THIS is how much the average woman spends on beauty products she never uses

£££

By Rebecca Fearn.

We're all guilty of buying an extra lipstick we don't really need, or a new limited edition highlighter palette when we already have about 10 choices at home. But we had no idea just how much money goes towards beauty products that end up sitting on our shelves un-used.

Research quoted on The Daily Mail suggests the average woman spends an eye-watering £180,000 on beauty products she never even uses in a lifetime.

This equates to 5,856 products and means we actually only use around 10% of what we buy. Woah.

As a beauty writer, I have to admit I don't buy many beauty products as I am lucky enough to be sent things to try. That said, I do still buy things that catch my eye - things that I DEFINITELY do not need to add to my ever-growing, ridiculous collection and that largely go un-used. It's actually incredibly rare for me to finish something, and I completely understand the buzz of buying new beauty bits because we want them, not because we need them.

The best way to manage the size of your beauty collection is to keep an eye on the expiry dates of everything. Our handy guide breaks down how to do this effectively.

Mascara, for example, has one of the shortest shelf-lives after opening due to the large amount of bacteria which attaches itself to the brush. Lipstick, on the other hand, can be kept up to 18 months.

How much do you spend on beauty products? Tweet us at @marieclaireuk