Differentiation of lipsticks by Raman spectroscopy

Dispersive Raman spectra have been obtained using a Raman microscope and an excitation wavelength of 632.8 nm from 69 lipsticks of various colours and from a range of manufacturers without any pre-treatment of the samples. 10% of the samples were too fluorescent to give Raman spectra. 22% of the samples gave spectra which were unique to the brand and colour within the collected sample set. The remaining 68% of the samples gave spectra which could be classified into seven distinct groups. Discrimination of red lipsticks by this technique was the most difficult. The spectra of deposited lipstick samples remained unchanged over a period of a least a year.