If you're as strict about your skin care as we are, you dutifully cleanse, tone, treat, and moisturize your skin every day and night. Not to mention the weekly masking and/or peeling. You do everything you can to keep your skin clear, even, smooth, and sparkling — but all that product might actually be doing more harm than good. Wait, what?
We're talking about hygiene, people, and no, not the wash-your-bod and brush-your-teeth variety. Your products, just like you, need to follow certain hygienic practices to keep up that beautifying mojo.
Some of them are kind of obvious, yet we all still do them. Some you might not even realize are causing issues. Product fouls can be as simple as opting for serums in clear glass jars or pumping your mascara — two choices that can lead to product breakdown or worse, bacteria growth. We don't have to tell you that beauty products are damn expensive, which is why it's in our best interests to take care of them.
To educate us on the proper way to keep our products clean, effective, and bacteria-free, we tapped Mary Schook, certified aesthetician and product formulator; and Ni'Kita Wilson, certified cosmetic chemist and founder of Skinects. Ahead, they share the most common ways consumers are sabotaging their products. Read on to learn what's wrong and how to make it right.
You Leave Your Products Open Or Uncovered
Sure, this one might seem like a no-brainer, but according to Schook, this is the most common mistake she sees consumers do. "Leaving products open in the bathroom is just asking for bacteria to grow," she says. The bathroom is generally a damp, humid place — two qualities that are not ideal for [storing] your beauty products." Keep your products cool and dry (like on your vanity) — and at the very least, keep them tightly closed.
Skinfix Ultra Rich Body Butter for Dry Skin, $14.99, available at Ulta Beauty.
You Expose Your Products To Sunlight
Just like the sun can wreak havoc on your skin, it can do the same to your beauty products. "No product should be stored [in sunlight], because it could cause separation," says Wilson. Tinted products and products containing active ingredients like retinol, benzoyl peroxide, and reservatrol will break down most easily in direct sunlight, causing them to have decreased performance, she adds.
Garrett Markenson Reverie Milk Leave-In Nourishing Treatment, $42, available at Beautyhabit.
You Buy Products In Clear Bottles
"As a general rule, opaque glass is usually [the best]," says Schook. "The more opaque a product is, the safer it is from light." Clear glass or plastic packaging could expose your products to light even when not placed in direct sunlight.
Liquid Gold Radical C, $59, availale at Joyus.
You Double-Dip
Although most mass-produced beauty products contain preservatives to help prevent the spread and growth of bacteria, double-dipping into your products with fingers can introduce unwanted germs into the formula, says Schook, and preservatives can only do so much. Opt for products that have pumps or use spatulas or skin-care spoons when using products that come in jars. (This mask from Farmacy has a magnetic spatula that sticks to the cap, making it much harder to misplace.)
"Any package that keeps consumers' fingers away from the bulk of the product is a win for hygienic purposes," says Wilson. And we hope it goes without saying, but wash the spatula after each use — otherwise, you're kind of defeating the purpose of it in the first place.
Farmacy Honey Potion Renewing Antioxidant Hydration Mask, $56, available at Sephora.
Your Products Are Exposed To Oxygen
"Many really effective ingredients, like green tea, ascorbic acid, retinol, and reservatrol, oxidize when exposed to air," says Wilson. "You'll see a product shift to a brown color and this can impact performance." That's why we recommend purchasing products with pumps when you can — better yet, airless pumps.
According to both Wilson and Schook, airless pumps are great packaging tools because they prevent excessive exposure to that formula-funkifying oxygen.
Unlike traditional cosmetic bottles, airless packaging doesn't contain a straw that pumps out product — instead, when a consumer presses on the pump, it creates a vacuum effect, which draws the product upwards. Ain't technology grand?
100% Pure Fruit Pigmented Tinted Moisturizer, $45, available at 100% Pure.
You Pump Your Mascara
Mascaras are already a high-risk category that needs to be replaced more frequently than others, due to the fact that they can be breeding grounds for bacteria. And something this is constantly on your eye area is probably not the best place to play chicken with a product's expiration date.
"I cringe when people pump their mascara," says Schook. "That is pumping air into the tube, causing bacteria to grow and thrive. It's just begging for a stye!"
Catrice Glamour Doll Volume Mascara Waterproof, $6.99, available at Ulta Beauty.
You Share Makeup
We really shouldn't have to tell you that sharing eyeshadow with your bestie is not the most genius of ideas. That being said, we can't deny that it happens, so Schook recommends investing in a cosmetic sanitizing spray, like Beauty So Clean.
"It will help with bacteria on your own cosmetics without altering the formula," she says. This spray from Pro Hygiene Collection is another great option that works on lipsticks, creams, pencils, powders, and palettes.
The Pro Hygiene Collection Antibacterial Makeup Spray, $20.70, available at Feel Unique.
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