Police in east China’s Jiangsu Province on Thursday arrested 158 people suspected of manufacturing and selling fake cosmetics.

The suspects were caught in a raid on Dec. 26, 2018 and some 800 boxes of fake cosmetics worth about 1.49 million dollars (10 million yuan) were seized, police said in Nanjing.

The counterfeit products were mainly sold online at much lower prices compared with those sold in stores, according to the police, who were alerted by a consumer’s complaint about skin problems associated with the use of the product.

Fourteen warehouses and a factory that stored and manufactured the fake cosmetics were sealed by police.

Industrial materials that should not be applied on the skin were used in the factory’s production.

The heavy metal ingredients contained in the fake cosmetics were 10 times higher than the national standard, said Li Kerong, an official with the Nanjing municipal public security bureau.

However, about 43 per cent of Chinese women in a survey said they spend an average of 74 to 298 dollars (500 to 2,000 yuan) annually on makeup, China Youth Daily has reported.

According to the survey which polled 1,865 females, 26.8 per cent of respondents said they spend 2,000 to 5,000 yuan a year on makeup.

More than 64 per cent said they spent about 10 to 30 minutes doing their makeup each day and 24.8 per cent said the process may take up to an hour, the survey said.

More than 70 per cent of those surveyed said it was necessary to put on makeup for events such as important meetings or gatherings.

Over half of them responded that makeup was necessary when they go to work.

Nearly 60 per cent of them said they use makeup to make themselves look better, and 47.4 per cent considered the process a fun, the survey showed.

Over half of the respondents said they learned how to use makeup in universities and 23.5 percent said they learned it after they started to work. (Xinhua/NAN)