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updated 4:13 p.m. ET Jan. 17, 2007

OSLO - German drugmaker Schering warned consumers on Thursday not to use hemorrhoid cream on their faces.

The warning came after a male stylist said on Norwegian television that many photo models used the cream in the morning to get rid of puffy eyes, which the drug company said seemed to have boosted demand for such products at pharmacies. Beauty magazines in the U.S. have been advising the same for years.

“This is a pharmaceutical and not a cosmetic,” the group’s Norwegian subsidiary Schering Norge AS said in a statement, warning especially to keep hemorrhoid cream out of the eyes.

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It said the warning applied to its product, Scheringproct, which it said was “a pharmaceutical that is used on hemorrhoids and around the opening of the large intestine”.

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