What Beauty/Makeup Sins are we leaving in 2022?

The Match My Makeup team is cleansing themselves of the year that was with a good old fashioned beauty and makeup confession. Our dirty laundry is aired, facts have been faced, and New Year's resolutions have been made. From dirty makeup brushes to faces bare of SPF in 2022, we’re admitting to our errors and turning over a new leaf in 2023!

Hoarding Foundations

I only have 1 face. Why do I then have 15 foundations? Make it make sense! The shelf life of a typical foundation is about 1 year from first pump/open/squeeze. While it’s not dangerous to keep using them after the 1 year mark, the quality of the product has deteriorated by this point, and our faces deserve the best don’t they? How many applications can you get out of 1 foundation? It would wildly vary depending on the level of coverage you prefer and how often you’re wearing it. With daily wear, you would get at minimum 3 months wear out of a bottle. 3 x 15 = 45 months wear for me which means a lot of beloved products will be hitting the bin before they’re finished. Safe to say I don’t need any more in 2023!

Trying Products Over My Budget

The saying is true, ignorance is bliss. When we slipped Becky a sample of Estee Lauder's AUD160 Re-Nutriv foundation, who were we to know how quickly and deeply the two would fall in love? Far out of Becky’s foundation budget, she was not long after married off to a perfectly good L'Oreal foundation against her financial will. If those splurge level products are within your means, you do you! High end makeup has never been so tempting and luxe, but with these financial times getting tougher, 2021-2022 has seen the explosion of dupe-culture. Blogs, instagram accounts and Tiktok videos are everywhere right now finding dupes for high end products so we can all get the same luxe-effect for less. 

Skipping SPF

2 in 3 Australians will be diagnosed with skin cancer in their lifetime, which is an extremely alarming and eye-opening statistic. Sunscreen should be used on a daily basis - even in winter, when it's cloudy, driving in the car, or sitting in an office by a window, wearing sunscreen is a crucial part of maintaining your skin health. Sunscreen isn’t just medicinal, it has cosmetic benefits and it is your biggest ally when it comes to anti aging, preventing fine lines, dark spots and wrinkles. It’s never too late to start your SPF routine! 20yo colour analyst Mel has jumped on the SPF train this year under the tutelage of her 30+yo colleagues, and we’ve talked about our favorite SPF foundations recently to apply over your daily dedicated SPF.

Using Mascaras Past Their Use-By Dates

Show of hands whose favorite mascara is over 3 months old? All of you? Okay cool so it’s pretty much all of us. Newsflash, that’s the shelf life of your beloved eyelash-savior! The constant opening and closing of the tube, and pumping the wand to load it up, expose the product to air and bacteria. Expired mascara is said to smell different (like gasoline apparently), and not perform the same, being dry and flakey. The eye being an incredibly sensitive area, this is not an expiration date you want to trifle with. It’s time to put 4 mascaras in the 2023 budget, and then do that every year for the rest of your life, thank you.

Not Washing My Makeup Brushes

There’s nothing quite as disappointing as applying your favorite foundation with a foundation brush or sponge caked with weeks worth of product. But worse than a dirty brush compromising makeup application is a dirty brush growing its own community of bacteria. With daily use they’re busy collecting oil, dead skin cells and dirt, topped with the fact that if you're storing your brushes in a damp environment i.e. bathroom, you’ve got your own personal petri dish of gross-ness. The best case is inflammation, acne, and irritation, and the worst is staph infections and pink eye. Sorry to be the bad news bear, but foundation/concealer/powder brushes need cleaning once a week, and eye brushes between each use. This sounds like a lot, but it also sounds better than a staph infection.