Makeup Bag Makeover

By Wendy Schmid

With all the great products on the market, it’s easy to amass quite a beauty stash. When they’re kept too long, however, cosmetics can go from enhancing your clear complexion to compromising it with funky colours and smells -- plus they can spread bacteria.  “Over time, preservatives stop working efficiently and it’s possible for staph, fungus and yeast to contaminate makeup that’s been stored past its prime,” says dermatologist Francesca Fusco. So resolve to keep your get-glam arsenal well-edited and up-to-date this year.

First thing’s first. These are the key items to have in your beauty bag, says Global Creative Design Director Pat McGrath of Procter & Gamble: foundation, concealer, powder, bronzer or blusher, eye shadow, eyeliner, “bold” and “safety” lip colours and mascara. Now use this cheat sheet to figure out when to toss different beauty products. Begin the countdown when you first open the product.

Foundation: Six months to 18 months
In a hot, humid climate, liquid or cream foundation can break down in as little as six months. “Pitch foundation if there is separation or if the liquid starts to get grainy or extra-thick,” says celebrity makeup artist Sue Devitt. Stored in a cool place (not under the lights of your medicine cabinet), liquid foundation can stay fresh for as long as a year.
Powder-formula foundations will last an additional six months, as long as you wash the sponge applicator weekly.
Tip: Sniff your foundation when you buy it. “If the smell changes at all, toss it,” advises celebrity makeup artist Joanna Schlip, who has worked with Sandra Bullock and Sarah Jessica Parker. “It’s not worth holding on to the product and risking a breakout.”

Concealer: Six months to one year
Powder and stick concealers last a year, but liquid formulas should be replaced in half that time. Again, watch for shifts in colour, consistency or scent.

Blusher/bronzer: Six months to two years
A powder bronzer or blusher will impart pure, true colour for up to two years. Consider liquid blusher or bronzer to be expired after 12 months. Cream blushers or bronzer often come in a pot or compact that you swipe with your fingers, so be alert to texture changes as soon as six months and discard after a year.

Powder eye shadow: Up to two years
Like face powder, these can be kept for up to two years. Just be sure to practise clean-tool maintenance, says Fusco, so you don’t pick up bacteria from the moist eye area and transfer it back to the shadow pot or compact.

Liquid eyeliner: Three months to one year
If your liner is drying out and you can no longer achieve a flirty cat-eye, you may need to say farewell at the three-month mark. However, liner can safely be used for a full year. “You’ll know it’s still good if it applies smoothly,” Schlip says.

Eye pencils: One to two years
Luckily, your cache of colourful pencils can stick around a while. Most have a wax base, and bacteria can’t grow on wax, notes Devitt. Tip: Sharpen once a week to keep pencils fresh.

Mascara: Three to six months
As soon as the smell is off or the wand is nearly dry when you pull it out, it’s time for the heave-ho. “Mascara is the most likely culprit for breeding bacteria,” says Fusco, “because it’s stroked so close to the mucus membrane under the base of the lashes.”

Lipstick: Up to two years
Those bold reds and deep berries you save for glamour nights will safely last for up to two years, since lipsticks generally contain wax in their base.

Lip gloss: One year
Although, with frequent reapplication, you’ll likely go through your favourite shades way before then!

Wendy Schmid is a former beauty editor of Vogue. She writes for numerous magazines, including Vogue and Marie Claire.

Can Your Favourite Beauty Products Stop Working?

By Shelley Levitt

Every woman has had the experience: A tried-and-true regimen that once left your hair beautiful and shiny and your skin its radiant best suddenly seems to have stopped working. Is it time to move on to a new set of products? Here, advice from the experts.

Should You Change Your Shampoo and Conditioner?
When your once bouncy, gleaming hair starts looking flat and dull, you may wonder if it has “become used to” your favourite shampoo or conditioner. There are two things to keep in mind. No. 1: As hair expert John Gray -- author of The World of Hair Colour -- says, “High-quality hair products are rigorously tested to ensure that their performance does not deteriorate.” No. 2: Hair is technically dead, so it can’t develop a tolerance to a product.
That doesn’t mean that you’re imagining the changes in your hair. Residue from styling products is one common reason why hair may look and feel drab. To give your hair a clean slate, try a one-time wash with a clarifying shampoo. These shampoos contain ingredients -- such as enzymes and citric acids -- that bind to product deposits and whisk them away.
Seasonal changes can also make it seem like your shampoo and conditioner aren’t doing their job. In fact, these products are delivering consistent results, but it’s your hair itself that behaves differently in the high humidity of summer than it does during dry winter conditions. While you always want to choose a shampoo and conditioner that’s right for your hair type and texture, if you use a volumizing shampoo and conditioner in the summer, you may find that richer and more hydrating versions of those products work better in winter.
Colouring, highlighting, relaxing and perming all affect the fundamental properties of your hair, says Gray. If you’ve had one of these chemical processes, you may need to add deep-conditioning treatments, including masks, to keep your hair in tip-top shape. Ask your stylist for advice on how frequently to use these at-home treatments.

Do You Need to Swap Your Skin Care Products?
If the feeling that your skin care regimen isn’t working any more is a familiar one, then the fault may lie with your own expectations. “Using skin care products is a lot like dieting,” says aesthetician Tom Woodhouse. “Often, you’ll see a lot of improvement over the first three months, and then when you’ve achieved the maximum benefit from the products, your skin goes into more of a maintenance mode. What you’re missing is the excitement or novelty of those early results.”
Then again, our skin is dynamic, changing in some way almost every day, says Ellen Marmur, dermatologist and author of Simple Skin Beauty: Every Woman’s Guide to a Lifetime of Healthy, Gorgeous Skin. Rather than thinking of yourself as having one static skin type, Marmur says it’s more effective to learn to read your skin and be flexible in the types of products you use. While you may have a general tendency toward dry skin or oily skin, irritation or acne, it’s important to adjust your regimen to the type of skin you’re having today. If, for example, your skin is looking greasy and starting to break out, you may want to switch temporarily to a cleanser that contains salicylic acid, which will help unclog pores.
The active ingredients that keep our skin looking its best, like peptides or retinol, work year-round. But just as cotton feels cool against your skin in July and cashmere is cozy in December, different formulations feel -- and look -- better as the weather changes. Consider rotating your regimen to include oil-free or gel-based products in summer and richer creams and lotions in the winter.

Shelley Levitt has contributed to a variety of women’s publications.