panchromatic film - it was used by 96% of Hollywood movie studios. The makeup was very thin, didn't crack and looked quite natural in the frame. Factor also invented compressed powder, which met the technical requirements of color cinematography and corrected the complexion.

American cosmetics were not used in the USSR, of course, so you could only dream about the quality of the means. But TV presenters had to apply green lipstick and blush until the appearance of color images in the late 1970s.

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