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If you are a skincare or make-up lover, you understand the struggle of throwing out an expensive moisturizer or your favorite lipstick before it’s gone due to an expiration date. Maybe you have not checked or did not even know that your products do expire! Time to go raid your skincare drawer and throw away all those products that are past their date. You may be thinking about how much harm can they do, but it is important to realize keeping your products past their date could be causing the same problems you are trying to get rid of.
After a product passes their date that was set using science and data, preservatives will start to degrade, and so will ingredients such as vitamin C and antioxidants. If your product is labeled “preservative-free”, you are NOT in the clear. Without some type of preservative, products will expire and break down more quickly so it is important to keep track of your products and when the date they were opened. We suggest using a sharpie to keep track of the date you open every product so there is no confusion.
It is especially important to keep track of the date for sunscreen. Active ingredients break down and can become less effective and more irritating. This can cause reactions and potentially make you more prone to sunburns. Temperature can also speed up the processing in which ingredients break down. This applies to all skin products; if they are left in the freezing cold or extreme heat, they are no good.
In conclusion, remind yourself when in doubt, throw it out! It may be tempting to hold on to a product because you feel like you wasted money or time, but the active ingredients will not be effective so it is not worth keeping anyway. Our best tip is to not stockpile skincare. Use a product until it’s gone before buying a new one. Using products on a consistent basis to see results usually means the product will be gone before it is expired anyway!
