by BR Natalie
How long have you had your current mascara?
If it's over 3 months then pay heed to the following sentence.
THROW IT OUT.
Seriously. Do yourself a massive favour and get rid. Did you know mascara has a use-by date of just 3 months from opening? And no, it's not a sales ploy to get you to buy more. It's a very genuine measure to help prevent some pretty nasty infections. And blindness. Yes really!
In a study by International Journal of Cosmetic Science 79% of mascaras tested contained staph bacteria. And 86% of the owners admitted that their mascaras were out of date. Coincidence? We think not.
In this article various cosmetics were tested for bacteria. The mascara tested positive for Enterobacter and Eubacterium. These can cause urinary and respiratory tract infections and bacterial vaginosis.
Why is mascara so prone to icky, germy nasties? It's a moist and dark environment, which bacteria loves, and therefore bacteria thrives! Contaminated mascara can cause conjunctivitis, mild break outs, boils and abscesses.
Here's some other things found in mascara: Staphylococcus, micrococcus, bacillus, and even (brace yourself) E. coli, which is from erm, poo.
It grosses me out seeing people selling used mascaras... sorry, just bin it! But I am guilty though of not throwing mine out after three months... mines probably only had 6 uses by then if that (lately at least anyway), so I think I am ok... right?? Note: goal is to use make up more often again... especially mascara ;)