I can't live without eating make-up

But while marmite might seem a bizarre choice to some, the yeasty spread pales in comparison to the favourite snack of Brittoni, from Toledo in Ohio.Instead of putting make-up on her face, the 22-year-old prefers to eat it, munching her way through between 15 and 20 compacts a day.What's more, she says, the taste varies by brand and colour, with metallic eyeshadow in light brown, white and grey apparently boasting the nicest flavour.'I cannot live without eating make-up,' she explains. 'You can imagine it just coating your insides with whatever colour you're eating. It's just like craving your favourite candy bar.'Brittoni's unusual habit began when she was just five years old and, intrigued by the colours in her mother's make-up case, decided to taste it.'Seeing all the colours made me want to taste it,' she remembers. 'Once I tasted it, I just could not stop eating make-up.'My favourite type of eyeshadow to eat is usually the metallic colours,' she continues. 'My favourite colours are grey, white and the light colour browns. Light colours usually taste a lot cleaner than darker colours.'Despite having had a penchant for tucking into eyeshadow since the age of five, Brittoni admits that she goes to extreme lengths to keep her snacking habits secret from her family.'I hide make-up everywhere around my house,' she explains. 'Under the couches, in the flower vases, the freezer... My hair is long so I like to use it to conceal the make-up I would like to bring. 'I keep my addiction to make-up hidden because I'd rather not go through the hassle of explaining it to people. 'My mother doesn't know but if she knew, I'd never hear the end of it and it would go on for hours and hours every day.'Thanks to her penchant for eating make-up, Brittoni now spends upwards of $200 (£120) a week on cosmetics and has developed an unusual supermarket shopping routine.'When I come into the store, I have to taste to make sure I bought the right ones,' she reveals. 'I would just pour some on my hand, look around to make sure no-one's walking down the aisle and I would just lick it. 'If it's not the right kind and since nobody sees me lick it, I'll put it back. I know that's kind of wrong but I don't want to get stuck with something I don't eat or wear.'But while Brittoni appears to think that her penchant for eating make-up is harmless, a swift glance at some common ingredients is enough to suggest that it's likely to be doing her body no good at all.Among ingredients typically found in Brittoni's favourite eyeshadow is Talc, or as it's properly known, hydrous magnesium silicate which is similar to asbestos.Other substances found in make-up include mineral oil, a petrol derivative, and mica, a mineral that is used to colour paint.Diagnosed with heart trouble at the age of 12, possibly because of her unusual habit, Brittoni says she tries not to think about potential adverse effects.'I try not to think about the impact the make-up is having on my heart,' she explains. 'I see the chemicals in the make-up and I don't know what they are. 'It really scares me: are they making my heart worse? Are they not affecting me at all? I don't know.'And its not just her health that has been affected. Brittoni's relationship with boyfriend Josh has also been put under strain by her passion for paint.'One day I saw her doing it and she tasted it, then I just saw her eat a whole scoop of the thing and I couldn't believe it,' he explains.'When she eats make-up, it looks like a clown went crazy. You know how you have a milk mustache? It looks like that to the tenth power - that's how her face looks. I've kissed her before and I've tasted make-up - it's horrible.'(dailymail.co.uk)ANN.Az