Mascara and Your Eye Health

Mascara, according to the FDA website, should be tossed between 2 and 4 months. Beauty Alert! says 3 months, because a medical journal* that published test results gives the actual levels of bacteria in a controlled test, and 3 seems to be the number. I have a client who gets a new mascara every month, so feel free to toss it sooner! But don’t hold onto your mascara, you are taking a big chance with your eye health. This is not a marketing strategy. The build up of bacteria in a product that you put near your eye can lead to eye infection.

*Optometry: Journal of the American Optometric Association, “Microbial contamination associated with mascara use,” October 2008.