‘No makeup’ makeup, dewy makeup, bold makeup, there are so many ways one can experiment with their makeup. But do we also dedicatedly clean our makeup accessories after using them for portraying our makeover skills? Or are we careful enough to make sure that we dispose the expired makeup products rather than using them till the time’s end? Recently, a group of researchers found out that used makeup products are swarming with harmful superbugs including Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Citrobacter freundii. Amreen Bashir and Peter Lambert are the biomedical scientists of United Kingdom's Aston University, who performed the examination on certain makeup products including lipstick, lip gloss, mascara, and eyeliner. Their examinations proved that all these products are infested with harmful bacteria. The makeup applicators especially the blenders made of sponges contain maximum numbers of bacteria. The wetter the products the maximum number of bacteria they harbor. This mainly happens because of the irregular cleaning habits of the consumers. This research has been led by Amreen Bashir and in context of this matter he said,
“Consumers' poor hygiene practices when it comes to using make-up, especially beauty blenders, is very worrying when you consider that we found bacteria such as E. coli - which is linked with fecal contamination - breeding on the products we tested.”Currently, there are no mandatory instructions on expiry dates and cleaning of beauty accessories. Awareness should be raised and the consumers must be educated on the necessity of washing beauty blenders regularly, drying them thoroughly and also about the side effects of using expired products.
