Spring Clean Your Makeup Bag – COMPETITION NOW CLOSED

Tips and Suggestions To Make The Most Of Your Makeup

Spring is always associated with freshness and a longing for change – and when it comes to makeup, we tend to act accordingly. Layers of makeup are stripped back as the temperature rises, and the Spring sun allows us to substitute heavy foundation with a more natural coverage. This change in weather is the perfect excuse to tidy up our makeup bags and cases, as with the end of Winter comes the expiry date of products, which need replacing annually.

In this post, we’ll talk you through the concept of PAO and we will give away a new Alphabet Bags makeup bag containing 5 e.l.f. Products of your choice, to celebrate the official beginning of Spring!

What is PAO?

I’m sure you will all have heard about PAO before, also known as Period After Opening. Recently I did some further research into PAO, looking especially at the CTPA website, and I would like to share my findings with you, as hygiene in makeup is so important. After all, we love to wear makeup because we like to look good and healthy, and hygiene is a key factor to achieving this.

First of all, the PAO is always shown either on the outer packaging of your makeup or on the item itself, and will look like this:

The symbol shows an opened tub, and generally has a number followed by M on it. This signifies the number of months it is safe to use the product after it has been opened.

In case you have been inspired to clean up your make up bag but no longer have the outer packaging, here is the general PAO for e.l.f. products:

– Powders (including blush, bronzer, eyeshadows powdery texture) – 12M

– Foundation in a jar or a cream powder – 6-12M

– Nail polish – 6M

– Lipstick, lip gloss -12M

– Pencil (Eye, Lip) – 12M

– Skin care products (hydrating wipes, wrinkle, eye contour) – 3-6M

– Solid eyeliner and eyebrow pencil – 6-12M

– Cream/Liquid Bronzers – 6-12M

– Mascara – 6M

– Liquid eyeliner – 6M

– Mineral range – 3M

Possible consequences of using out of date cosmetics

Generally, consequences of using products which are essentially out of date are not extreme. However, one main issue in doing this is that the product may no longer work as intended, and could change in consistency and colour. This of course becomes important if we think about the reason we wear makeup and choose certain makeup items: we want our foundation to be the correct shade for our skin tone and we want to enhance our features, not compromise our health and skin with outbreaks caused by the use of unhygienic products.

In worst cases,  bacteria left to proliferate on makeup can cause skin irritation.

Tips on how to make the most of your makeup within the PAO

– Buy little and often (every 3 months).

– Choose 2-3 shades per makeup item and mix them up, for example we suggest:

3 tones of lipstick, red, pink and nude.

3 eyeshadows: the e.l.f. Mineral Range are good to mix and create new shades.

2 blushes: a warmer and a cooler shade.

2 shades of bronzers, to go with different grades of tan.

2 foundations to match your tan over the year, and to mix together in-between seasons. Also use the darker one for contouring.

– For nail polish only: share a few shades with your friends, or get a nail polish set which contains several bottles but in smaller sizes (for hygiene reasons, do not share any other type of makeup).

Tips on how to make your products last as long as the PAO date

– Store makeup at ambient temperature, in a cool, dry place, away from direct sunlight and with the lids firmly closed.

– Use clean hands or a brush/applicator to avoid contamination.

– Make sure you use clean, completely dry applicators.

– Do not share your makeup items with others, to avoid cross-contamination.

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Win A New Makeup Bag Competition – CLOSED

Win a An Alphabet Bags makeup bag and your 5 favourite e.l.f. products (up to the value of £20) to replace your old one this Spring!

We have teamed up with Alphabet Bags to bring you this generous prize! It is extremely easy to enter, just follow the link HERE!

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Well Done to Natalie Cox, the lucky winner of our Giveaway! We have emailed you for further details 😀

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