Researchers polled 2000 women in a detailed study about women’s make-up habits and beauty routines.

The findings found that in a typical 24 hour day, women will have a face full of cosmetics for nearly 13 hours a day and will have just 11 hours free from it.

The poll by health and wellbeing brand Beurer found the typical woman puts on her ‘face’ at precisely 8.00am and spends 11 minutes applying it.

But it’s not until 8.47pm that the average woman then removes her make-up. Although a quarter of women said they don’t remove their face until gone half past ten at night.

It’s hardly surprising then that 58 per cent of those polled said they make a point of leaving their make-up on all evening if they know guests might be popping in.

And half of the women polled said they spend more time with their make-up on rather than a fresh faced look.

Robert Slade, Sales & Marketing Director of Beurer UK said: “This research shows that many women spend a large part of their time with make-up on.

“It can no doubt boost your confidence and make you feel better about yourself so it’s not surprising that many women insist on keeping it on all day.

“Despite that it is important to give your skin a break from time to time and to give it the care it needs.”

Worryingly nearly one in five women said they would refuse to open the front door if they didn’t have a face full of make-up and 10 per cent said the more make-up they have on the better they feel.

In fact 38 per cent are so reluctant to take it off they admitted to frequently going to bed with all their make-up intact.

Foundation, concealer, mascara and eye shadow were said to be the most popular cosmetic items the poll found.

And well over half of the 2000 women studied said they feel much less confident when completely bare faced and one in two said they dreaded anyone seeing them without make-up. But fortunately over a quarter said their partner preferred them au natural.

The research discovered that the average women will spend £121 on cosmetics in a typical year and has around 13 items in her make-up bag.

Although 38 per cent said their make-up bag was crammed full of the same products that they had been using for years.

In contrast 16 per cent confessed to being a beauty junkie and loved to buy the latest cosmetics.