GETTING LIPPY
People are only just realising how lipstick is actually made and it’s blowing their minds
WHETHER you're a fan of a sultry and sexy red or more of a beige babe, there's nothing quite like a touch of lippy to finish off your outfit.
But while many of us will reach for the staple on a daily basis, few people know how it's actually made - and it's blowing their minds.
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While people assume the process is completely automated, it couldn't be further from the truth, with the lipstick undergoing a labour-intense process before making it onto beauty counters up and down the country.
In a short clip from , which was re-posted on , the journey is broken down, with the lipstick undergoing different processes to create the wax, pigments and moisturisers mixture to achieve the perfect shade.
Firstly, an employee will weigh all of the ingredients to perfect a specific formula, which will vary from brand-to-brand.
These ingredients are then poured into a kettle that'll melt them down, before mixing them together.
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Following this, a plant-based solution called plantolatum is added.
This is effectively a skin softener and helps the lipstick glide on easily when applied.
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To thicken the mixture and give the lipstick its much-loved sheen, waxes are added - usually these will include carnauba, candelilla and beeswax.
Next, the worker focuses on the lipstick shade and will mix together various pigments using iron oxide colourants.
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Once the desired hue is achieved, the mixture then makes its way onto rollers that'll grind the pigment particles and roll it into sheet form until they're smooth, before being added to the base mixture.
When the mixture has the right creamy consistency, it's then placed into moulds under a filling machine which shapes it into lipsticks.
It then enters a cooling tunnel so that the mixture can solidify.
Finally, to get the lipsticks into the swivel tube containers, an employee will place a rack on top of the mould, before inserting the cases in to the slots.
A turnaround machine will then use a soft blast of air to push the lipsticks out of the moulds and into the cases, before a hot gun warms them up and gives them a shiny finish.
It wasn't long before people took to the comments section, with many left gobsmacked by the lengthy process.
"Out of all the products in the world that I expected the production to be fully automated, lipstick was near the top," wrote one.
"I'm consistently surprised how many products still have multiple steps that require human workers."
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A second penned: "I didn't realise how many steps nor labour intensive this process required."
A third agreed: "I had no idea that my lipstick was so labour intensive."
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