Several years ago, I read that women who wear lipstick every day ingest several pounds of the stuff over the course of their lives. I just googled this to check and a couple places say 20 kg, which is 44 pounds and rather an exaggeration, don't you think? But four pounds, or six pounds, or even just two pounds is too much. I only wear lipstick a few times a year, so I'm not at any real risk for mass lipstick ingestion.
And I'm glad of that, especially because today I started translating a patent for a novel method of preparing stick-shaped cosmetics, including lipstick, sunblock, concealer, and the like, complete with lists of ingredients. That is some nasty stuff that goes into lipstick, which explains the nasty taste it has.
One of the things I like about translating is getting to learn new things with every job. The downside of that is sometimes you learn things you'd rather not know.
161 words | August 2, 2005 08:42 PM | Lost in translation