Does makeup truly expire?

/ Tuesday, January 31, 2012 /
http://purebeauty101.blogspot.com/2011/04/make-up-expiration-dates.html


Let me ask all of you a question: Do you ever throw your makeup out?

If you are a makeup artist, you might go through a ton of makeup all the time, and so your turnover time (at least, according to economics terms) is very short, so you do not need to throw out makeup. However, I am not a makeup artist; all of the makeup I buy is for personal use. Although I try to use my products as often as possible so that I might be able to use them up rather than have them just "go bad" on me, inevitably the sad situation still results.

Some people do not ever throw out makeup. I guess, this is a personal choice. However, makeup does actually have an expiration date.

As a university student who has taken many chemistry courses and labs, I can positively say that "makeup is made of chemicals". Of course, technically everything in the universe is made up of chemicals. However, what I mean by the layman definition of chemicals is "processed ingredients".

What do you do with makeup? Well, you apply it, whether using hands, brushes, sponges, other types of applicators, etc, to your face and body.

There are germs, or rather, "bacteria", viruses, etc everywhere in the world. As soon as you open up that container of makeup, whether it be liquid foundation, blush, eyeliner, etc, you are exposing the makeup to that bacteria and virus-load. These "germs" will settle into the makeup, grow, and accumulate. They will use the chemicals of the makeup to grow and make more colonies of themselves. Of course, though, this takes some time, and when that time runs out, then you've hit the expiration date of your makeup.

So, in a nutshell, yes, makeup does expire.

But the thing is, according to at least US standards, makeup expiration dates don't have to be posted on the package. However, you can still find expiration dates, and if you can't find them, there are general guidelines, which I will post here.

Do you ever see, on the back of makeup, perhaps right next to the barcode, this symbol?
http://blanca1018.blogspot.com/2011/11/makeup-expiration-dates.html

Well, this symbol basically tells you, from the date you open the makeup, how long it will last before all of those germs take over the makeup.

What I do is as soon as I buy some new makeup and open it to use it for the first time, I write on a label on the back of the makeup its expiration date. That way, I know exactly when to throw it out, and don't have to think back to when I bought certain pieces of makeup and stuff.

See all of those date labels?

Of course, some makeup doesn't have the expiration date labels posted so clearly. Here are some general guidelines that I have for makeup expiration dates, that have been gleaned from various other peoples' thoughts as well as my own experiences:

Makeup item
Expiration time
Powder
2 years
Powder/pressed powder eyeshadow
2 years
Liquid foundation
3-6 months
Cream foundation
4-6 months
Liquid concealer
6 months
Cream concealer
8 months
Mascara
3 months
Lip gloss, lipstick
1 year
Eye/lip pencils
1 year or more (depending on how often you sharpen)
Eye primers
1 year
“Natural”, “mineral” cosmetics
6 months
Makeup brushes
Clean 1x/week (at least), can last for many years
Makeup sponges
1 week

Sources:

Uh oh time....

/ Monday, January 30, 2012 /
Lately, I've been getting extremely extremely congested. I'm not even sure why. I might attribute it to the materials I work with in lab, but I've worked in that lab for 1 year already and it hasn't bothered me. I would attribute it to dust in my room but my room always accumulates dust. I would attribute it to getting sick but I haven't really been getting sick.

What's wrong with me?

I constantly have to blow my nose, and my ENT is messed up. Usually it starts pretty badly during the morning when I wake up but by the time I get outside and go to classes, a few hours later it's better. It's better till night time, when I go do homework and everything. Then and there, I start sneezing and going crazy. Ugh. I have no idea what's going on.

Right now my nose has been scraped so raw that I have to use my body butter at night to moisturize it. My lips have gotten chapped, as usually in the winter, but this year it seems to go beyond layer after layer of moisturizer and Carmex.

And on top of that, I'm breaking out a lot more than I have before, since last semester's finals. And I don't even have finals right now.

I know that as the aspiring doctor, I'm supposed to know or at least try to get to the bottom of things. But right now, I'm at wits' end. So I reach out to all of you and ask: What do you think is wrong? Is it because I'm a second semester senior in university who is tired and stressed, or is it just all in my head?

Please feel free to comment, give suggestions, etc.

Thanks!

<3

Freeman Facial Peel-Off Mask, Cucumber Review

/ Sunday, January 29, 2012 /
Freeman Facial Peel-Off Mask, Cucumber, Skin Silkening
http://tinyurl.com/87v8atn
I got this mask from the January My Glam bag (click here for my "un-packaging" and also explanation of what My Glam is).

First impressions? Well, despite the fact that the product I got from the My Glam bag is full-sized, tell you the truth, 1/2 of the package is filled with air, and the other half is filled with product.

When I first opened the package, if felt as if it was just goo. Clear goo. My first thought: eww!!!

Oh well.

It did smell very nice - just like a cucumber did. What you are supposed to do is take the product out, and apply it on your face - basically apply a thin layer on your face, and then wait 5-10 minutes for it to dry off, and then, literally, peel it off.

Did it work?

The first time I tried it, I was NOT good at it. I did not do it correctly, and the product got into my hair and everything. Disgusting. I also applied too thick of a layer, so it did not work out properly.

The second time, I did better. I applied a thin layer. My face was kind of stinging, but I guess I kind of had to withstand it for the product to work properly. My face smelled strongly like cucumber - and I could tell, because I was very congested (I have really bad allergies this season) and I could still smell it.

And I just basically let it dry while I watched some television.

Lemme tell you this - if you want this to dry in 5-10 minutes, you have to put a VERY THIN layer on. It took me a while to peel it off. After I did, some of my hair, despite my best intentions, still got stuck in the goo. Luckily I took a shower immediately afterwards, so it was okay.

Afterwards, my skin felt very cool, slightly tingly, as if I had just come out of a refrigerator. I can promise you that it was a very cooling sensation, very interesting.

How do I think of this face mask? Not very good, not very interesting to be particular, just okay. I would not repurchase this - I don't think it is worth the money.

Have you guys ever cried this mask? If so, how was it? What other types of face masks have you tried and liked or disliked? Leave a comment!

<3

January's YT MUA of the Month!!!

/ Friday, January 27, 2012 /
Let's see, so far we've done:

Xteeener
Gossmakeupartist
kandeejohnson
daisycheekz

This month's Youtube Makeup Artist of the Month is.....

secretlifeofabionerd!!!!!



As you guys have probably seen before in some of my previous posts, I absolutely ADORE secretlifeofabionerd. This is the YT screen name of Kieu L. Cao, and is a fashion student based in Houston, Texas. She was originally from Nebraska but moved to Houston to attend fashion school.

What I really like about KL is that she offers not only stuff on makeup, but also fashion (after all, she IS a fashion student!), hair tutorials, advice about life, and comedy.

Click the jump to read more!

My Glam Bag, January 2012

/ Tuesday, January 24, 2012 /
Hey guys and gals,

I got of a long day of classes (8 AM - 6 PM!) and have just finished up some work, and I am absolutely exhausted, but I am going to post this since I think this is a very time-sensitive post.

I decided to subscribe to My Glam after seeing some Youtube videos about it. My Glam is a subscription service that sends beauty and skincare products to customers 1X/month for $10 each month. It was founded by Michelle Phan and some of her collaborators. For more info, please click here.

There was a mix-up for bags for the month of January, so a lot of the bags were sent out late. Normally they are sent out around the 10th, but for some reason this month it wasn't so. Anyways, I have just gotten my bag, and I really wanted to show you guys it.

This was the package:

And here is the inside:

As you can see, I got a Freeman's Peel-off Cucumber Mask + Glam Bag.

Sheer Cover duo concealer in light/medium.

Shady Lady eyeshadow from theBalm.

Inside of the eyeshadow - in Shameless Shana.

Sweet Almond Mint Cleansing Conditioner from Wen, by Chaz Dean. I've heard rave reviews about it. We'll see how it is!

Here is the bag itself.

Do you see there is a stain on it, even though I didn't put it there? O.o

Here are all of the inserts and the discount codes that the bag includes. Pretty cool eh?

What's my overall reaction? Hmm... very interesting. We'll see how this goes. Should I keep on subscribing? Yes or no? Have you guys used any of these products before? If you have, were they good/bad/ok/or something else? Leave a comment below!

<3

The coolest banana ever! (Happy Lunar New Year!!!)

/ Monday, January 23, 2012 /


Seriously, isn't it cool? I found this banana squid hanging around my college's cafeteria randomly one night, and took a bunch of photos of it. It has got to be the most interesting banana I have ever seen in my life.

Hope you all are having a good day! <3

http://www.squidoo.com/year-of-the-dragon

Why I haven't been doing NOTD in awhile

/ Saturday, January 21, 2012 /
Okay guys,

I'm here to fess up. I haven't been doing NOTD entries for awhile. In fact, not for a few months, perhaps. As my friends on this blog, one must know that I absolutely ADORE nail polish. Sure, it smells really bad during application, but afterwards, it looks so pretty. It also feels kinda cool, especially on my toes.

The reason why I haven't been doing them is because of my lab work.

As you guys might know (perhaps or perhaps not), I am a biology major in university right now. As part of my requirements for graduating with a B.S. (Bachelor of Science), I must produce a thesis on my research at the end of this semester. Thus, this means that I have to do a lot of lab work in the field. And this means, of course, that I CANNOT wear nail polish. Or rather, I could, but it would just end up getting chipped the next day in lab. During this past semester (August - December 2011) I have gotten a total of 13 split nails. And they were painful. This doesn't count chipped nails. There are wayyy too many of those to count. And what's worse is that sometimes, my split nails themselves have gotten split. This is where it really sucks.

Thus, guys, Even though you might see in some of my photos that I have taken that I have painted nails, that is because I took the pictures earlier on, and that I reviewed the products later or something. I just took the pictures earlier. I feel that after this semester is over, my nails will need A LOT of TLC, because they have definitely taken a giant beating.

During my Thanksgiving weekend, the bf (more about him later) and I went to the local mall. You know you see those nail shops along the aisles where people walk and stuff between stores? Well, the guys manning the shops came up to me and kept on showing me how crappy my nails were, and how they buffed them and made them all pretty and shiny and everything. Well, not surprisingly, due to lab work, two weeks later, they turned to crap again. Oh well.

So, therefore, it might be awhile until I do my next NOTD, because of the fact that my work simply does not allow me to do so. I guess those are the pains of trying to make a beauty blog and trying to lead a life as a bio student as well.

Anyways, this was just a truthful moment speaking. Let me know if you would like more of these truthful conversations. I feel that I revealed a bit more about myself today in this post than in previous ones where I post reviews and hauls and stuff like that. What do you guys think?

<3

The scariest face mask monster in the world!

/ Thursday, January 19, 2012 /
Hey guys,

Today I'm gonna share with you all one of my skincare regiment secrets.

It's these:

What are these? These are called compressed face masks. They're a huge beauty skincare fad in East Asia. What they can do is, if you make your own concoction of liquid stuff, and put these in, they literally expand out and become a face mask.

Presently, there is a line of face masks that are pretty awesome, sold in East Asia, by My Beauty Diary:


:
My Beauty Diary Facial Mask - Natto (10 pcs)
http://www.amazon.com/My-Beauty-Diary-Facial-Mask/dp/B001R654TS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1323290274&sr=8-2

http://www.sasa.com/SasaWeb/eng/product/viewProductDetail.jspa?itemno=103479202002


These can be found at www.sasa.com, www.amazon.com, eBay, etc.
However, the thing is that these things run at about $14-$15/box of 10 masks, which is pretty pricey, if you think about it in the long run.

Thus, hence comes out with the compressed face mask!

Here's a tutorial made by secretlifeofabionerd on it, which I featured on a blog post way way early on:

My version is very similar to her's. I use a 1:1 ratio of cucumber juice and lemon.

What I do is I:
-Slice up a cucumber into thin slices
-Cut a lemon into wedges
-Throw the slices of cucumber into a blender
-Squeeze the lemon juice on top of the slices of cucumber (don't worry if seeds get in)
-Put the blender on high-speed until everything is pureed
-Take a CLEAN cheesecloth, or a CLEAN face cloth you don't mind getting dirty, and dump the pureed mixture into it, and squeeze that juice into a cup. (Note: this step can be very messy!)

Then, when I need the mask, I:
-Put the mask into a dry cup
-Mix up the concoction, and spoon it onto the mask
-If it is very cold outside, then I heat up the mask + concoction for about 10 seconds in the microwave.
-Open up the mask, and put it on my face
-Leave on for 30-40 min

After I feel that all of the goodies from the cucumber and lemon have gotten onto my face, I take off the mask, and rub my face with the cloth. Then I dump it.

This stuff is sooo good, guys and gals. It helps a lot out with oil control, helps prevent me from getting zits, but most of all, it is EXTREMELY EXTREMELY fresh.

Look at it! It's so green and fresh!

Wanna see a scary face monster?

Ahhhh!!!!

Yup. That's what it looks like. A unibrow, war-torn face monster. (jk I actually don't have a unibrow. Although this picture might suggest otherwise)

I gave a bunch of these face masks to one of my friends during a Secret Santa Exchange/Potluck party we recently had at university. If she ever gets a chance to look for how to use them, here's the place!

Anyways, hope this is helpful!

<3

My laptop cooler

/ Monday, January 16, 2012 /
Ok, so here is a totally non-beauty related review, but I'm gonna do it anyways because my blog is not just about beauty products, but about other things as well.

I bought this laptop cooler for around $5 on Amazon.com. It is made of very light weight acrylic and is USB-run.

This machine has 3 little fans:


Based on the design and text, I have strong reason to believe it was manufactured in China, but then again that's just a guess.

Back side:

This machine definitely isn't strong enough to sit by itself on a bed, but it definitely does do its job as a basic laptop cooler. Is this a heavy-duty item? Probably not. However, it's lasted me for at least 4 months, and I'm glad I'm using it right now.

Do you guys and gals use laptop coolers? Any brands that you would suggest? Anything else you guys use to protect your laptops/desktops? Leave a comment!

<3

Things I'm liking...

/ Saturday, January 14, 2012 /
 These are my doctor dolls! No, actually, they're doctor versions of "stress balls." They serve as my inspiration.

Gorgeous bunny picture:

My iPod nano (old version, I think 4th gen) + Skullcandy headphones:

Trail mix:

Sparkling water! + Sparkling cider. I've really liked the San Pellegro brand ever since I had it at Cheesecake Factory during a date night =D

Queen Helene Mint Julep Masque - introduction

/ Thursday, January 12, 2012 /
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/418JyWMZXUL._SS500_.jpg

After seeing this masque both at the store and in one of my friends' rooms, I finally caved in and got this. I think I will try it out for a bit and then do a review on it later.

It's sold on amazon.com for $6.15 for a full 8 oz, plus shipping.

But first....

This Mint Julep Masque has gotten a bunch of rave reviews throughout all of the interweb. What are ya'll's opinions of it? Is it useful? Worth it? Would you guys and gals think of ever trying something like this?

<3

Interesting things....

/ /
http://www.bzzagent.com/bzzscapes/scape/darcustori/darcustori-free-diamond-earrings/
http://poctordepper.tumblr.com/post/15627541525/heysawbones-jennitheodd-heyhinate-a


http://www.monacodark.com/french.html

http://clairekatie101.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=58911122

http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/08/taste-test-greek-yogurts-fage-trader-joes-oikos-chobani-greek-gods-brown-cow.html

BIC Advance Razors Review

/ Tuesday, January 10, 2012 /



I got this BIC razor from a six-pack my father bought awhile ago. I don't shave my legs (my legs are hairless!) so I just use these to shave my underarms. (I was basically just born kinda hairless) Thus, this means that I go through one razor only once every 3 months (or just about). Money efficiency I guess?

The BIC Advance Razors are very smooth. I believe there is a triple blade, and the handle is designed to be ergonomically-friendly. Used with the right shaving cream, either dry or wet, it is very very nice, and gives a very smooth shave. I've used this one for about 1 month and it's still going very strong. Very nice.

Will this be a repurchase? Yes! It's actually probably the best razor I've used so far.

What brands of razors do you guys and gals prefer? Any suggestions for new brands to try? Leave a comment!

<3

Interesting Sephora catalog.... + miscellaneous music

/ Sunday, January 8, 2012 /

It had lots of sniffing samples =D

Songs that are intriguing me right now:

"Esto es Africa", Shakira (from World Cup, 2010)

"This time for Africa", Shakira (from World Cup, 2010)

"Valentine Dance Tango", from Another Cinderella Story

"Bang a drum" from Another Cinderella story

"I want everything" by Hope 7

"World without danger" by Code Lyoko

"Dota" by Basshunter

"Till the world ends" by Britney Spears

OOTD, 1.5.2012

/ Thursday, January 5, 2012 /
Very simple OOTD for ya. Note: this is actually from awhile ago, and is not now, but I forgot about it, so here it is posted now.


Blue-green tie-dye t-shirt: free from university
Adidas sweatshirt, ~$20
Tommy Hilfiger bleached boot-cut jeans, ~$40
Adidas tennis shoes, ~$50
(Took this while listening to iPod)

Tree Hut Shea Body Butter - Coconut Lime

/ Wednesday, January 4, 2012 /
Tree Hut Shea Body Butter in Coconut Lime. With certified organic shea butter. Nice.

You can buy this from Kroger, Walmart, etc for around $7.50.

There are several scents: Hawaiian Kukui, Original, Brazillian Nut, and Coconut Lime. Personally, I like the Coconut Lime scent the best (which is why I got it, I guess?)

I bought 3 in total - two of which I gave to my friends for Christmas presents, and one for myself.



According to several online sources, a tub of body butter is supposed to expire within 1 year after opening. Thus, I have until approximately Christmastime next year to use this thing. Nice.

Here's what the stuff looks like on the inside:

Wow! Upon first sight, this stuff might look like a tub of lard. Grease. Eww. I dunno about you, but I NEVER use lard when I cook, and I cook legit Chinese food. Like, food that usually makes peoples' mouths water. (I use canola oil instead, or sesame oil or olive oil - SOO much better for you, using unsaturated fats - but that's a scientific discussion for another day).

However, here's the initial application:

Note: The ring is my college ring (I am NOT engaged or married, peoplz!).

And here's it after rubbing it in:
Very nice stuff.

The smell is very nice - for me, it just smells like it has coconut. I can't tell if there is a lime scent, but then again, during the winter, right now my nose is totally stuffed up with allergies.

I find that if I apply this to my arms and legs just before I go to sleep, the next morning, my skin feels SOO smooth. So nice. However, I would suggest only putting a little bit on - trust me, as the cliche goes, "a little bit (does really) go a long way."

Contrary to its lard-like appearance, this stuff doesn't feel very greasy at all. It feels very smooth and nice, thicker than lotion, more like a cream to apply. I would highly recommend this to anyone who does not have very sensitive skin and needs something that is more hydrating than lotion. This is very good especially for wintertime use. And of course, it is very affordable.

Would this be a repurchase for me? Probably! Although I might try one of the other scents, but still, Tree Hut Shea Body Butter is definitely awesome.

Have you guys and gals tried this out? Are there any body butters/lotions/creams/etc you would suggest? Leave a comment!

<3

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