Mascara – The makeup item that expires really fast.

The number one prevention of eye infections through using makeup is to toss away your expired mascaras. Just like bacon ham, salad and potato chips, makeup are perishable and have expiry dates.

Charming cat mascara - One of my favourite mascaras because it is extremely affordable and I don’t feel the pinch when I have to throw away this SGD4.00 mascara every 3 months. 

But how would we know if our mascaras are expired?

First and foremost, there will be an expiry date on most makeup items. Before excitedly ripping open the brand new packaging of your mascara, do keep a lookout for expiry dates. It is usually a tell-tale sign of excessive clogging.

Say, if a mascara expires 2 years from now but you have opened the tube a month ago. Does the mascara expire 2 years later?

The answer is no.

Mascaras dry up really fast due to the fact that we constantly shove the wand in and out of the tube. Each time we pull the wand out, we’re allowing the substance to interact with bacteria which would be transferred to our eyes.

Can you imagine the micro-organisms camping on your eyelash for an entire day while you speak to your clients or boyfriend? Do yourself a favour and think about the amount of bacteria you have on your face hourly because I am sure that your OCD will kick in soon after.

When we pump the wand back in the tube to grab more fibre and mascara, we are actually shoving air in. This will cause the mascara to dry faster and shorten its life span.

And I know for a fact that girls are doing this because I have seen many of them doing this in public toilets (where so much bacteria are lurking).

The life span of a mascara is approximately 4 months, and using it any longer than the life span would cause an eye infection should the substance make contact with your eye.

After 4 months, the preservatives in the mascara will break down and bacteria will enter the tube. Once mascara is contaminated, any transfer to your lash might cause red eye or infection.

To minimize the amount of bacteria that get onto your lashes, only use the wand on clean eyelashes and do not ever touch the wand with your hands. Also, makeup should not ever be shared with anyone unless you want infection to be spreaded to you.

I hope that some of you would discard old mascaras after reading this entry, because saving money on a product is not worth the time and money spent to cure an eye infection.

Get the perfect eyelash curl

Have you seen ugly curled eyelashes? The same lashes that has been crimped in such a way that you could tell exactly where did the curler stopped at because of its 90 degree angle?

I’m not sure about most of you, but that is definitely a faux pas to me.

To have nice eyelash curls, we first need a good curler. One of the curlers that I would recommend is the iconic Shu Uemura eyelash curler that the whole world has been raving about. It is easy to control and most importantly, it does not crimp onto the tender eyelids and cause physical pain.

Shu Uemura eyelash curler

To get the perfect eyelash curls that do not cause a “crocodile open mouth” after putting your falsies, follow the steps below:

#1. Warm the eyelash curler slight with a hair dryer. Do not overheat the curler as it might burn your sensitive eyelids.

#2. Crimp your lashes about 7 seconds – Not too much or too little time. 7 seconds is just right.

#3. Work upwards while you’re at it – We don’t want a 90 degree angle, hence crimping the lashes outwards and upwards will create the perfect curl.

#4. Use mascara to add volume and length to your eyelashes – A waste if we curl our lashes and ignore the mascara cause it “opens” the eye.

#5. Lastly, replace the silicon in the curler every 3 months to ensure that it does not become to soft and works well.

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And these are the simple steps to achieve the perfect eyelash curl. Try it!

My favourite mascara

Everyone has a favourite mascara, and I do have a favourite too.

I have tried many types of mascaras before, for lengthening and volumizing. Brands that I have tried before includes Anna Sui, L’Oreal, Lancome, Estee Lauder, ZA, Clinique, Maybelline, and lots more that I can’t remember.

But my favourite has to be the dejavu fiberwig mascara.

dejavu fiberwig mascara

Introduced by my cousin a few years ago, I am stuck with this mascara.

The reason why I like using this mascara is because it really extends my eyelashes. The fiberwig works better than applying a layer of white fibre for length, followed by a layer of black for volume. However, the extended fibre does not curl upwards when I use it unless my eyelashes are curled beforehand.

Most importantly, I like how natural it looks on my eyelashes. It doesn’t clump or make my eyes look like hairy spiders. It is perfect for my short Asian lashes. At times, people would think that my lashes are naturally long!

Right now, I have 3 tubes of it lying in my room. All because I am a kiasu Singaporean, and I dig good buys. If I didn’t remember wrongly, it is retailing for about $26 in Sasa. I bought mine in Hong Kong last year for only $18 per tube. Don’t we all love buying things overseas?

Using mascara is subjective. Some girls dig the long hairy lashes look, whereas girls like myself prefer not to have spiders on our eyes. If I want to achieve that kind of dramatic effect, I would use falsies and not mascara.

What’s your favourite mascara?