ladies

This is a consecutive speech about old

makeup and more particularly the dangers

of using old makeup. It talks about a

study which has recently highlighted

just how risky this can be for our

health as well as for our beauty.

Apparently the makeup that we put on our

skin should be as fresh as the food as

the food that we eat. We should

certainly pay as much attention to what

we put on our skin as to what we put

inside our bodies. There are no proper

nouns u but mention is made of makeup

individual makeup products like

lipstick, mascara and foundation.

I'm starting now

ladies and gentlemen.

Perhaps I could start by turning to the

ladies here. Now, I'm sure that many of

you have a daily beauty routine which

you use and you probably went through

that this morning. Cleansing,

moisturizing, and putting your makeup

on.

And if you did that, it was doubtless

because you, like millions of other

women around the world, take pride in

the way you look. You want to look your

best, so you make the effort.

However, I wonder if you're aware that

this very act may actually be putting

your health and beauty at risk.

A recent study has found that the

average British woman's makeup bag

contains products that are five or

sometimes even 10 years old.

But the problem is that just like food,

makeup goes off and once it does, it's

full of bacteria.

which we happily transfer to our faces.

According to the study, this very

morning, one in five British women will

have put on her makeup using a product

which is at least 5 years old.

If I could just continue the analogy

with food for a moment,

all food has an expiry date. And we

don't think twice about throwing milk

away once it once it reaches that date.

Other food products we might use a

little longer. Certainly we do in my

household. Although we wouldn't dream of

using them indefinitely.

with food. To put it in a nutshell, we

use our common sense.

We sniff it. We take a good look at it.

And if we think it's unsafe, it goes

straight in the bin.

Well, experts are now saying that we

need to learn to do the same with

makeup. The makeup that we put on our

skin should be as fresh as the food we

eat. And if it looks bad or smells bad

or even tastes bad, that means that it

is bad. So throw it away.

I'm now just going to take a couple of

minutes to look into the problem in a

little more detail with you. Starting

with the leading problem makeup

products, the the products which cause

the most problems.

Apparently, according to the study, the

worst offender is a product that's in

very common use and one that I, for one,

used just about every single day.

Mascara.

According to health and safety experts,

mascara should actually be thrown away

after 3 to 6 months of use. I'm just

shuddering at the thought of how long

I've had mine.

This is because if you think about how

you use uh the the mascara, you have the

brush and the dispenser, and the pumping

action of the brush in the dispenser can

actually drive bacteria deeper down into

the product.

By way of an aside, at this point, I'd

just like to share a personal anecdote

with you to back this up.

A friend of mine had had red, watery

eyes for years, and she'd tried

absolutely everything. She'd been to

doctors and pharmacists and tried all of

the products that were suggested, all of

the remedies to no avail.

And then by complete chance, she stopped

wearing mascara for a month and the

problem cleared up as if by magic.

So she realized what the connection was.

She realized what the cause of her

problem was.

Well, of course, she actually went back

to wearing mascara, though vanity is, of

course, a terrible thing. But she now

follows the advice to buy a new one

every few months, and her problem has

never returned.

Back to the study now. Please don't

think it ends there with mascara because

dangers lurk in other products, too.

Foundation can be absorbed into the

skin, whilst bits of lipstick can get

into your mouth when you eat.

And then it's not just the products

themselves either. Remember that good

girly tradition of getting together to

pile on the slap before a good night

out. Well, according to the study,

that's a no no as well.

One of the main culprits here is our old

friend mascara. Again, you see, the

mascara wand can harbor bacteria that

cause eye infections. So, if you have a

group of friends who are using the same

mascara and one of them is infected,

it's almost inevitable that the

infection will spread to her friends

too, I'm afraid that's likely to come as

bad news to the 35% of British women

under 24 who admit to sharing mascara

with friends.

British women spend 1 billion pounds a

year on cosmetics. That's more than any

other nation in Europe. It's easy to

understand though. They're tempted by a

vast array of products available at

relatively affordable prices with new

products constantly appearing on the

market.

And this, according to experts, is part

of the problem. Instead of buying a

lipstick, using it until it runs out,

and then replacing it as women did in

the past, women today buy makeup

products just because they catch their

eye, even if they don't need them.

But the thing is that we're very good at

buying, but not so good at throwing

away, which is how our makeup bags and

bathroom cabinets come to be stuffed

full of products which are long past

their best.

Ladies and gentlemen, there are lots

more grizzly details I could share with

you from this study, but I'm going to

leave it there for now. I don't know

about you, but I myself have some very

urgent business to attend to right now.

I'm going to rush home right away and

throw out all the festering makeup

that's clogging up my bathroom cabinet.

Thank you.