As a professional makeup artist, it’s imperative to have good hygiene practices.  You simply cannot use a mascara wand straight out of the tube onto someone’s eye, then use it again on someone else’s face.  Shared conjunctivitis anyone?

Similarly you can’t use lipstick straight off the bullet onto someone’s mouth, nor liquid eyeliner straight out of the bottle or lipglossdirectly off the wand.

So what’s the solution?  Begging for disposables off the makeup counters when you buy your supplies?  Well you can ask, but you might get 3 or 4 if you’re lucky, and I use 4 mascara wands per person (no double dipping…!), and they just wash one lipbrush between each application.

The next solution?  well you could hunt around for those short little white wands with 1cm’s worth of not-very-good bristles at the end, or some of those short, stubby, flat-tipped lipstick brushes that just scrape the lipstick on, and leave it impossible to get a clean crisp finish.

For years, I’ve been going on about the need for hygiene, washing your hands between faces, or using high strength anti bacterial agents.  Using disposables at every step of the way, having a single shadow brush, blusher brush, powder brush for each person and each application, and keeping your kit hygienically clean.

My disposables?  I ended up having to ship them in from America, but they were of an ‘okay’ quality, unfortunately the mascara tips were screwed onto the wand and kept dropping off into my mascara bottles.  Not good when you pay £19 for a Lancome mascara, to then have to ditch it after 3 uses because you’ve got a mascara brush stuck in there.

Imagine my delight when I stumbled across TheProMakeupShop.com.  My disposable heaven and haven!

Not only do they supply every conceivable type of disposable product going, but they are actually really good quality.  And the range of mascara brush tips is immense.  As all mascara fans will know, an awful lot of the result is based on the brush working well with the product.  So to lay my hands on a ‘Voluptuous Veronica’ and a few ‘Big Berthas’ was like Christmas coming early in my house.  I plan to get ‘Show Stopping Sam’ to see if I, another Sam can be truly Show Stopping aswell.

Antonia Hawke, Chief Executive for TheProMakeupShop.com has kindly shared her facts and findings behind her campaign for Safe Beauty and that brilliant strap line ‘Love Me, then Dump Me’

MAKEUP APPLICATION AND THE RISKS

Hygiene is an important part of any daily professional practice and the makeup and beauty industry practitioner should adhere to a high level of hygiene, bother personal and client-side.  Dangers of cross-contamination through unhygienic application of makeup can cause a host of health problems through the transference of bacteria and viruses across products, brushes and skin.

BACTERIA & MASCARA – The facts you need to know.

Bacteria live in all our lashes and using mascara, whether on yourself or as a professional makeup artist on clients, means that it’s very easy to contaminate not only your mascara tube, but your customer.

the moment the mascara wand touches the lashes, bacteria is transferred to either the product tube or directly to the other eye.  Bacteria thrive in dark warm environments, and within six months a mascara tube will be overrun with bacteria.

“Double Dipping” is a term that all professional makeup artists and beauty professionals should be aware of.  It means reloading the same mascara wand with mascara by dipping it into the tube more than once.  Double dipping also applies to other makeup applicators or tools, and results in cross-contamination of both products and customers.

The dangers of double dipping mascara are real and can include any of the folloiwng health problems:

Conjunctivitis (‘pink eye’) – an inflammation of the conjunctiva causing redness, itchiness and watering.

Blepharitis – bacterial inflammation of the eyelid.

Corneal ulcers – affects vision and can cause blindness.

And many more through the transference of bacteria, viruses and fungal spores.

Single use mascara wands are an essential part of a safe beauty regime that should be practiced by all makeup artists.  It’s the responsible, safe and professional standard for the makeup and beauty industry.

DON’T STOP AT MASCARA…

It’s not only mascara that can harbour and transfer bacteria between products, brushes and clients.

SAFE BEAUTY THROUGH SINGLE USE TOOLS

Hygienic beauty practice applies to all makeup and makeup tools, not just mascara.  Theink about where it goes – into moist corners of the mouth, around sensitive eyes, and onto facial skin, which as you know is semi-permeable and thinner than body skin.

Contaminated brushes and products breed micro-organisms that can cause a whole host of other health problems:

Herpes simplex- the highly contagious cold sore virus, easily transferred by contaminated lipbrushes.

Ringworm- not a worm, but a fungal infection of the skin that can multiply rapidly in product such as blusher.

Impetigo- a highly infection skin disease caused by stapphylococcus bacteria, easily transferred through brushes and applicators.

Single use brushes and applicators are the responsible and professional standard that should be adopted by all practitioners as part of a healthy and hygienic practice.

From lip brushes to eyeliner and blusher, all brushes and applicators can cause cross contamination.

Reduce the risks to yourself and your clients, by practicing safe beauty – the professional standard for the makeup and beauty industry.