An English woman has gone viral online after sharing the extreme lengths she went to find out more about her boyfriend's faithfulness, after finding a tampon and mascara underneath his wardrobe.
Lois Saunders went as far as contacting Tampax in a bid to find out the exact manufacturing date.
Saunders shared the video to her TikTok account on Monday and has already gained over 3.8 million views. The pair were not yet in an official relationship at the time, but had been "speaking kind of seriously for a few months" when she found the object.
"When you find a tampon and mascara under your boyfriend's wardrobe and they deny everything, you have to investigate yourself," she wrote on-screen, showing herself looking underneath the wardrobe.
After discovering the objects to be a mascara and tampon, she turned her trust to Tampax to find out when it was made by emailing the company herself.
"I'm not sure how the idea came to my head to be honest," Saunders told Newsweek. "I genuinely did not think they would reply though, which made it even more hilarious!"
Saunders asked Tampax what the code on the packet is for and requested to find out if there is a way to work out when a tampon was manufactured. "I found it in my boyfriend's drawer so I am doing some investigation," she confirmed.
To the surprise of many, Tampax happily obliged and provided the manufacturing date. "The code on the wrapper is the production code, and indicates the date the tampons were manufactured. Based on the code you provided, the tampon in the photo was made on December 11, 2019," wrote a Tampax employee named Grace.
She then detailed how the code can be used to decipher the manufacturing date, with the first four digits of the code. The first letter is the end of the year, and the following three indicate the date, with 124 meaning the 124th day of the year, so May 4.
Grace followed up with a disclaimer on how long tampons last and whether or not they should be used after shelf life.
"The video was taken in May 2021 and I found it so funny at the time," Saunders told Newsweek.
"We have a very good relationship which humor has always been a big part of. My reaction was based on winding up Fin a bit and making him sweat but never serious or malicious!"
@loissa4 #tampax had my back 👯
♬ original sound - Lois Sa
The video can also be seen here.
After the popularity of the initial video, Saunders posted a follow-up video detailing exactly what happened.
"Basically, it was my first time in Fin's house and I wasn't looking around or anything," she said, adding that she saw it after jokingly hanging backwards off the bed. "I could see under the wardrobe and I was like 'what the hell is that.'
"So then I got them out and it was a tampon and a mascara so then obviously I was questioning him, like 'whose is this' and prior to this he'd said he'd never had a girl stay in that room. I was like well, I guess I'll have to take things into my own hands."
She attempted to put the mascara's code into a site to find out the manufacture date, but it didn't work. "So then, there was a code on the side of the tampon," she said, explaining that she couldn't find information on what it means online, and "Obviously, I'm going to email Tampax."
Saunders explained that she and Fin both found her messages to Tampax "a bit of a joke" and found humor in the situation. "Fin's reaction at the time was that he found it very funny when he realized it wasn't serious," she said.
Her now-official boyfriend explained the tampon as belonging to previous tenants in the room, with it being a university house.
"To this day, we'll never know, he says it wasn't him and I believe him," said Saunders.
She said to Newsweek that reactions online have been split, saying: "There has been a mix of reactions. Firstly, my friends and family that know me know what I am like and know it was a joke so they find it funny. There are some people online that think I was searching under his wardrobe so I think they found it strange and a 'red flag' and then lots of people can see the funny side."
With views in the millions, users rushed to praise Grace's customer service while finding hilarity in Saunders' excessive actions.
"Grace at Tampax deserves a pay rise," wrote one user.
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