Manic Panic: Raven Black Lipstck
By Forrest Black
May 1, 2004

I’m pretty certain that it was ‘77 that I ran across my first couple of darksiders, or at least that’s what they called that brand of deathrocker back then. I was in the San Francisco Greyhound bus station in the middle of the night. Yeah, don’t ask, I was an adventurous little kid. But they were striking, with their black black hair, pale skin, Wayfarers at night, and dead black lips. They were going down to L.A. for a show or something. They looked hot as fuck, boy and girls. Years later, me and my goon squad pals used to have to wait all year and then buy out the entire supply of waxy greasy crappy black lipstick from the seasonal costume booths that would crop up around Halloween. See, later in my youth they had moved me out to the ‘burbs for a while to see if that would help bring me back in line. It really just meant that we had to be more creative. Those were the days when a nose-ring could get you thrown out of the mall, maybe even banned. But even way back then, Tish & Snooky were working hard to supply the more metropolitan areas with their cool products for cool people. They opened the first US punk boutique, Manic Panik, coincidentally in 1977 as well. Eventually, we found our way back to the underground shops and proper places to get the good stuff too. Manic Panic has been a staple of the scene for a long long time, and we all have our favorite products from their extensive line, but by far mine is their awesome Raven Black lipstick. It’s a simple opaque matte black that’s easy to control and does the job well. It stays on too! You don’t need to sip your drinks with a dainty straw for fear that you might develop that silly outer lip ring business. It doesn’t bleed outside your lipline like some other more gooey products, and if you wanna be all glam or whatever, glitter sticks to it very nicely as well. Even now, so many years later, this product is on my shortest ‘must have’ list. Today, I probably know those same creepy-cool people I saw so many years ago, and that’s kinda cool.

Take a peek at http://www.ManicPanic.com for tons of cool stuff.