I just read a “go green”-type article that said it was very important to choose good, safe lipsticks, because the average woman eats 4-5 POUNDS of lipstick PER YEAR by licking her lipsticked lips or eating with lipstick on.
I looked, and my lipstick is .13 ounces. That means there are 123 lipsticks per pound. You’d have to be eating more than an entire tube EVERY DAY to get to 4-5 pounds a year. SO GET CRACKING. You are WAY behind on this year’s quota if you’re going to be average.
I read that TOOOOO. People, right? I thought the same thing! First off, I don’t wear lipstick every day and secondly, I DO NOT EAT ENTIRE TUBES AT A CLIP. Who does? Who wears that much lipstick? Who wears lipstick — ENTIRE TUBES — every second of the day?
Oh man, I am below average AGAIN.
HAhahahahaha!! Also: gag.
Whenever someone tells me some crazy weird statistic like that that seems super-fishy I always retort with “And 80% of statistics are made up on the spot.” It always gets a laugh.
I think lipstick is low sodium, so how bad could it be?
They got busted by Swistle!
Thank you for the much needed laugh. I KNEW there was a reason I didn’t wear lipstick!
Very sensible. I will pick up extra lipsticks for dessert tomorrow.
Yummy!!!!
I wonder if they meant in a lifetime, rather than every year? I mean, what do they think we’re doing over here?
Oh, I know – the article was written by a man who noticed that his girlfriend’s lipsticks had names like Strawberry Sundae and assumed it was a food. Men. Can’t live with them, and apparently can’t let them near your makeup bag.
Thank GAWD I don’t wear lipstick. Because that is just gross. Gross. How do they come up with this crap?
Maybe they meant oz.? Huh.
I only wear chapstick and certainly don’t lick my lips while it’s on. That’s ridiculous. I once saw a fact about how many spiders we eat a year because they crawl in for warmth at night! Gah! I refuse to believe either fact.
Lipstick. It’s what’s for dinner.
Ewww. Could they have meant “in a lifetime”?
Funny, I was going with the “there’s no way I buy four pounds of lipstick in a year, let alone eat that much” and apparently I was right ;) I just didn’t do the math all the way through (yet) and now I don’t have to.
Omaha Mama: THAT KILLS ME!
I work in a Sleep Lab and I gotta say I watch people sleep for a living and NEVER once had I seen a spider crawl into a patients mouth. Now I have only been doing it 8 years ;)
Seriously? I use maybe 2 tubes of lipstick in a year – so how the heck could that be 4 pounds?
That has got to be a quote that was completely misunderstood by some man that wrote up that “statistic”. There were a whole group of guys at one of my previous jobs that really thought women stood on the toilet seats to go pee – because they heard that women stand/squat to pee in public facilities. Men……they’re so literal!!!
I remember a friend eating her chapstick in elementary school because it smelled and looked like mint chocolate chip. So maybe they’re averaging out how much we ingest from a young age? I still think I fall on the low side of that curve though.
That means I will have to start wearing lipstick to begin with. While were at it, why do men get out of this wonderful culinary delight? Seems to me they need to get cracking too.
This is why I like your blog – you’re smart and you actually do the math. And then your math makes me laugh. :)
God, I love you, Swistle.
i’m going to make my bf start eating lipstick, because i don’t even WEAR the stuff… so i’ll have him make up for my dismal numbers. :-)
I’ve read that before, and just decided that they’re wrong.
EW. Such a weird thing to do a survey on. I mean, really? Do we really need that random fact? Couldn’t they just say “It’s nice to have safer lipstick on your lips so when you lick it, it won’t make you sick.” That would sell MORE lipstick to me. Instead, I am now rethinking even the random 10-12 times a year I DO apply…
bwah! good catch. maybe per lifetime or something. I do worry about where all my eye makeup goes though . . .ever notice how eyeshadow and liner are pretty much gone by the end of the day? they aren’t getting . . .*gulp* . . . abosorbed by my eyeballs are they?!?!
OMG! I don’t know how that is even possible. I don’t think I even go through an entire tube of CHAPSTICK a year… maybe I am just considerably lower-maintenance than the “average” woman? GAH!
HAH! I just laughed out loud!
That is too funny. Articles often give facts like this that you can’t possibly be true if you fact check.
Ok. I still have the same lipstick I bought to wear to my high school graduation 10 years ago. WTF? Do they really think women eat makeup? Gross. Talk about technicolor poo…LOL.
Swistle: you kill me!
I’ve got some MASSIVE lipstick to eat here. Where the heck do you get it from, anyway? ‘Cause I don’t even think I have any in the house…. MUST. BECOME. “AVERAGE.”
Thank you for doing the math on that one -sheesh!
Let us all be wary of random statistics!
Also, if so many of us don’t wear lipstick on a regular basis, that would mean somewhere there are women eating 8 to 10 pounds a year!!!
That is gross. Who writes this stuff? And who are these women eating entire lipsticks a day, not to mention the one who are above average?
I worry about my chap stick ingestion but can it really add up to POUNDS?? I only go through 4-5 chapsticks a year.
Maybe they were basing it on how many lipsticks a woman buys and then uses only once a year at a wedding or something.
You don’t go through an entire tube of lipstick a day?? Hmm, maybe I should change my beauty routine…
Perhaps they include lipstick you eat off other people’s lips??
I don;t do that either, but that’s the only way I can see that total coming true.
. . . so if the average drugstore lipstick is $5, then we should each be spending $1,825 per year on lipstick.
Man! Maybe we can re-up in bulk at CostCo.
holy crap. that’s a lot. maybe it was a misprint. if that’s the case, i am way behind!
Thank god I don’t wear lipstick. That would be an extra four or five pounds I’d gain each year – like I need THAT. Especially because lipstick tastes horrible – ew.
Anyway, thanks for the public service. Next time my mom is like “Put some lipstick on!” I can say “Do you WANT me to be fat?” That’ll show her.
I read this, and then I noticed that as I did so, I had taken my lipstick out of my purse and reapplied. Subliminal messages…
Also, I licked it (it is one of those flavored kinds).
Another Urban Legend destroyed by Swistle.
I don’t think I’ve worn lipstick in over a year.
That Burt’s Bees Lipbalm, however, yeah, I can see eating that. When my daughter was two, she actually did!
Who wears that much lipstick? I mean, really, WHO????
I’d like to meet the lady who has been making up for me having the same tube of lipstick for 5 years (yeah I wear make up all of once a month, if that.) Lipstick must be her main source of nutrition.
Wait…I’m supposed to be wearing LIPSTICK?
Damnit.
I’ll never get it all done.
I know this is an extremely old post, but I just read it while going through your archives, and just had to google it. I found this site, and thought you might enjoy it. It shows more of the mathlete side to this statistic.
http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/lipstick.asp
Sarah- Oh, neat!