Venezuela is reportedly suffering from a shortage of beauty supply products.

According to Fox News Latino, the shortage has been getting worse over the last 10 years. Since Feb. 2013, Venezuela has faced various shortages, including those of coffins, milk, diapers and medical supplies, because the government "put controls on the purchase of hard currency," FNL reported. Meanwhile, the Venezuelan Central Bank Scarcity Index is above 20 percent.

"This year things have gotten pretty ugly," Jesús Guillén, a cashier at an Altamira, Caracas, drugstore, said. "We have had supply problems with deodorants, shampoos, sun protectors, body lotions. Currently we have neither diapers nor any kind of products for kids."

To make matters worse, Venezuela is known for valuing physical beauty. For example, beauty pageants are "often" Venezuela's most watched television shows, according to FNL. A 2012 report by Kantar Media TGI, "The Beauty Market in Latin America," named Venezuela as the number one Latin American country for "cosmetic consumption per capita." Therefore, the lack of items like makeup, deodorant and shampoo especially, according to the Venezuelan Alliance of Users and Consumers (ANAUCO), has sent many Venezuelans in a tizzy.

"Even though you work hard and earn good money, you can't have a normal life because after leaving the office you have to spend the rest of your day waiting in line on supermarkets trying to buy scarce products," Lelys, an advertising executive who withheld her last name, said.

Last March, personal care items saw a scarcity level of 29.4 percent, according to the Venezuelan Central Bank. This means that the products were not available in 29.4 out of 100 stores.

"There used to be up to 87 different kinds of retail packaging of shampoos available from several brands, and now there are less than 10," Roberto León Parilli, president of ANAUCO, said. "Another good example are deodorants. Currently in most shops you can find only one kind of product, which comes with a fragrance for ladies, though many men are using it because they can't get a gentleman's product."
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Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.

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