When to Toss Beauty Products

" Hi! I'm Leah Wyar, the beauty director at FITNESS magazine and you're watching an episode of pretty fit tips. At FITNESS, we want to make sure that the makeup you're applying every day stays as fresh as possible so that you can avoid breakouts and skin irritations. So, remember this easy timeline. Throw away your mascara after every three months. Throw away liquid products, such as foundations and cream blushes and shadows, after about 6 months. And toss any powder products like pressed powders and pressed eyeshadows after about 1 to 2 years. If you have a junk drawer of makeup at home and you're not quite sure when you bought things, there are a couple of tricks that you can do to make sure that everything goes on fresh. First, if you find any pencils, things like lipliners and eyeliners such as these, just give them a little sharpen. Because, each time that you sharpen a pencil, the wood goes away and it reveals a fresh layer of color. So pencils can never really go bad, as long as you sharpen them often. And there are some really great sharpeners out there right now, such as the new one by Jemma Kidd Cosmetics that contains a disinfectant strip on the inside of the sharpener so that when you sharpen a pencil, it kills any bacteria, which is pretty innovative. When it comes to powder products, you can basically freshen them anytime you want by taking a quarter, sterilizing it with a match, and then running the quarter over top of the powder layer to reveal a fresher layer underneath. And that's a really great trick for keeping pressed powders, bronzers, eyeshadows, and blushes really fresh. Mascaras and liquid products go bad fastest, so it's really important to write the date of your first use on the product. You could use a Sharpie which stays forever, or you can use a label. There are some really great ones, such as these Beauty Alerts. And you can just stick the sticker on the product, write the date of your first use, and then you will know when it's about to expire. That's all for now -- -- stay tuned for another episode of pretty fit tips. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --"