How do you know its time to bin the mascara?

One of the items that is hardest to figure out when to get rid of it, is mascara. Mascaras always come in a solid coloured tube and you never know how much there is in there in the first place. Unlike lipstick where you can see the stick growing shorter day by day, mascara is almost a closed book.

From my rather limited experience with using mascara, here are some sure signs its time to bin the ol’ mascara and open up a new tube:

• The brush looks dry when you pull it out of the tube.
• The mascara flakes from your lashes onto your face
• It gets harder to apply it and to see any effect on your lashes.
• Your mascara-ed lashes just don’t look as lush and long anymore
• Its been more than 3 months.

Hygiene experts recommend that mascara be binned after 3 months because in that time, it would have dried up, or have bacteria in it from regular use. I’ve used some mascara for slightly over 3 months without problems, but it isn’t recommended by the experts.

In order to prevent the introduction of air and bacteria into the tube, take care never to pump the wand in the tube like you see in some movies. This pumping in and out action only serves to introduce air into the tube which not only dries out the mascara inside, but also introduces bacteria into the tube. With something going so near your eyes, you do not want bacteria in the formula!

So, check your mascara and if any one of them fall in the any of the categories above, its time to bin it!