Do you test lipstick samples when you go shopping for makeup? Well, research has shown that testing those different colours of lipstick could make you contract herpes.
A woman in California is suing a cosmetics chain for emotional distress she experienced after allegedly having contracted herpes from one of the store’s lipstick samples. Yes, it’s possible to contract herpes from lipstick, but it’s not very likely.
Dr. Janellen Smith, a dermatology professor at the UC Irvine School of Medicine says that if someone with a cold sore used a tube of lipstick and then you used one immediately afterward, there is a small chance you could contract the virus.
Smith explains that there are two forms of the herpes simplex virus, HSV1 and HSV2. HSV1 is the one more frequently shed from the oral cavity, but “neither virus lives very long off the body,” she said.
“Most people have already contracted the HSV1 virus,” adding, “the numbers vary widely but 90 percent of people are already HSV1 positive. That is, they have already been exposed to the virus so they can’t get it again. Most people just don’t have symptoms.”
So, unless a person was HSV1 negative when they came in contact with the lipstick, they would not be able to contract the virus. In addition, Smith said it would have to be “a very small amount of time” between applications by each person and “enough of the virus to cause infection.” Finally, she said that the person would also need to have “a crack in the lip skin, although not absolutely necessary.”
So to be on the safe side, it is good to avoid sampling those lipsticks at the cosmetic shop if you want to avoid getting herpes.