Do Women Really Use Their Height in Lipstick Every 5 Years?

You've probably seen this "fact" floating around the internet: the average woman uses her height in lipstick every five years. It's the kind of statistic that makes you pause and think, "Wait, really?" Spoiler alert: no, not really. This viral beauty myth has been making the rounds since at least 2013, passed from one "fun facts" website to another, but there's one glaring problem—nobody can find where it actually came from.

No scientific study. No cosmetics industry report. No credible source whatsoever. Just a neat-sounding number that's been copy-pasted across the internet so many times that people assume it must be true.

Let's Do the Math

Time to break out the calculator and see if this claim holds up. The average woman in the United States is about 5'4" tall—that's 64 inches, or roughly 163 centimeters. According to this myth, she'd use 64 inches worth of lipstick tubes every five years.

A standard lipstick tube measures about 3 inches in height. Stack up enough tubes to reach 64 inches and you'd need approximately 21 tubes. Every five years. That's about 4 tubes per year, which actually sounds... kind of reasonable? For a daily lipstick user, that might even track.

But wait—there's a catch. That's measuring the tubes, not the actual lipstick product inside. The lipstick bullet itself only extends about 1 to 1.5 inches when fully twisted up. If we're talking about the actual product (which would make more sense for a "usage" statistic), you'd need to stack 43 to 64 fully-extended lipstick bullets to reach that height. That's 9 to 13 tubes per year.

Reality Check: How Much Lipstick Do Women Actually Use?

Industry data and consumer surveys paint a very different picture. Research suggests that regular lipstick users go through about 2 to 4 tubes per year—nowhere near the 9 to 13 tubes our "height in lipstick" math would require. A single tube of lipstick provides approximately 293 applications, and if you apply lipstick three times daily, one tube lasts about three months.

Even makeup enthusiasts who own dozens of lipsticks aren't necessarily using them all. Most people have a few favorites they rotate through while the rest sit in a drawer, occasionally getting a swipe before a special event.

The Lipstick Myth Family Tree

This isn't the only dubious lipstick statistic making the rounds. You may have also heard that women "eat" 4 to 9 pounds of lipstick over a lifetime. Snopes thoroughly debunked this claim, pointing out that 4 pounds of lipstick equals about 534 tubes. To consume that much, you'd need to swallow every bit of lipstick you apply—none kissed away, blotted off, or wiped away before bed—for decades.

These statistics share a common trait: they sound specific and scientific, but they crumble under scrutiny. They're designed to be shareable, not accurate. A perfect viral fact doesn't need truth—it just needs to sound interesting enough to retweet.

Why We Love (and Share) Fake Stats

There's something irresistible about quantifying everyday behavior in surprising ways. "Your height in lipstick" creates a vivid mental image—you, standing next to a tower of lipstick tubes as tall as you are. It's memorable, it's gendered in a way that feels like inside knowledge about women's beauty routines, and it's just plausible enough that you don't immediately question it.

But the next time you see a too-good-to-be-true statistic, ask yourself: Where did this number come from? If the answer is "a Facebook meme," you might want to grab your calculator before hitting share.

The bottom line? Women don't use their height in lipstick every five years. But if you're curious about your own lipstick consumption, here's a more realistic measure: if you're a daily user going through 3 to 4 tubes a year, you're probably using about 9 to 12 inches of lipstick tubes annually—or roughly the height of a ruler. Not quite as impressive as your full height, but at least it's actually true.