How to keep your skincare and makeup products from going bad, and how to keep them germ free!

Alana Mitchell, Licensed Esthetician, Day Spa Owner

Reading this article will save you money! We spend a lot of money looking pretty, let’s not waste it! Upon trying to clean up my place the other day, I decided it might be a good day to go through away some of my older make-up. As you have noticed, we have many new, exciting products that we have added to our store lately, and I find my bathroom is slowly overtaken by beauty products! While going through my drawers, I found a couple of mascaras. When I opened them, I noticed that some looked all dried up and clumpy. I knew from this that the makeup had gone bad and it was time to kiss that mascara good bye.

I am sure many of you have had problems with your makeup going bad. Believe me, I have had my share of problems over the years, and I have heard many stories from my clients. To read a bit more about me click here or on my picture. Also, you can read THOUSANDS of positive reviews from my customers by clicking my testimonials page, so you know I am not just trying to sell you products. I can help you!

Alana Uses La Bella Donna Natural Foundation, All Natural Mineral Makeup with Good Skincare Ingredients

Whether it has been your Mascara drying up like mine, your liquid foundation starting to separate, or your pressed foundation appearing more thick and cake-like; skincare and makeup products going bad is a common problem. Even worse, as we have all seen on our favorite talk shows such as Oprah and Dr. Oz, if not kept sanitary, they can breed germs and transfer disease! So how can we fix this? I have found ten ways that will help!

• A common mistake that many people make is directly putting their fingers into our cosmetics. It seems much easier just to directly use our lipstick on our lips or use our fingers to put on our foundation, but due to the bacteria on our fingers, this can cause our makeup to go bad. Try using a brush, or pouring the product unto a stainless steel palette instead. Or, if you must directly
  
  Only $5, La Bella Donna Pencil Sharpener

  apply, wash your hands 2x with warm water!

• Make sure you sharpen your lip or eye pencils after each use to minimize bacteria growth. Check out our pencil sharpener from La Bella Donna, it is only $5.00 and works great!
• Keep your makeup from roasting in your car! A lot of times when I am running errands, I just leave my purse in my car while I run in places. Turns out, the preservatives inside the cosmetics heat up, causing the product to degenerate. Or, if you are using organic skincare or mineral makeup, it will go rotten sooner!
• Ensure the life of your liquid foundation, put it in the refrigerator! This will help the product from separating and make it last nearly 2x as long as if you do not! I always store my glominerals liquid foundations in the fridge.
• Whether it has been used or not, throw out your mascara after three months. After three months, mascara tends to get a bit dried up. I use the Colorescience Cry Me a River Waterproof Mascara, and I almost cry a river when its been three months and I have to throw it out!
• Clean, clean, clean! Make sure to clean all of your makeup brushes with a non-alcohol spray brush cleaner to prevent any bacteria from growing. We sell a great makeup brush cleaner from Glo Minerals, which works great, and it is inexpensive.
• Keep your skin care products away from the window! If you are like me, you have a window in your bathroom. When the sun reaches a certain peak in the day, it COULD hit my products, if I let it, this is a big no no! Also, if you are using totally organic or even all natural
  
  Alana Uses Blinc Mascara, Only $25

  products, try keeping them in the wine fridge, or even refrigerator! I keep my ilike organic skincare products in our wine fridge.

• When testing a skin care product you are interested in, be sure to use a Q-tip or wand to apply the product to prevent spreading any bacteria from someone else. Also, make sure that others have done the same before you. At my day spa, spa Alana, we always use q-tips for testers. Or even better, test the products that are in a spray form, much more sanitary!
• Buy a simple makeup bag that you won’t become too attached to, because after six months, it’s time to let go and throw it out! This is a great way to keep your products clean and bacteria free! Most makeup companies do free gift with purchase (Free makeup bags) for this reason, so take advantage of them! Usually Mirabella makeup is really good about the free gift with purchase makeup bag.
• Last but not least, sounds simple, but is often forgotten about wash your hands before applying your makeup or skincare products. Wash 2x with warm water and antibacterial soap. It will also keep your pores cleaner!

These tips definitely helped ensure the life of my products. Hopefully you will notice a difference to! Be sure to check out

some of our great, affordable makeup lines. In this summer heat, you may want to try Model in a Bottles setting spray. This will help to seal in our makeup so that we wont have to reapply it several times throughout the day. Also, remember to be careful when ordering organic skincare online in the summer! If it sits in the mail too long, you are going to have a rotten product on your hands!

I have another article that might help you even more titled: How to Tell If Your Mineral Makeup Is Good for your skin, click here to read it. Hope this helps, click here to call or email me with questions!

From so many requests, I have developed a special page on my shopping cart site skincarebyalana.com with a special video and products set aside to show you my favorite mineral makeup products, click here to see it.