Remember when you were in college and you and your roommate would do your skincare routines together? Yeah, me neither. However, this is a reality for many people out there. It is a bonding experience for many and a great topic to bond over.
It does not have to be your roommate, it could be your friend. It could happen under different circumstances. What I am trying to get to is that at least once in our lives we might have been tempted to try our friend’s skincare or even makeup products or perhaps take some of them off their hands if they offered. Sharing is caring after all, however, should we share?
It depends. Let’s break it up into product categories and analyse them individually.
Should we share skincare products?
When it comes to sharing skincare products, the answer is generally no.
NO to prescription products.
Prescription products should never be shared. Those are prescribed after a consultation and after a specialised professional advised for them to be included in someone’s skincare routine. If that person was not you, then hands off :).
NO to jar based products.
Jar products even if they are not prescribed should be avoided. In order to scoop product out, one needs to stick their fingers in there. Of course that jars come with little scoopers, but you can never be certain that your friend never shared the jar with anyone else or that they are using the scooper every single time.
MAYBE to tube based products that correspond to your skincare needs/skin type and that do not contain ingredients that do not interact well with your current routine.
Tube based products are not as evil as jar based products since the product coming out of the tube has not been touched, but you should still be careful. If you are trying a product for the first time, especially one you do not know anything about, you could end up using something that does not agree with your skin type or one that contains ingredients that do not mix well with the rest of your routine.
MAYBE to bottled products, but same as above applies.
Same goes here. However, here you might have a little more wiggle room. Micellar water and toners also fit in this category. More generic such products have a lower chance of doing any real damage, but some common sense should be applied.
IF YOU MUST to pump containers
Spoiler alert, this is the closest to a YES you will see in this article. When it comes to trying out a product that comes in a container with a pump, I can agree that it is probably safe to use. I don’t really think that many people actually open them and use the tube of the pump to apply product, not unless the container is nearly opened and you need it to scoop up leftover product. Is it just me? Oh well… This in my opinion is the safest category of products that can be shared. Just not with products that come out up such as with those with a vertical pump? Not sure if that is what they are called. I encountered the expression yesterday for the first time and it sort of made sense. If only I could recall where I read it now…
NO to anything that comes with a pipette
The same is not applicable if the product comes with a pipette. If you’ve scrolled on Instagram and are following beauty gurus or beauty enthusiast, then you must have seen at least one person who touched the pipette to their face when applying the product to their skin. That is not just unsanitary on its own, but you have no way of knowing whether the person whose products you are curious to try has ever done it before, even if they are not doing it when you re around or make a habit of doing so. Safety first people! I don’t want to sound like a downer, but the longer you live, the more you learn. However, certain things can be learnt without experiencing them on your own skin (no pun intended).
Should We ever share makeup products?
Let’s see.
NO to panned products.
If it comes in a pan, best to avoid it. You do not know how a palette of any kind had been stored, how your friend has been using it. Even if they used a brush, the brush could have not been cleaned in who knows how long (this is not meant to offend your friend btw) and in any case, they might have doubled dipped before during an application process so after touching their face, they might have gotten back to pick up more product…
NO to jar based products.
Pretty music the same as in them case of skincare items, I strongly believe that sharing jar based products should be avoided.
MAYBE to tube products
These are the general rules when it come to skincare products. However, anything such a mascara or that comes with an application is a no-no. I am serious. I am not trying to be mean, but better safe than sorry.
OKAY-ish to pump container
Same as with skincare, containers that come with a pump can be safer,. however even more caution is advised than when it comes to skincare. What I mean by that is that makeup items with pumps are usually smaller, pumps are notoriously bad for products such as foundations. They ensure you cannot get all the product out by design in some pretty famous cases. Anyway, you sometimes cannot see how much product is left either so the temptation to remove the pump is higher. Hope you get what I mean as I should stop before I dig a deeper hole for myself.
I know that I haven’t covered everything here and that is absolutely normal nor did I really mean to. What I wanted to point out or to remind you is how some of the most common type of products+containers are not really meant to be shared. Sharing is caring, but maybe not when it comes to opened beauty products.
I know that beauty products can be expensive and it is completely normal to want to share and try stuff you haven’t had the chance to try before, but be careful and think of the risks. Some things can end up costing way more than a random jar of luxurious moisturiser that you might not even like or that might not help you in any way in the end.
Personally, what I do is try to focus on beauty gifts with purchase or other such beauty offers that give me the chance to try more products I might want to purchase at one point. In doing so, I get to try them in a safety manner. If I cannot afford them at some point, I hold off or find more affordable alternatives. With so many products out there, there will always be something to choose from and remember, expensive does not necessarily mean better, especially in this industry. It is normal to assume that expensive means higher quality of ingredients, but that is not necessarily the case. The beauty industry is, as much as I hate to admit, quite devious (but as many will agree, stronger words are also pretty accurate).
If you have options, then go for them and stay safe. Bonding over beauty can be done differently and if not, there are millions of other topics you can bond over.
How do you feel about sharing beauty products? Have you ever done it? Would you do it again?
*This article is not sponsored. This article contains affiliate links which means that Blush Suede might receive a small commission at no extra cost to you if you make any purchases by clicking the links included in this article. Thank you for your support. It is you that keep us going.
i agree! the safer the better. i dont share at all personally!
I sometimes do. When I am home, I sometimes might use the toner and/or serum I leave on the bathroom vanity for my mother. I tend to pick her skincare products 😆 and replace them when I am at home. However, not only I know she is as rigorous as me when it comes to safety but they are also products you don’t really need to touch while in their respective containers.