How long to keep make-up

I find my eyes go red, sore and itchy if I don’t change eye shadows and mascara every 6 months but then I seem to get more and more sensitive to everything as I get older.

A hygenic lot these grans.

Imm similar experience- went for makeover, bought lots. Assistant said we should be insuring our handbags to cover make-up!

I have a lippy from about 1942, Ponds, pillar box red. It was sent to my mother from my dad from New York during the war when make up was impossible to get back in Blighty.He sent her 3 tubes and asked her to keep one in Case they ever had a daughter. I was given it when I was a child. I still have it and will pass it onto my daughter one day and hopefully one day to her daughter if she has one. It is still in the original packaging showing a sailor boy sending love to his sweetheart overseas.

I still have the Helena Rubinstein lipstick that was the first make-up I had - my mother took me to Boots for it, we also bought a compact of pressed H R powder. It must have been in the early 1960s. The lipstick is Rose Aurore. Occasionally, for nostalgia, I still dab it on very gently because it's quite a heavy colour and doesn't suit me at all. Did I really wear it in my teens?

I use mascara almost every day and replace it when it runs out, probably longer than 6 months. Eye shadow lasts for ever. I've never had an eye infection.

I don't wear make up much but I am loathe to chuck any away. I scrape the top layer off lipsticks before using them again if they are really old.

Even dried up mascara I have tried to revive with a few drops of baby oil. (Doesn't work very well)

But I recently did out my bedside table and had to throw out a whole carrier bag full of hardly-used perfume bottles which all smelt soapy - it almost made me retch! The ridiculous part is that most of those I had bought myself, only a couple had been presents!

Now I just have one perfume that I have to remind myself to use every day before that goes off, too!

My make up never lasts that long - I wear it everyday and have done since I was a teenager.

It might apply to the solid block mascara that I used to spit into to use! Not done it for many years now as I have no eyelashes

Although I wear make up most days it lasts for years especially foundation. Make up protects the skin from the elements. Wish they made smaller bottles of it. I have a lip brush I bought in the sixties but I now use a 24 hour lipstick.

I once went into one of those shops where the make-up counters take up most of the ground floor. I got talked into a "makeover" and (being gullible) ended up spending about £100. Nobody ever commented on how I looked. Waste of money. Now I buy stuff in the £1 shop and it's exactly the same except for lipstick which I pay more for in an organic type shop because I think I actually EAT it.

I don't really wear makeup. I have a mascara and a blusher which is at least 10 years old, and a lipstick that's even older. I don't think I used any of them at all last year. Makeup usually dries out before I ever use it up.

Having had a lot of eye ‘issues’ I’m always very careful with eye make up and brushes, but other products I tend to use until they’re finished, even if it is past a recommended date.

Occasionally I’ll throw something out if I think it’s starting to deteriorate, but I don’t have masses of makeup, so what I have tends to get used.

In a documentary last year. They tested old makeup and it was fine germ wise. So don’t be wasteful and use it. If it was that bad. We would all be constantly getting eye infections etc

Oh yes, I remember the spit-based mascara that came in a little block - no wonder that went mouldy!

Yes eye shadow caused a fungal skin infection on my eyelids. It was however less than a year old.

I don't wear much but generally mascara goes out regularly, and other stuff that has gone "funny". But some is old...

Years ago my friend used a lot of mascara when you had to wet the brush and came in a little block. It kept growing mould, pretty obvious really as she used to spit in it after eating her lunch! No eye infections anyway

I've found that old make up (foundation and blusher) after a couple of years has often caused a reaction on my skin, so I will throw it away.
Mascara gets thrown out after at least 4 months ( seen too many eye infections to doubt that), and I'm careful with eyeshadow too - if it has a hard crust on it , it goes.
Basically any makeup that is opened to the air can become contaminated.
As for the size of the bottles/ tubes- manufactures have to take into account how much people will use, as well as how often they will use it to decide on the size supplied.

Glad to know I'm not the only one who has ancient stuff they still use

Not long ago (well, in my terms) I came across a bottle of scent that was marked Best Before 1968. My fave....

I bought some very expensive makeup on my 40th birthday weekend. I am now 65 and I've still got it. I rarely use it though. Since then I've bought the odd lippy but don't use that much either. I think if you make up a lot you then feel naked without it so I don't want to start. It doesn't suit my lifestyle of jeans and country walks either.

I apply full makeup first thing every day- even if I am by myself all day- so it never gets old enough to worry about. I think I'd use makeup if I was on a desert island too- I'm not 'me' without it.
Never wear lipstick though- hate the feel of it.

I have got a lipbrush, but had forgotten that! I might have a go at the microwave lipstick. But, at the moment I am too busy. GN is soooo. addictive at times. ? as well as the three other jobs awaiting my attention.

I've got some ancient make up which I still use and it doesn't seem to do me any harm. If it started to grow mould then I might chuck it out.

I think I'm in tune with everyone else on this thread; my 4 year old foundation looked like it had curdled and NO amount of shaking would blend it so it went in the bin. I bought a very expensive eye makeup palette at duty free some years ago and the only part I've thrown away was the mascara, still use all the rest with no side effects. I also read that once makeup starts to smell odd it should be thrown away.