Hello Lovelies,

In response to the recent Lovelyish front page post "The Real Shelf Life of Your Makeup" I'd like to make a few corrections to help girls hygenically extend the life of their makeup rather than wasting money! In her post, the writer gives a strict run-through of how long you're allowed to hang onto different types of makeup before they become unhygenic to use. What she failed to mention was that there are actually a lot of preventative methods to working with your makeup to help keep them from becoming contamitated. Cosmetic companies spread these myths about how long to keep your makeup in order to keep you re-purchasing their products more frequently. All the same, you don't want to contaminate your face by using dirty old makeup. If you follow these simple habits, you can greatly extend the shelf life of almost all of your makeup:

*The time windows stated at the beginning of each description is how long you can keep your makeup according to the author of the previous post, not according to me.

•    Mascara & eyeliner—

They say three months: Now, I won't argue with that window of time applying to mascara. Because mascara is a cream produt that you apply to your eye with a brush that gets inserted back into the product, there's really no way to prevent it from becoming contaminated unless you're dedicated enough to actually wash the brush every time before replacing it into the tube.

Eyeliner, on the other hand comes in many different forms, some of which are very easy to prevent contamination. Experts have stated that all you have to do to clean a pencil eye or lip liner is sharpen it! It's that simple. Sharpen away the tip that has touched your eye with a clean sharpener and you're good to go. Throwing out a perfectly good eyeliner pencil after 3 months is a waste of money, and cosmetic companies tell you that myth to keep you buying their product more often. The kinds of eyeliner that come in a twist-up stick can be cleaned by just cutting off the tip. Liquid and cream/gel liners are harder to clean, so you can follow the 3 month rule for them if you want to.

•    Powders and eye shadows—

They say 2 years. The fact of the matter is that powder does not really house bacteria very well. Bacteria thrives in creamy products that are impossible to disinfect. If you're worried that your pressed powder or eyeshadow is contaminated, all you have to do is spray the surface with %70 alcohol (which kills, I think %99 of germs on contact). If you still want to be extra careful, you can also wipe away the surface of the pressed powder or shadow with a clean cloth. The product underneath is perfectly fine. Loose powders are not as easy to clean, but again, bacteria doesn't really like to live in powder anyway, so use your judgment on when to throw it away.

•    Cream eye shadows—

12 to 18 months is what they say, and is somewhat accurate, depending on how you look at it. That time window could be true if you're always digging your brush or finger all the way into the product, but if it's something that you really only brush over the surface of, you can clean it by cutting off or wiping away the surface and spraying the layer underneath with alcohol. Again, use your judgment for this one.

•    Foundation—

Supposedly 1 year. Again, it depends what type of foundation. Mineral foundation is a powder and may not hold nearly as much bacteria as a cream or liquid foundation. Then, you have different packaging. If the foundation is in a tub or if you pour it out of its bottle onto a sponge that is touching the rim of the bottle, that can get contaminated pretty quickly. If your foundation comes out of a pump, however, you're technically never contaminating it at all. Clean the opening of the pump if you want to, and  use your judgement to decide if the product itself is still good. If it's separated or smells funny, it may just be too old to use anymore.

•    Lipstick—

Thay also give you a year on that one. This is also up for interpretation, because if you're worried about contamination, all you have to do is cut off the tip and dip it into alcohol. If you're worried that the product itself is just old or doesn't have the same consistancy anymore, you can decide when is a good time to throw it out. A fun thing you can do to completely de-contaminate your lipstick and start fresh is to melt it down. If you heat the product in the microwave or on the stove, once it's liquid, the bacteria is killed, so you can make yourself a lip palette in a pill box with melted lipsticks!

*The author of the previous post doesn't mention lip gloss or liquid lipsticks, but if it comes out of a squeeze tube all you have to do is wash the part that touches your lips with alcohol. If it has a doe-foot applicator or any type of brush that is re-inserted into the product, its the same story as mascara, so you should follow the one year rule for that.

•    Nail polish—

They say one year... That's ridiculous. You are not going to get an infection from nail polish. The worst that can happen is your polish can become too thick to use anymore, and even then, professionals suggest mixing nail polish remover into the bottle or buying a polish thinner. You can always still use a nail polish if you want to. Theres absolutely nothing un-hygenic about it.

•    Make-up brushes—

The writer of the other post says to clean weekly by using warm water and mild hand soap. This is true, but keep in mind that you should actually clean brushes that work with cream products just about every time you use it, because a cream product sitting out in the open all week will collect bacteria. Not to mention, you don't want to contaminate your cream products any faster than necessary by using a dirty brush. You can spot-clean your brushes by spritsing a mixture of water, shampoo and alcohol onto a washcloth and wipe your brushes off onto it each day if you don't want to fully wash them every day.

•    Make-up sponges—

She says replace weekly, which is also true, but if it's something you use around the eyes a lot, like a cosmetic wedge for applying under-eye concealer, you may want to wash it every day or use a fresh one every other day or so to prevent eye infections, particularly if you have sensitive eyes. Keep in mind that you do not have to replace non-disposable sponges like the 'Beauty Blender" every week, because that would be a huge waste of money. Wash those with soap and water instead.

I hope this gave you girls a better idea of how to stay clean AND  save yourself a ton of cash by not contaminating your makeup or throwing it out too soon!

As I've mentioned in my recent post, Project Ten Pan Product Reviews, I had a lipstick that really didn't suit my complexion, but I don't like to waste things, so rather than throwing it away, I experimented and discovered a great way to use unwanted lipsticks: As an eyeshadow color base. Now, at first, I was hesitant to try this for a couple of reasons. For one, lipsticks have bacteria on them from the mouth which should not be transfered to the eyes, especially if you're like me and are prone to syes. Second, using cream products on the eyelid tends to crease in an ugly way.

Well, I remedied both of these situations in a couple of easy steps.

1. Dip your lipstick into a saucer of %70 alcohol. Bacteria is killed by alcohol, especially a strong percent of it. It's actually recommended that you do this to your lipsticks every once in a while to keep them clean whether you're using it traditionally or no.

2. Apply a regular eyeshadow primer like Urban Decay Primer Potion, Two-Faced Shadow Insurence, or the really inexpensive one I use, E.L.F. eyelid primer. If you skip this step, there's no garantee you're makeup wont crease using this lipstick technique, but feel free to try. It may work for you without primer.

3. Rub the lipstick onto your ring finger, not too much at first, and evenly distribute it onto your eyelid. The ring finger is not as strong as your middle or index fingers, so you'll be forced to use a light hand on your eyelid. Make sure not to apply much of the lipstick to your crease area or above, because those are the areas that are more likely to... well, crease. Using your judgement, apply another coat of lipstick the same way if you can barely see any on your eyelid from the first apllication. You don't need this to be opaque on your lid, you just want to have visible but sheer layer.

4. Now, you have a pigmented, sticky base for your eyeshadow. This is ideal for shadows that are not pigmented enough on their own, or shadows with a lot of fall-out. Assuming you're using a pinkish or reddish lipstick, any warm colored eyeshadow will work with it. Pinks, reds, oranges, evens some purples will work well, especially considering the fact that your eyeshadow will stick really opaquely to the base, so you may not be able to see the original color of the lipstick at all. That's it! Your look should be a ton more vibrant now, and may have some added shine. I've also found that pencil liner applys smoother over eyeshadow with lipstick base. If don't properly, this will not run or crease very much at all during the day.

As an added step, you can depot your lipstick into a container so its packaged more like a color base. There are a few different ways you can do this:

1. First, you'll need to find a small container. I used an empty container that used to hold an eyeshadow pigment.

2. Next, decide how you want to melt down your lipstick, based on the shape of the lipstick applicator, the size of your new container, etc. You can either:

A) Place your lipstick open and facedown in the new container or in a cup and microwave it for up to 45 seconds, checking to make sure it doesn't start to boil. If you used a cup, immediately pour the contents into your container so that it can cool and become solid properly.

B) You can scoop the lipstick out of its original tube, place it in a metal cup/bowl/plate and hold it over a flame, moving it around so that it doesn't burn or boil, then pour it into your container to dry.

C) You can do what I did this time, and use a blowdryer on its hottest setting. This takes longer, but you're less likely to burn the product, and if you're careful to use a low blowing setting and keep both the product and the dryer pointed downward toward the container, it can be less messy. To keep the container from blowing away, you can tape it down to a surface with a circle of tape.

*If you have short nails, you can rub your finger into the container to apply your base similarly to the way I originally described for when it was still in lipstick form. If you have long nails or prefer to keep your fingers clean, you can apply your base with a concealer brush.

The other bases pictured above are different depoted products. Both option A and C for melting down your lipstick can be used to depot a eyeshadow base jumbo pencil, which is what I have pictured in the jars above. You can use this techniqe to change the packaging for basically any cream product.

Here is how I deopotted my E.L.F. All-Over Color Stick into a compact originally used for pressed powder.

Because metal was involved with the pan, I didn't use the microwave technique. I went the blow dryer route and just blew downward on upside-down color stick until the product fell out onto the pan.

Lastly, I tapped the compact down a few times to flatten out the glob of product and continued to blow dry it on hot and low until it was nice and flat. After that I just let it dry and its done! Now I can easily apply this concealer/primer/highlighter with my fingers or a brush in much more sensible packaging.

I hope this post gave you some ideas on fun and useful experiments to try with your makeup!