GREENSBORO, N.C. — When I hear the words “spring cleaning”, I usually think of washing windows and screens, not my makeup bag. I’m not talking about the brushes, I’m talking about the makeup items themselves.
KEEP FOR 3 MONTHS:
Eye makeup, such as mascara or eye-liner
KEEP FOR 1 YEAR:
Liquid blushes, concealers, or foundations
Anything that's a pencil: for your lips, brows, or eyelids
KEEP FOR 2 YEARS:
Lipsticks and lip glosses
Not only can expired products not work as well, but they can also harbor potentially harmful germs that can cause infections and skin irritation.
"The downsides to these kinds of contamination, which are generally things like skin infections, skin irritation, certain eye infections, conjunctivitis, sties, those things an all arise from contaminated or expired makeup,” said Dr. Susan Massick, Dermatologist, Ohio State College of Medicine.
Grab yourself a sharpie and date your makeup in your bag.
Most makeup has an expiration date, but it doesn’t look like the dates we normally think of with a month and a year. Most often it's one number: 3m, 6m. That means 3 months or 6 months. The product is good for use once it is opened. Again, take that sharpie and date your items when you open them up so you can keep track.
BEAUTY BLENDERS
Researchers blame us for the grossness, especially when it comes to beauty blenders. The popular tool was found to have the highest levels of potentially harmful bacteria which is probably because 93% of people never clean them.
Two-thirds of people even admitted not cleaning it after dropping it on the floor. The solution is pretty simple, clean your tools, keep an eye on expiration dates and when in doubt throw it out
To cut down on bacteria you should wash your makeup brushes for foundation every 10 days and eye shadow brushes twice a month.