For the skin care obsessed, that moment when a tube of your favourite product stops giving but you just know there’s plenty clinging on inside, is all too familiar.
If having the last dregs of your loved lotions and potions imprisoned in their own bottles is a regular bathroom irritation, it’s likely you’ve tried out the so called ‘life hack’ of snipping away at the packaging to get to the goodness the inside.
Although reclaiming access to those last bits of sacred liquids (that you probably spent plenty of hard-earned pennies on) can make you feel like a smug scissor wielding genius, it’s actually a really bad idea.
Beauty and skin experts have filled Allure in on exactly why it’s a recipe for skincare disaster and just down right unhygienic.
Cutting open tubes and bottles and exposing products to the outside air can speed up oxidisation of ingredients and promote the spread of bacteria.
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Dermatologist Marguerite Germain stresses just how important it is to not open up products that are particularly used on the eyes, mouth and face.
“Caution must be taken not to introduce microbes, since a large contamination may overwhelm the preservative system at some point and allow harmful bacteria or moulds to grow in the product”, she said.
“Once the tube is cut open, the safeguards have been removed and the manufacturer can no longer guarantee the product.”
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New York dermatologist Melissa Kanchanapoomi Levin reports that using contaminated products can lead to infections or trigger conditions such as acne, eczema, contact dermatitis, and folliculitis.
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She added, “Beauty products are formulated with preservatives in order to control bacterial contamination. Packaging is important for certain ingredients such as antioxidants, peptides, and retinol/retinoids, in order to prevent accelerated oxidation.”
If you can’t resist cutting into bottles and tubes, the skin pro suggests transferring the insides to a sealed container as soon as possible to slow down oxidisation.
