It's a traditional lip paint made from 1 percent beauty painstakingly polished to an iridescent shine.

"Beni," as lipstick is known in Japan, is also the name of a luxurious shade of red derived from the "benibana" (safflower) pigment that has been favored by Japanese women for centuries. Although the art of producing the alluring lip paint has nearly died out, a handful of people are now making efforts to revive it.

References to beni, which is purchased in small decorative bowls and applied to the lips with a brush, date back to before the Heian Period (794-1185), when it was a luxury item. It gradually spread to the masses in the late Edo Period (1603-1867).