Makeup chores #1: Sanitisation

It's no secret that if you're a bit of a beauty junkie it's far too easy to end up with a massive product stash.  It occurred to me a few weeks ago that there's a lot of fuss about keeping our brushes clean, but what about the makeup itself?
If (like me!) you've got skin that's prone to bacterial blemishes, the oils and bugs that build up on/in your makeup can trigger breakouts.  Also, products such as mascaras can cause eye infections if they're 'out of date'.

If you look at the back of a product (be it skincare or makeup) there's a little symbol of a pot with a number inside.  This indicates the number of months after opening that your beloved eye cream/blush/miscellaneous makeup item is going to go out of date.  

Cream and liquid products tend to have a shorter lifespan, and for those which you double-dip such as lip glosses it's even less time.  To be honest, the latter should be binned after a year or so (depending on how much you use them) and mascaras after an even shorter timeframe.  The bacterial colonies from your face will have gone haywire in these sorts of products, and in the end your health is the most important thing.

However, many other products can easily have their lifespans extended by sterilisation!  You can easily get your makeup stash to last much much longer by killing off the surface bacteria using an alcohol spray.  I use pure Isopropyl alchohol (you can get canisters of this here on Amazon). Surgical spirit is a bit cheaper and you can get it from Boots, but I'd advise only using this for cleaning the packaging itself as it contains castor oil and will leave residue on the product.

Here's the stuff I use.  The purer the better.

I'd also recommend getting a little spray bottle/atomiser as this will allow you to mist the product evenly, instead of blasting it straight out of the can.

This works amazingly well for pressed powder products (you can also get compact mirrors really clean while you're at it too).  Cream products such as bullet-form lipsticks and blushes can also be sterilised decently this way and the Isopropyl alcohol evaporates quickly, so you don't have to wait ages for things to dry.  (It will however ruin your manicure if you've got painted nails and I'd also urge you to do the whole process in a well ventilated area.)

To sum it up, I think It's definitely something worth doing every few months if you're looking to extend the life of your beloved makeup stash.  Now to persuade my Mum to do hers too...!

xxx