How To Spring Clean Your Beauty Products

The Spring season is quickly approaching and with it brings a transition to warmer temperatures, more hours of daylight, beautiful flowers, and the honey bees starting to pollinate-yeah! This transition does call for some preparation and some much-needed spring-cleaning... Of your beauty products, that is!

To ensure you're able to stock up on some new Spring beauty items to try, you need to revamp your existing collection. And if you are like me, on the verge of being the next candidate on the Hoarder's show for the person with the most beauty items, this can be painful. But no worries, as I have put together some great ways to prepare your beauty stash for Spring!

Spring Clean Your Beauty Stash
Now I know when most hear the word Spring Cleaning, you may cringe, unless you are Monica from The TV show friends, the thought of Spring cleaning is far from fun!

But don't worry, beauties, as you will like my type of Spring cleaning as it doesn't involve cleaning out all of your closest or scrubbing your floors but rather a much-deserved decluttering and rearranging your beauty products! Yes, it is time to keep what you use and toss what you don't.

Here are some Beauty Spring Cleaning tips to keep in mind when going through your skincare and other beauty products!

Toss Out Any Products You Haven't Used In A While
As a beauty junkie, it has become part of my everyday life to try the latest beauty products on the market. Fortunately for me, this also means I've become accustomed to weeding out my products. New one in, old one out, and you need to do the same! Also, ask yourself, when is the last time I used this? If you can't answer or if it has been a long time, it's time to say goodbye.

When Did I Open This?
This is one area I see many not even think twice about, using beauty products that have been opened for years, YUKO! Bottom line, if you do not know when you opened it, pitch it. I mean, you wouldn't eat something out of the fridge that you had no idea when you opened it, would you?

Toss Out Your Expired Beauty Products
What, beauty products expire? Yes, beauties, they do. And since you already threw away some of the products you haven't used, you know need to go back and check all the ones you decider were keepers. Yes, we know you are a beauty hoarder, and I am one of them. But the truth is many of us keep too many products that, honestly, we will never use.

Look At The Shelf-Life On Your Beauty Products
So to begin your seasonal reboot, you want to look at the shelf-life of the beauty products you set aside for keepers. Unfortunately, determining whether or not a product has reached its shelf-life isn't always easy. Believe it or not, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) does not require manufacturers to have a specific date to be listed on the label or packaging of beauty products.

Instead, most beauty brands will provide either a batching code or a period after opening (PAO) symbol for consumers as a way for them to figure out the shelf-life of their products. The PAO symbol is a symbol that reveals how long a product is good for after you've initially opened it—typically represented as a number followed by the letter M, which stands for months. This means that if your skincare product reads 6M on the packaging, you have six months to use it before it officially becomes expired.

Now, if you're like most people, you may not be familiar with how to read or interpret a batch code, nor are you able to remember the date on which you first opened a skincare product. So my tip is to pull out that black magic marker and write it on your products, the day you purchase and the day you opened it.

How To Tell Your Beauty Products Have Expired
Luckily, most expired beauty products can be indicated using your five senses. See below.

• Changes in color
• The texture is different
• It has an odd smell
• Separation of the product (especially in skincare and foundations)
• It has dried out
  

List Of When Beauty Products Expire
So what do you do with those products that do not have a POA or pass the sniff test? Well, below are some shelf lifes for beauty products to keep in mind!

• Mascara~6 Months
• Lipstick~1 Year
• Eyeliner~1.5 Years
• Blush~2 Years
• Concealer~2 Years
• Powder~2 Years
• Eyeshadow~2 Years
• Foundation~2 Years
• Cleansers~1 year
• Facial Toners~6 months to 1 year
• BHA or AHA exfoliants~1 year
• Moisturizers and serums~6 months to 1 year
• And don't forget your makeup brushes! These can last your years, but you need to clean them regularly. Otherwise, they are a hosting ground for dirt and bacteria, but properly washing and storing them can keep your face clean & healthy. Furthermore, cleaning your makeup brushes will ensure they remain in the best shape and increase longevity.
  

Sum It Up For Me Barbie
To sum it up, when you are Spring cleaning your beauty products you want to use your best judgment and toss out any questionably expired beauty products you have stored away in your beauty cabinet. Doing so will allow you to declutter your space at the beginning of the season and make room for fresh, new beauty products for Spring.