Wear your lipstick like warpaint… against DISEASE?!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
We’re all told to “wrap it up” in sex ed. No glove, no love… or something like that. But that does NOTHING for kissing. How can we smooch safely?
Alberto Tuñón-Molina and team in Valencia, Spain have a FRUITY solution – cranberry extract!
Compounds in cranberries called P-A-Cs give the fruit their natural crimson color. They also give cranberry extract their natural antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal properties!
The researchers mixed cranberry extract with oils and vitamins to make a vibrant cranberry cream. They used that as a base for cranberry lipstick. The lipstick was packed with P-A-Cs that break through viruses’ protective coatings. It protected against the flu, COVID, mono, and herpes within a minute of contact! It also destroys fungi and antibiotic-resistant bacteria like MRSA and E. coli. YOWZA!
This lipstick shows us that safety is indeed SEXY!
So pucker up, and kiss those microbes goodbye! (kiss noise) “It’s not you, it’s me.”
Reference:
Tuñón-Molina, A., Cano-Vicent, A., & Serrano-Aroca, Á. (2022). Antimicrobial lipstick: Bio-based composition against viruses, bacteria, and fungi. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 14(51), 56658–56665. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.2c19460