What should you do with your pre-pandemic makeup?

Makeup is my life because it’s part of my job as a beauty editor and product developer, but even I use makeup much, much less than I did before. My guess is that it’s the same for you too! The last two years saw our makeup kits languishing in half-forgotten drawers, waiting to see the light of day. Now that the world is opening up a little bit more, you may not help but wonder: is this still ok to use? How do you decide what to keep and what to throw away?

Shelf life vs the period after opening

From a product development perspective, I can tell you that most cosmetic products have an average shelf life of three years from the manufacturing date. This is usually stated in the expiration date details. They contain preservatives that help them keep from being rancid, changing color, losing the stated efficacy, and growing mold (among other things) while in storage. Preservatives make up up only a tiny percentage of your beauty products - typically less than 1%-.50% of a formulation yet help immensely in helping us maximize what we buy.

Before releasing a product, a good manufacturer would have done a stability test on the formulation in its sealed packaging, so they can say with confidence that something will be safe to use as intended for two or three years BEFORE OPENING. This is what the shelf life is. However, once you open the product, that’s when the “period after opening” or PAO stated in your packaging kicks in. From the time you open something, air, microbes, and spores will get inside the packaging. That’s when the product will start to degrade faster so you must use it up ideally within the intended number of months.

So for instance you see MFG 2/19 EXP 2/21 PAO 12M in the product packaging. That means you need to throw out the product by February 2021, which means ideally you should have opened it by February 2020. If there is no expiration date stated (there should be though - as much as possible don’t buy anything that doesn’t say the manufacturing and expiration date), you can safely assume that the product is safe to use for at least two years from the MFG date.

But these are just general guidelines. Some manufacturers like to be safe and give more margin in these dates. You won’t die if you don’t follow the expiration date and PAO of beauty products. However, you must be strict when it comes to skincare because raw materials WILL easily degrade over time since skincare is usually in liquid, gel, or cream form. This is not as big as a problem for purely oil skincare products.

From the beauty editor and user perspective though, I am a lot more loose with cosmetic use-by dates. Powder formulations when stored and sanitized properly can be used for the full three years without any problems. Since they’re dry, they’re much less likely to grow mold and attract bacteria. Wax formulations are usually - based on my experience - fine to be used for two years even after opening. Liquids always have a shorter shelf life because they’re harder to stabilize over time and mold loves moist environments. I would give liquids a year to 1.5 years after opening before they start to go bad!

TL;DR: Look at the manufacturing/expiration and PAO dates on your cosmetic products then check personally if the product is still usable. If it does’t smell, taste, or look bad, it is very likely that the preservatives are still doing their job.

And now, what to with still usable products

I’m a big fan of not throwing away things unless you need to - it’s just smart to maximize the things you own especially in this economy. Here’s what I recommend you do, outside of putting them back in your beauty rotation of course:

• You can give it to your friends and family who will appreciate the product. Make sure to sanitize and wipe everything before giving away.

• Barter or swap them with your neighbors for things you need. Viber Groups activate!

• You can call funeral parlors and ask them if they will accept old or expired cosmetics. If your old products can help give someone dignity in this way, why not right?

Let me know if you have more ideas!