I love all colors. Just one color can tell a story. Imagine a dark green accent wall in a stark white living room. It screams moody, edgy, and cozy in all the white. It creates character amongst the boring. Yesterday, I was watching a TikTok of a small makeup business and someone asked why they created a black lipstick, and their response was all about the history of dark lipstick and what colors meant. It got me thinking, there must be history and lore behind every color.

My favorite color is pink. The first time my parents let me decorate my room at 7, I chose Pepto Bismol pink, and every wall needed to be that color. I loved it. So naturally, I looked up the history of pink and oh boy did I dive down the rabbit hole. I knew instantly I needed to make this a series. I’m not sure yet if this will be every couple of weeks or a monthly thing but for now, I’m starting with pink.

Pink is a hue that can show play, poise, and even power. Pink has shown up in ancient fossils and struts down modern fashion runways. It’s a shapeshifter from different cultures. Pink screams luxury, activism, tenderness, and a fun self-expression. It’s known as the oldest biologically generated color dating back over a billion years where it was found in ancient chlorophyll from bacterial fossils.

Pink showed up in 18^th century glam when Louis XV’s famous mistress, Madame de Pompadour, wore pink so much they named a shade after her. She made pink fashion. In the 20^th century it was rebranded to be super feminine in western culture. After WW2, marketing targeted women with pastel tones. Today pink can be worn by anyone, but it’s also symbolized heavily in activism like Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

In psychology, pink is used to show calm and optimism. It’s supposed to evoke comfort, hope, love, and a safe space. Pink is a blend of red passion and white purity. It symbolizes gentle love, compassion, and intimacy for women. Pink is used to represent femininity and innocence and often shows girlhood. Women often wear pink to show power and certain shades, like fuchsia, to show confidence and a fun alternative to its pastel sister.

In fashion pink means many things. Blush tones show elegance and softness. Neon pink shows edgy, playful, and bold. Pink can be mixed with red to show sexy or romance or with an orange and show a vibrant sunrise inspired vibe. In art pinks can be paired with soft muted nudes for serenity or hot pink with black for drama and disruption. Pink is also used to highlight skin tones, floral scenes, and surreal landscapes.

Fun fact….A man named Anish Kapoor worked out a deal with a company who created the blackest black called Vanta Black where he would be the only one who would ever be allowed to use it. Understandably it created drama and outrage in the art world with artists who wanted to play with the color in their own pieces. He sort of has a reputation and there seems to be a great distaste for him. In an ultimate show of petty an artist named Stuart Semple, a to die for artist with incredibly vibrant and thought provoking works of art, created a bright intense hot pink said to be the pinkest color ever created. He simply named it Pink and what did he do with it? He made it for sale to anyone in the world except Kapoor. I love that kind of response and pettiness.

Now I’m off to create a jar of colors and I’m going to use that as a random way to choose a color for the next post in the Color Crush Series. I’m excited for this. I have a real thing for history and learning and add to that my love of colors, I’m about to exhaust everyone around me with color facts and history. Lucky for me, everyone in my life is used to this. Haha.

XOXO,

Savi Monroe