As "petal" and "cherry" are the two most-used metaphors to describe lips of women, Chinese aesthetics tend to make female's lips look smaller and redder.

There was an exception in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), when people were more open-minded, women tended to dye their lips black.

Such makeup was connected with grief and sorrow, which was considered a unique beauty in that time. Undoubtedly, such avant-garde experiment only lived for a short period, as it betrayed the mainstream traditional aestheticism.

Other variations had long-lasting life, such as the "bitten lips", which once enjoyed popularity in the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911).