Face cream, mascara and some blush... How much cosmetics do you use to start your day? We dive into the environmental impact of make-up and personal care products. Learn about the shelf life of beauty products like foundation and lipstick and find out the best storage tips so you don't have to throw anything away.
Storage tips for beauty products
How do you know how sustainable a particular beauty brand is? That's tricky, because not everyone in the cosmetics industry is that honest. There is a lot of deception and misinformation. In the beauty industry, there is a lot of greenwashing. Thus, beauty brand producers sprinkle claims such as ‘vegan’ or ‘natural’ as if this equals ‘sustainable’. A beauty product made of natural ingredients can still be heartily unsustainable if the ingredients have been obtained through intensive farming. See more on why the claim ‘natural’ does not always mean something.
And then there is plastic packaging. There is a lot of criticism about that, while the negative impact of packaging is relatively low. Even though some sustainable beauty brands deliberately choose not to use plastic, but glass or paper. This may give you a green glow, but that may well be unjustified. Plastic is light in transport and it is easily recyclable. Plastic packaging, especially recycled plastic that recycles well, is often a more sustainable choice than a jar made of glass that ends up in the bottle bank at best. Want to know more about plastic packaging? We have written an extensive article about it in collaboration with a packaging expert.
A complicated story? Yes, unfortunately it is. But what you can be sure of: storing your products well so you can use them for a long time is always a good thing. Just like wasting less and using everything to the last drop. Do you want that too? Then read on. In this article you will also find a whole list of handy storage tips for beauty products!
Buy and use less
Of the impact top 10 from the book The hidden impact we know that the average Dutchman consumes almost four planets a year. In other words, if everyone on earth lived like the average Dutchman, we would need four earths a year, that's how many resources we use. Would you like to spin through a few less earths in your life? Then minimise. By buying less new stuff, you can gain a lot. How nice is it to look at all those tubes and bottles in your make-up drawer? Which products do you not necessarily need and don't buy anymore? Try to do as long as possible with what you have. Use up everything. Waste less. Or use simple DIYs to make your own spreads (note: homemade products don't last as long). Then when you look in your tidy bathroom cabinet or drawer, you'll probably be happy. And so will the world!
Extend shelf life
A shame if your foundation dries out and you have to throw it away. On almost all packaging of cosmetics and personal care products there is a shelf life icon. This is the icon of a jar with a lid. Next to the M (months) is a number, the number of months a product will keep after opening. Eye shadow, eye pencil and lipstick have a shelf life of two years. Foundation and nail polish one to two years and mascara six to 12 months. How long products last also depends on how you store it.
Where do you store cosmetics like make-up?
Who doesn't have make-up in the bathroom? Yet this is not the best place for beauty products because of the high humidity. Heat is also killing for cosmetics. A warm temperature creates the perfect conditions, where bacteria and fungi feel at home. This can cause skin rashes or infections. Therefore, do not store your products near a window (keep them out of the sun) or near a heater. Choose a cool place, store products in the dark. Still, high time for a make-up table in your bedroom!
On each package is the shelf life icon, see above thumb.
Storage tips for well-known beauty products
- Day, night and eye creams have a shelf life of six to 12 months. If you apply creams with a spatula even a little longer. Remember to clean the spatula regularly with alcohol.
- Mascara and eyeliner last for six to 12 months. Your eyes are very sensitive to bacteria. Do not pump your mascara brush back and forth: this will dry out your mascara. Clumped mascara can be used for a while by liquefying it under a hot tap. You can also add a drop of lens solution or eye make-up cleansing milk. Works too.
- Eye pencil and eye shadow remain good for two years. Because you sharpen the pencil, you remove much of the bacteria. Broken eyeshadow can be pressed back into your palette. Make all the chunks into loose powder and press firmly until the eyeshadow sticks again. Use a cotton ball with some make-up remover to do this.
- Blush and face powders have a shelf life of two years. Store powders in a dry place in your home. Moisture quickly affects the quality. Make-up brushes and sponges are best cleaned regularly with a mixture of baking soda and vinegar.
- Foundation and concealer stay good for one to two years. Oil-based foundation lasts longer than water-based foundation. Apply foundation and concealers with a sponge or clean hands! Got a pimple? Rub it with a piece of ginger. Ginger contains antibacterial acids that inhibit inflammation and remove dead skin cells.
- Make-up remover and facial cleanser are good for up to 12 months. Make-up wipes and other disposable products such as cotton cotton pads and cotton buds put a strain on the environment. Choose washable cotton pads or cotton buds made of bamboo. You can also use coconut oil as a cleanser
- Lipstick and lip balm are kept for two years. You can still make up an old lipstick as rouge. Or make a fine lip balm with some coconut oil and honey, see a recipe here.
- Nail polish lasts one to two years. This greatly depends on the quality of the nail polish. Regularly clean the rim of the bottle with some nail polish remover. This way, you can seal the nail polish properly and prevent it from drying out. Opinions are divided on the best storage trick for nail polish. Some swear by the fridge, while others say you shouldn't. At thegreenlist.nl we have good experience storing in the fridge, our experience is that it stays good and liquid longer if you keep it cool.
Sustainable storage versus sustainable buying
With these storage tips, you can last longer with your spreads. Even if you do not yet buy skincare that is more environmentally conscious, you can take sustainable steps by at least using and storing it in a more conscious way. By the way, according to Milieu Centraal, most beauty products are not even that bad for the world around us. They looked at common ingredients in personal care products and cosmetics and how harmful they are if they end up in the environment. Aerosols for deodorants and hair lacquers are exceptions. Try to stop buying products with propellants. This also applies to beauty products with microplastics and sunscreen with harmful substances for aquatic life. Tips for choosing sunscreen more environmentally conscious can be found here. You can check beauty products for microplastics very easily with the free app Beat the Microbead From Plastic Soup Foundation.
More beauty product storage tips
In this article, I have tried to list the most common beauty products. If you are missing a spread or if you have another great sustainable hack that allows you to keep these products longer, please let us know. You can get in touch with us via the contact and follow buttons at the bottom of this page. The list will be completed with love!
More sustainable beauty tips from thegreenlist.nl
- Also see: Why vegan lipstick is not necessarily a sustainable choice.
- Also see: Sustainable care: why the claim ‘natural’ does not always mean something
- Also see: the list of eco-friendly beauty products.
- Also see: what is mascara made of and how do you find sustainable mascara?
- Also see: what is the difference between vegan and cruelty-free?
Sources: Milieu Centraal, Green Guide, the Skin Institute. Photo credits: Pexels, thegreenlist.nl.
