Skin 101: How to Spring Clean Your Skincare
Here are our five top tips on how to declutter and refresh:
1. REMOVE
Start by cleaning out the cabinet, remove everything and give the cabinet a good wipe down.
2. REVIEW
Review the expiry dates of your products, sometimes there is no expiry date but there always should be a period after opening number which tells you how long the product is good after it’s been opened (the little jar symbol on the back or base). If it's expired, changed colour, texture or scent then toss it.
As a general rule, products with active ingredients like Vitamin C, Retinol or plant extracts have a shorter shelf life, while your fundamentals with fewer actives like cleansers or toners last longer.
Generally, here is how long your skincare will be good for after opening:
- Cleansers and Exfoliating cleansers: 1- 1 1/2 years
- Toners: 1-2 years
- Exfoliating serums or toners - 6 months – 1 year
- Serums: 6 months
- Facial oils (without actives): 1-2 years
- Facial oils (with actives): 6 months – 1 year
- Moisturisers: 6 months – 1 year
- Eye creams: 6 months – 1 year
- SPFs: 1 year
- Face masks: 6 months – 1 year
You may also have some skincare that you just don’t use or that you’ve used, had a breakout and didn’t use again. Be honest with yourself about these products:
- Do you still want them or will they sit around until they have expired?
- Is there someone else that might benefit from them?
- Can you figure out a way to give them another go and incorporate them into your routine?
3. REDUCE
Once you have whittled down your collection, review how much of each product you have. For those products where there isn’t much left, can you put them into smaller containers?
4. CLEAN
Give your products a clean to make them look nice and appealing to use.
5. REARRANGE
Then go about rearranging the products, separate our your weekly from daily use products and organsie them in terms of your routine – cleanse, exfoliate, treat, hydrate and SPF.
