With the arrival of spring, cleaning becomes a priority around our house. The longer spring days and warmer weather make all the dust, fingerprints, and unkempt backyards all that more obvious. But, what about cleaning out your makeup and skin care drawer? The stuff you put on our faces deserves the same attention as the rest of our house. I would even dare to say that the advice I give you might be even more important (this stuff is going on our skin, eyes, mouth!) and should be done several times a year. For now, let’s just use spring as an excuse, shall we? Here are the six steps you need to clean your makeup drawer.
1. Check expiry dates and smell your products!
You might love that gloss color so much that you want to keep it forever! I hear you! If you love it so much, you’ll probably go through it quickly so it’s a good thing. This is not the case with the products that you don’t use as often – think that dark lipstick that’s only good to wear on those special nights out or the pot of cream liner that’s taking forever to finish. The first step to clean your makeup drawer is to check and see if your product has the “open jar” symbol on it. The number on the open jar symbol – 6M – for example, means that the product is good for six months after opening. Take a permanent marker and write on the bottle the date you should keep it until, so 6 months ahead. This way if you throw out the box with the opening date, you have a reference right on the bottle. If you need help sorting this out, book a call with me!
2. Do you really need/use that?
If you’re a makeup lover like myself, you probably have way more makeup than you wear on a daily basis. You need to get all that product in front of you and ask yourself when you last wore it. It’s the same question you need to be asking yourself when you go through your wardrobe, right? If you are not wearing these products often even though they look brand new, chances are that you’ve had them for a while and they’ve expired. Chuck them! Outdated colours? Chuck them! I would not suggest passing these products to a friend since they’re probably contaminated because they were used. Choose only brand new products to pass on to a friend. She will thank you. If you need to pick up a small carefully curated collection of makeup, let’s chat about it!
3. Wash those brushes!
You need to be washing your brushes every week if you’re an enthusiastic makeup wearer, or once every couple of weeks if you’re a minimalist. Part of clean makeup drawer is having clean tools. Oil, dirt and bacteria can transfer from your brushes back onto your skin and back onto your products. Think of dipping a dirty brush into your compact. Use a gentle soap or your shampoo and gently lather the loof (bristle part) of your brushes. Rinse until the water runs clean, shape bristles with your hand and place on a counter to air dry.
4. Sanitize your lipsticks; wipe down everything else
Did you know that those tubes of lipstick can be sanitized? There are a couple of ways. Get a tissue, spray it with rubbing alcohol (or vodka 🙂 and run the top of the lipstick (part that touches your mouth) over the wet tissue. The alcohol will kill the bacteria. You could also take a knife and gently scrape off the top part of your lipstick exposing a cleaner layer below. Clean all other containers by simply wiping them down with a wet cloth – foundation bottles, pump tops, eye shadow cases can all be wiped down!
5. Consolidate and organize
A quick trip to a dollar store should get you everything you need to organize your drawer. I’ve consolidated all my face powders into a basket; another basket holds eyeliners and mascara. Organize your makeup by type or by most frequently used products. Whichever way you choose, it has to make sense to you and it has to make your life easier and your makeup routine faster.
6. Replace old products (with local green ones)
All this cleaning is no fun, is it? Well, here’s the awesome part of cleaning – you get to replace some of your products! Make a list of what you need since some of your old makeup will be getting tossed. This is a good time to decide if it’s time to try something “better”. Have you been wondering about a greener product? Check out my shop featuring clean, Canadian brands. This is the perfect opportunity to try something new and make the switch to cleaner products. If you feel overwhelmed with this change, check this video which provides all my useful tips.
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