lipstick

I'm at Gracious Homes looking for— hard to believe — a hinge door stopper in chrome.  I find the perfect one, then see an acrylic lipstick organizer and buy it.  I'm probably the last female alive to discover this great little item. 

I’ve already thrown out the lipstick colors I no longer like.  My new lipstick holder can accommodate 18. I shouldn’t need more.

I mostly wear sheers, and mostly in some shade of pink. My favorite brands are Dior, Armani, and Cle de Peau. I feel overdone wearing lipsticks that are too heavily pigmented.  I avoid reds and corals. I have about three or four darker colors, but these I rarely wear.

My friend Zelia once told me she has only one lipstick. 

So I wonder, what is the average?

I find a study from 1988 that says the average woman has seven tubes of lipstick.  Now aside from my friend Zelia, I don’t think I know anyone who has so few.

Could it be that since 1988 the average number of lipsticks per female over age 16 has skyrocketed?  Do most women really own about seven and I’m unusual? Or, is the study flawed?

While I can't find a recent study on the average number of lipsticks, I do find a 2013 study that calculates the average number of swipes per lipstick tube at 293.  (Okay, okay, I know... but it's a slow snowy day and I'm inside with not much to do). This means that if one applies lipstick three times per day, every day, the lipstick will be finished at a little over three months.  Hmmm. 

Who applies lipstick only three times a day?  Another study says it’s more like twelve.  This means I’d go through a tube in less than a month.

But then, I can’t remember finishing a lipstick.  Usually I lose them before they are used up.  Either that, or I lose interest in the color and toss it.

But the most interesting factoid I find is that lipsticks (along with blush powders) have a one-year expiration date.

Check my refrigerator and shelves.  I never keep anything even one day beyond even the sell by date.

But lipsticks?  A year?  Yah right.

I think I’ll continue living life on the edge.