Tuesday, May 4, 2010

How clean is your makeup?

I don't usually watch my local news broadcasts. I just don't have the stomach for some of it and I find that it can be down right depressing. But last night I did watch a bit of our ABC affiliate, and I saw this segment on the cleanliness of makeup that was an eye opener. Yeah, I think we all know that we are supposed to replace our makeup every few months to a year depending on what kind it is, but THIS has me thinking of doing it more often or at least, doing a total makeup bag purge of what I know I've had for a while and may not have been taken care of properly.

They took makeup from people all over Houston and had it swabbed and tested at a local dermatologists office. The results, in some cases, were staggering and and down right scary.

They found 6 items that were contaminated. What did they find in those? Some had strep, which can cause strep throat, but also impetigo or cellulitis which if it hits the blood stream, can cause death. And some had staph, one even had a type of staph that is drug resistant and could be fatal, especially for people who have weakened immune systems.


So what can you do to protect yourself? Don't reuse sponges to reapply your makeup. If you do want to reuse, wash it and then put it in the microwave for a minute to kill the germs that are lurking there. It wasn't mentioned, but for those of us who use makeup brushes, we should also wash our foundation brush after each use.

This video is a must see. The information is so worth while, that the Baylor College of Medicine is writing the findings in a medical journal to share with other medical professionals.

Watch the video here: How clean is your makeup?

If you can't watch the video, the full article can be viewed here:

3 comments:

  1. Very interesting! Thanks for the post!
    ::off to clean my brushes and swab everything with alcohol!::

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  2. Oh, Andi... it is so true! I'm going to set some time aside later today to go through my makeup and clean everything that I can however I can.

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  3. thanks so much for sharing this- I didn't realize you were in Houston! Me too!

    I wash my makeup brushes about once a week which I thought was a good amount. I wonder if powder foundations would have less germs on them? I like the idea of zapping sponges in the microwave...though I only use them to apply self tanner on occassion.

    thanks for sharing this!

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