Has my makeup expired?

Technically it doesn’t expire, but you should probably be replacing it more often, says the Kit’s editor-at-large

“I haven’t touched any of my makeup since last winter. How long does makeup last? Do I really have to throw it all away? I’ve had some of it for more than a decade.” — Dale, Toronto

When I was just starting out my adult life, I moved at least once a year for about eight years in arow. I shuffled my boxes from one little apartment to another; I lived alone, with friends, with my boyfriend; I lived in a little university town, in Montreal; in Toronto. I dragged those boxes of essentials along with me, dutifully unpacking as much as my tiny closets would allow at first and then, simply leaving the boxes stacked in a corner, a sign that I knew my circus was still travelling.

By the time I settled in one home for a stack of years, many of those boxes were coated in a layer of dust. I started cracking them open one day, curious to see what had seemed important enough to justify renting yet another U-Haul. None of the CDs or random detritus felt remotely essential anymore; I became bold and disposed of the last box without even opening it. “If I haven’t needed it in this long, I don’t need it at all,” I reasoned. It felt both freeing and scary.

Of course, this year has felt scary enough without any brash acts of decluttering (although there certainly has been a lot of that for most of us). My point is that time is a funny, slippery thing. The lipstick you just bought, the one that gave you a rush of pleasure at a beauty counter, has actually been sitting in your drawer for seven years — just as the hysterical onset of the pandemic in spring now feels like it could well have taken place a century ago, yet each week also somehow seems to have disappeared as quickly as a flash of lightning.

Before we question whether you actually need to own a product you haven’t used up in 10 years — and I would like you to grapple with that — let’s address the practicalities of your query.

“Generally, we don’t say that cosmetics ‘expire,’” explains Harry Cape, who is the manager of the R&D laboratory for Groupe Marcelle, one of Canada’s most trusted makers of makeup and skin care products under brands like Marcelle and Lise Watier. In fact, clear expiry dates are reserved for over-the-counter drug products (including SPF products and some acne treatments), which are regulated differently from cosmetics in Canada.

“But makeup and skin care generally have a POA, which stands for period after opening.” If you look on the back of a product, you will often see what looks like a little open jar and a number, which indicates the number of months in which you should strive to use it up. “For example, on a mascara you often see three months because you’re using it directly around your eyes and the wand goes right back into the product,” explains Cape. “Of course, one concern is that mascaras dry out, but the other is that germs could accumulate over time.”

There’s a similar logic to the recommendation that we should discard eye creams after six months. Other products — like face creams, foundations, powder shadow and bronzers — will likely be labelled as having a yearlong green light.

Now the POA is altogether a different concept from an expiry date. “If you haven’t started using it yet, then it should last,” says Cape. “We carry out stability testing and compatibility testing to make sure that the formulas don’t get modified over time and that there’s no negative interactions between the packaging and the formula. But once you open the jar, well, then you’re now introducing the environment of your powder room or your purse, and so there’s less control.” (He’s obviously seen the unstable environment that exists inside my handbag after a long week.)

Cape is far from alarmist: it isn’t absolutely necessary to throw out all the products that have been by your side longer than some of your friends.

“The ultimate factor to consider is what are the ingredients and what type of formulation is it,” he explains. For example, a Kohl eye pencil contains very little water, meaning it isn’t a hospitable place for bacteria, which tend to need water to survive. “And if you’re sharpening it before using it, you’re removing the top layer.” The same goes for a pressed powder or lipstick, the latter of which is largely made of wax and oils so should remain quite stable over time. “With colour formulas, the concern is that some pigments are sensitive to light, so they might bleach,” he explains. “But if you keep your cosmetics in a drawer where there’s no light, you should be OK.”

But let me stress again that the longevity of your product depends on the ingredients used to make it. Many clean beauty brands tout that they are created without the use of preservatives and that, quite naturally, means that they may not last as long on your vanity.

“Responsible manufacturers always perform tests on products to make sure that the product does not allow any sort of microbial growth,” says Cape. “It definitely concerns me when I see manufacturers or brands that talk about being preservative-free. Some are just using that phrasing for a product that wouldn’t need a preservative anyway, say, one that has no water in the formulation; others are playing with the definition of what a preservative is by using an ingredient that isn’t officially recognized as a preservative but is still serving the function. In Canada, there’s really no specific legislation around it.”

So it’s best to use common sense when dealing with aging cosmetics: if a product is past its POA and you use it around your eyes, or it starts to smell off or crumbles or dries out, consider chucking it. Regularly cleaning your hands, brushes and applicators before touching your favourite products is also a good habit to get into — after all, we should all be avid hand-washers at this point, anyway.