Your Makeup Artist Shouldn't Be Using This On You
If we have ever met in person, y'all probably know that I am an absolute nut about cleanliness. & I am not ashamed to say that. I take my job as a professional makeup artist very seriously and I know that being in the position that we are in, we should be taking all precautions for keeping our clients safe. Read on to hear more about why you should say a big fat hell-no to these things.
1. Dirty Hands.
This sounds obvious but you would be surprised, my friend! I can not even begin to tell you how often I have seen makeup artists touch a client's skin without sanitizing their hands first. Our hands carry so many germs, we touch everything all day long!! Professional makeup artists should have 70% alcohol or high-grade hand-sanitizer on their station at all times. They should begin the makeup application with freshly washed hands. After your artist touches anything besides their clean supplies, they should be sanitizing their hands. That even means if they touch their own face, something that fell on the floor or anything else you can think of.
2. Beauty Blenders.
This really grinds my gears y'all. Re-usable sponges of any kind are an absolute nightmare. There is physically no way to sanitize the inside of a beauty sponge without tearing it apart, making it unusable. Sponges have been known to harbor bacteria, they are impossible to dry down all the way and cleaning them is a bitch. Knowing how hard it is to just clean my own beauty blender, I know how difficult it is to properly clean a whole set of sponges from a wedding of working on multiple clients. It's just not worth it and you can get the exact same effect with brushes and disposable sponges! Unless an artist is gifting you that beauty sponge after they use it on just you, it should not be used.
3. Lip products out of the tube.
If I see one more artist applying lipstick on every member of the bridal party in a damn assembly line I might cry!! Cream and liquid products should ALWAYS be removed from the original container and placed on a cleansed palette or on the back of a sanitized hand. It is not possible to sanitize a cream product after you have dipped into it multiple times unless you scraped off the top couple of layers and that is just a waste of product! Your artist should be taking it out of the tube or palette and using a clean lip brush or disposable lip wand to be able to apply it directly on your lips!
4. Unclean brushes.
Just like beauty sponges, makeup brushes can harbor bacteria like nothing else. Your makeup artist should not be using the same brush they just used another person to apply a product to you. That brush should be sanitized in between each use. They should be using a brush cleaner like Cinema Secrets Brush Cleaner or even 70% alcohol for a fast clean to ensure that all bacterial spores are killed.
5. Mascara from the container.
Let's talk about eye infection!! When artists use the same mascara on multiple different clients they are passing each person's eye gunk to the next and then putting it right back in the bottle to fester and become a bigger issue. Just because there is nothing "visibly wrong" on that person's eye does not mean that they are not a carrier of an infection or disease. The best way to prevent this is to use a different mascara wand with every application of mascara. This means even if your artist has to dip back in for your other eye, they should be using a fresh mascara wand every time they dip into that tube.
6. Liquid Eyeliner.
All liquid eyeliners out of the tube are made with a sponge, felt, or brush tip. If your artist takes out a liquid eyeliner to use on you, just know that there is no way to sanitize this brush due to the nature of it. This means that the eyeliner pen was definitely used on multiple different clients. Unless your artist opens up a new liquid eyeliner and then gifts it to you after your application, I would stay away from liquid eyeliner tubes. If you like the look of liquid eyeliner I would recommend bringing your own and kindly ask your artist to use that for your eyeliner!
I just want you to be safe.
I know this may sound like I am standing on a soapbox with my microphone and you might think, well why does any of this matter? People, this MATTERS. Cleanliness can actually save your life. Often times, it is not realized that we are around orifices to the body. Do you know how easy it is to spread an eye infection from person to person if the brushes are not properly sanitized in between clients? Or how about something even more serious like Herpes because your makeup artist just used that lipstick on 20 people before you? It is too easy to pass infections from person to person and as a professional, I believe that we should be in charge of infection control for the people we are working on. But if your makeup artist dares to touch you with any of these things, please kindly inform them that you'd like them to opt-out from using it or please take the time to properly clean it. Ok, now I will get off my soapbox.
XOXO
Megan
