Makeup 101: Saying bye-bye to bad makeup

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By: IRENE BOATENG

Spring is well underway, and if your spring cleaning is in the works, don’t forget to pay close attention to your makeup bag. A lot of makeup products do not have an expiration date printed on them, but rest assure they do have a life span. It may become very expensive to get rid of your products, but the after effects are far worse; so it's important to take note of the signs that hint it’s time for your products to go.

All makeup products carry over bacteria onto the skin if they are kept for long periods. Paulina Elor, co-owner of Wink Makeup Academy in Toronto says, “Usually you will find that a lot of cream products harbor bacteria and they can actually cause break outs onto the skin and develop irritations on the skin.”

Putting these lotions on your face make you are prone to acne, hives, and rashes. They can worsen the blemishes you wanted to cover up in the first place. Moreover, you can develop Perioral Dermatitis, a skin disorder in which a group of red bumps surround the mouth, chin and eyes and resembles Rosacea.

A lot of women tend to keep many products for a while that end up clustering their makeup bags because they’ve only been used a few times. Elor says there is no need for that. Mascaras tend to have a two to three month shelf life. The cosmetic veteran suggests keeping one basic mascara and/or a waterproof mascara and changing them quarterly.

Liquid Foundations are a cream=based product that is usually good for a year. If the liquid develops a plastic-like scent, toss it out. If you put it on your skin and it looks more like oil, you should throw it out because it’s breaking itself apart.

“As long as you don’t smell a scent and are not breaking out, your liquid foundation is fine,” Elor says.

Powder foundation, eye shadows, blushes and other powder products can give you between two to three years before they go bad, depending on how much and often you use it. Elor thinks it's wise to get into the habit of changing the sponge used to apply your powder foundation.

“I always think you should use a new, clean sponge with each and every application because what ends up happening is that you keep putting it in your powder and then back into your makeup bag,” ahe explains. “Then your makeup bag ends up getting dirty and you don’t want to put dirt onto your face.”

As your eye shadow gets older, it will develops a hard film over top.

“The film doesn’t allow you to pick up the pigment like you normally could have in the beginning.” Elor says.

In aid, she recommends that you scrape off the excess layer on top of your shadow to get to the pigment that’s underneath that layer.

Blushes work the same way.

Eye and lip liners are cream products, so once again, they attain germs and bacteria easily. To help prevent that and avoid throwing it out, get in the habit of sharpening your pencil.

“The more you sharpen your pencil, the more healthier and cleaner your liner is going to be,” she adds.

With your lip glosses and lipsticks it may be frustrating because depending on how long the products have been shelved at the store, you might only get a 3 months use of it when they actually don’t start going bad until about a year. Again if you smell that plastic scent, trash it.

Make up brushes are a big deal as well and should be maintained and cleaned all the time as they too carry over bacteria causing break outs.

“You want to get in the habit of making sure you clean those brushes with either 99 per cent alcohol or use a brush cleaner after each use so that way you don’t spread other bacteria on to the skin,”

When you start seeing the hairs of the brush fall out completely, they need to be trashed. Try using a bit of hair conditioner to soften the hairs and keep them in place. If that doesn’t work, you know what time it is.

Primers are cream, liquid, or silicon based and has a life span of about one year before they become unusable.

Elor wants to warn ladies of less than desirable skin when it comes to cosmetics.

“If the texture of your skin is changing because you’re using old makeup and you’ve developed all this acne on your skin, it’s kind of gross, but, we’re all guilty of it,” she says.