October 15, 2008

Lipstick Quota

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.

46 comments:

jonniker said...

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?

Annika said...

Oh man, I am below average AGAIN.

Nellyru said...

HAhahahahaha!! Also: gag.

MonkeyBusiness said...

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.

Erin said...

I think lipstick is low sodium, so how bad could it be?

Susan said...

They got busted by Swistle!

edbteach said...

Thank you for the much needed laugh. I KNEW there was a reason I didn't wear lipstick!

Linda said...

Very sensible. I will pick up extra lipsticks for dessert tomorrow.

Astarte said...

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.

Trina said...

Thank GAWD I don't wear lipstick. Because that is just gross. Gross. How do they come up with this crap?

Omaha Mama said...

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.

Lindsay said...

Lipstick. It's what's for dinner.

squandra said...

Ewww. Could they have meant "in a lifetime"?

Michelle said...

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.

drowninginlaundry said...

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?

Kristi said...

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!!!

Jill said...

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.

nikki said...

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.

Anonymous said...

This is why I like your blog - you're smart and you actually do the math. And then your math makes me laugh. :)

Shelly said...

God, I love you, Swistle.

Alice said...

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. :-)

Miss Grace said...

I've read that before, and just decided that they're wrong.

Tracey said...

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...

HollyLynne said...

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?!?!

Jeninacide said...

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!

Amanda said...

HAH! I just laughed out loud!

Vicky said...

That is too funny. Articles often give facts like this that you can't possibly be true if you fact check.

Vicki said...

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.

CAQuincy said...

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."

Kelsey said...

Thank you for doing the math on that one -sheesh!

Let us all be wary of random statistics!

Kelsey said...

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!!!

fairydogmother said...

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?

clueless but hopeful mama said...

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.

Barb @ getupandplay said...

You don't go through an entire tube of lipstick a day?? Hmm, maybe I should change my beauty routine...

leafprobably.com said...

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.

Anna said...

. . . 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.

Cristina Mathers said...

holy crap. that's a lot. maybe it was a misprint. if that's the case, i am way behind!

Amber said...

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.

elizasmom said...

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).

the new girl said...

Another Urban Legend destroyed by Swistle.

Sarah said...

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!

Julie said...

Who wears that much lipstick? I mean, really, WHO????

Kristine said...

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.

Kira said...

Wait...I'm supposed to be wearing LIPSTICK?
Damnit.
I'll never get it all done.

Sarah Reason said...

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

Swistle said...

Sarah- Oh, neat!