I bought my first lipstick when I turned 30. Blood red, it brightened my face. That same year, a Bollywood movie, “Lipstick Under My Burkha,” narrated the lives of four women in a mid-size Indian town for whom wearing lipstick was a metaphor for how they sought a spoonful of freedom and a pinch of sensuality.

As a child, I would wake up to the distinct scent of my mother’s Lakme moisturizing lotion and the sight of her drawing on her nonexistent eyebrows. The only extra minutes spent before the mirror to apply glistening light pink lipstick and some face powder would be when Maa stepped out of the house for a gathering with friends or for a wedding.

Women across Indian cities and towns have always had a date with the nearest beauty parlor (salon), which offered a comfortable, home-like space, to wax their body hair, get a facial, a hair trim, and manicures and pedicures. But now women and girls in India are wearing makeup every day, flaunting their eyeshadow blends and contoured faces outside the burkha and on the streets. As manufacturers eye the potential for increased cash flow, the color cosmetics industry — comprised of both Indian and international brands — has soared.

Wearing makeup comes across as being ready to take on the world with confidence.

Young women who have had to move out of their small towns to seek education or employment now have the space to explore and experiment with both their lifestyle and the shades they wear on their faces. Sonali Kapoor, who has been working in the public relations industry in New Delhi for 15 years, attends evening events at least twice a week.

Wearing makeup comes across as being ready to take on the world with confidence.

“I love wearing eye makeup, and since I have small eyes, I experiment with eyeliners and different eye shadows,” she explains. “Good eye makeup maintains the line between looking good and being loud. If we dress up to feel a certain way, why wouldn’t we focus on specific parts of our body too? I do that for my eyes,” she says.

Makeup artist and hairdresser Ambika Pillai has witnessed a jump in the use of everyday makeup over the last 15 years. It used to be restricted to women working only in show business and the airline industry, she says, but now “everyone wants to experiment, and makeup is no more something that women wear only at parties or at specific jobs.”