Now confess you are guilty of it – and you may even be an inveterate culprit! You’ve been using beauty products which expired, right? You feel indisposed to trash your favorite products only because they’re past their shell life – you paid for them handsomely and you have grown accustomed to them, let them serve you a little longer.
It’s easy to disregard the expiration date, and it seems an economical way to be – but it’s wrong. Expired makeup begins to work worse, and what’s more, it can affect your skin health, so be aware of the possible complications.
How exactly expired makeup deteriorates
The product’s consistency cannot remain the same with the passing of time: it gradually becomes dryer, clumpier, and consequently, it no longer apples as smoothly as it used to. It goes for all kinds of makeup products, lipstick, mascara, foundation, everything you are using.
Active ingredients also tend to lose their quality. Say, your foundation is nearing its expiration date; you may be sure it gives you worse sun protection than when it was fresh. It is especially true for face line prevention products containing retinol and acne prevention products containing salicylic acid.
How expired makeup affects your skin
That can be really bad. The molecules of the ingredients start to break down, and there’s no telling what comes out and how it can work on your skin. If your product gets to disintegrate into something that causes irritation, it may evolve into inflammation. The skin becomes reddish, rashy, in worse cases you can develop blisters, bumps and swelling. Dermatitis has set in, and you don’t want this to happen, do you?
What’s more, makeup that’s gone past its expiry begins to amass bacteria – which increases significantly your chances of getting an allergic reaction and your skin going bumpy. Your eyes can also react adversely, pink eye and infection are likely to occur. The use of expired lipstick is known to lead to swelling of the lips.
So, the general guidelines will be to get yourself new mascara after three months’ time, new eyeliner and eye shadow once or twice per year, new lipstick in a year, a year and a half at most. Powder, foundation and many facial products are commonly good for a year.
