With the longer days finally beckoning, this is the month to make the most of your daylight hours with DIY upgrades, beauty hacks and crafty ways to improve your beauty – and Birchbox – experience. First up, a guide to making your products last longer. So, you just splurged on the super-fancy-have-to-have-it mascara you’ve been eyeing FOREVER. And now you want to make your new purchase last as long as possible, right? Here’s seven ways to extend the shelf life of your most prized beauty possessions.
1. Make Your Scent Stick Around
Never store fragrance in the bathroom, where steam from hot showers can quickly degrade aroma. Plus, those pretty bottles – we’re looking at you English Laundry – are to be admired on your dressing table. Bonus tip: Apply unscented lotion before spritzing — oily skin retains fragrance for longer.
2. Enjoy To The (Very) Last Drop
Favourite lipstick almost all gone? There’s more left than you think: Scoop it out with a little plastic spatula or cotton swab and make your own lip pot with an empty container (available at any beauty supply store) and a brush.
3. Save The Pumping For Free Weights
We’ve all been there: Faced with last-legs mascara, you start pumping the wand to get every last bit. Halt! “With each pump, you are allowing air bubbles as well as bacteria into the tube,” says make-up artist Stefanie Syat, owner of make-up party business Pre-Dame. Instead, use this trick to revive dried-out mascara: Sprinkle a tiny bit of water on the wand, place it back in the tube, and roll it around inside. Pull the wand back out in one clean swipe — and stop your bad habits for good. Try Benefit’s They’re Real! Mascara for seriously fat lashes.
4. Give Products The Cold Shoulder
Cream or liquid products + heat and sunlight = disaster. To keep products from deteriorating or prematurely drying out, store them away from direct sunlight, radiators or other heating elements. If temps are particularly warm, keep products most susceptible to heat damage, like foundation, concealer and cream blush, in the fridge. And year-round, we love the way chilled Vasanti’s Triple Action Eye Treatment Cream and Bluemandarines Aloe Vera Regenerating Facial Cream feel on our face before bedtime.
5. Keep It Clean
Bacteria-filled make-up brushes are bad news: They can cause breakouts and contaminate any product you dip them into. Plus, your brushes also won’t last as long if they’re not properly cared for. Once a week, dip them into warm, soapy water. Use a mild shampoo or hand soap, or try beautyblender® blendercleanser in this classic travel set — the gentle, soy-based wash works well on both sponges and brushes.
6. Embrace The Healing Power Of Oil
Pot o’ cream shadow starting to cake up? Make-up artist Sophie Haig has this genius tip: “Warm up a couple of drops of a very good quality oil (like argan, coconut or buriti oil) and mix it in with the dried-out cream.” This trick also works wonders on other cream-based make-up, like blusher and concealer.
7. Don’t Cry Over Spilled Product
Dropping one of our favourite compacts — like RMK’s Pressed Powder — on the bathroom floor and watching it shatter is a heartbreaking experience. But it doesn’t have to be. “Place a few drops of rubbing alcohol onto the broken shadow and press down with the back of a clean spoon until the shadow is levelled out,” Haig recommends. “Then leave to dry and hooray! Back to normal.”
– Natalie
Read up on our Spring Forward theme in this month’s Editor’s Letter & Contents!