Have you ever gone on a beauty shopping spree because you thought you “lacked some necessities”, but ended up with a lot more products than you intended? Sadly, I am an offender of this and often have a “when did I even buy this?” moment when I see an expired product three years later.
But there’s a silver lining to every situation: yes, even for expired beauty products and no, we aren’t going to ask you to use it past its “best before” date. Here are four ways to repurpose your impulse purchases that have gone bad:
Use Your Expired Toners as a Cleaning Solution
Remember how alcohol became a villain in the skincare world? While they may not be the greatest for your skin as they strip away moisture, they work amazing on glass surfaces. This includes items like your mirror, your phone screen and glass table tops. The alcohol in the toner helps to remove grease, dust and fingerprints, allowing your glass to achieve that brand new sparkle.
You can also dip your cotton swab into your toner and use that to clean up fall out around your eyeshadow or blush palettes.
Clean Makeup Brushes with Expired Cleanser
Since cleanser is a daily product, I tend to think it’s okay to purchase more since I’ll definitely use them one day, right? Turns out time moves faster than I can use up cleansers, and I always end up with some expired product (sometimes even unopened!).
Thankfully, these facial cleansers prove useful beyond their expiry date — they are effective cleansers for your brushes too! All you have to do is foam up the cleanser with your brushes, and they will be freshly cleaned after a thorough rinse. While having a silicone brush cleaner pad is useful, you can also pump some product onto your hands and swirl your brush against your palm for the same effect.
Make Customised Nail Polish Colours from Expired Pigments
I love palettes — but the thing about them is that they never seem to finish. I will admit, I have never hit pan on an eyeshadow palette before they expire. Since palettes usually have a one to two years shelf life, it can be tempting to continue using them past their prime. But unless you are looking for a stye, you should really stop using them even if “everything looks and smells fine!”
Instead, why not use them to make customised nail polishes that are unique to you? All you need to do is to scrape coloured pigments from their pans and break them up into powdered bits. Experiment by adding different pigments for a ‘distinctively yours’ shade. After, use a funnel to add these pigments into the nail polish bottle. Voila — your own custom colour! Alternatively, if you have loose glitters, add them into solid colour nail polish for that extra sparkle.
Use Expired or Dried Liquid Eyeliner For Nail Art
The journey to finding the perfect smudge-proof eyeliner is a long one. Many eyeliners that just didn’t work have become fallen soldiers left unused in our drawers for years. If you share this experience, here’s your calling to dig them out and repurpose them into nail art brushes!
If there is some liquid left on the brush, blot them out on paper towels or wipe it down with some oil-based makeup remover (especially if they have a waterproof formulation). And… There you have it! Your very own nail art brush — all you need is some nail polish to do up your own designs from home.
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Hopefully, these hacks have saved your expired beauty products from the trash bin. If you own some expired products that aren’t mentioned here, then get creative with them! Perhaps they could be helpful in an art project, or the container can be used for storing your accessories — the possibilities are endless. All you need is a little bit of imagination (and the adamant refusal to admit that you forked out money for a product just to not use it).
With love,
Cheyenne
