How much money have you wasted on make-up?
It seems we have a beauty addiction, and it’s costing us a lot of money. New research shows that women waste 5,846 products in their lifetime, amounting to £180,000.
The study, commissioned by Vaseline, reveals that magpie-like women are hoarding unused beauty products - in an average adult lifestyle buying 840 moisturisers, 360 nail varnishes and 300 lipsticks.
Despite making such an investment on beauty products, the research reveals that 77% of women use less than 10 items regularly, despite owning up to 100 in a year. Men on the other hand, own an average of 12 products per annum, 960 in their lifetime and use all of them, with no wastage at all.
Meanwhile, unlike the beauty conscious fairer sex, men seem to stick to the bare essentials with 58% admitting to preferring multi-functioning products. The study reveals guys are buying just 5 shave creams, 4 body moisturisers and 4 facial moisturisers per year, partly due to them borrowing their other half's products, as 1 in 4 men admit to doing.
Top 5 unused beauty products hoarded by women are:
1. Nail varnishes
2. Shampoo & Conditioner
3. Lipsticks & Lipgloss
4. Perfumes
5. Shower gels
We are also a nation of women obsessed with refreshing their appearance, with 1 in 12 women admitting they reapply their lipstick at up to 9 times per day. Additionally, most Brits refresh their deodorant or perfume 3 times a day and 1 in 4 checking the mirror 6 times or more every day.
Despite having a number of similar or duplicate products in their cabinets, 75% of women in the UK own at least one pot of multi-purpose healing Vaseline Petroleum Jelly, the ideal multi-purpose product to use in the place of several others.
Luckily for women worried about the cost of their barmy beauty obsession, 92% of men and 83% of women admit to preferring the more paired down "natural look", potentially signalling a reduction in the volume of beauty purchases in the future.
Famed for her skill at clearing out clutter, Kim Woodburn from Channel 4 programme 'How clean is your house?' gives simple advice to those wanting to scale back: "Where possible, buy multi-purpose products like Vaseline Petroleum Jelly. It has been around for a long, long time and does the job of many other products."