From subscription boxes, to writing blog posts, and shopping, I end up with a ridiculous amount of beauty products in my collection! What you may not know is that I try my best to use up products, but I am no “project panner.” In my day-to-day life I implement simple hacks on how to use up beauty products. My focus is on using up every last drop so that I can get my money’s worth. A lot of packages are designed so that product gets trapped, and you are throwing away perfectly good product and buying replacements, but no more! My goal in life, while it may sound weird, is that if someone dumpster dives in my trash they will not get any free samples. Here are my tips on getting the most from your beauty products.
Tools
Before we get into the tips and tricks, there are some handy tools that you probably already have around your house to assist you in emptying your products. These include:
- Scissors
- Pliers
- Plastic zipper bags
- Beauty spatula
- Toothpaste tube squeezers
- Knife
- Empty pots or small containers with lids
If you are not interested in using plastic bags to store products, you can always find small containers with lids in the craft section of the dollar store. For the toothpaste tube squeezers, I typically find them hanging around Walmart on clip strips, and they are not just for toothpaste!. My favorite tool is the beauty spatula. The silicone scraper will literally dig into anything. I use mine for so many purposes and it is the best $5 that I have ever spent. Trust me, you will want to have one in every room. Additionally, please be careful when using any of these tools.
Plastic Tubes
First in my how to use up beauty products tutorial I am focusing on plastic tubes. When a tube gets to the point where I can no longer dispense the product easily, I cut the top of the tube off with scissors. Then, using a beauty spatula, I scrape out some product and apply it. I store the cut open tube in a plastic zipper bag so that the exposed product does not dry out, and be sure to squeeze all of the air out of the bag before zippering it.
Glass Bottles
Second, glass bottles are a real pain because there is no good way to access every last drop. When a glass bottle gets to the point that I cannot get product out anymore, I spend some time scraping it out into an empty pot with a lid. The pot that I am using is an empty sample that I simply removed the label from. Admittedly this process is tedious and time consuming, but it does gain you a few more uses from your product.
Potted Products
Third in my how to use up beauty products tutorial is an easy feat- potted products! You can easily scrape out every last drop with a beauty spatula. I even apply products from a pot with my spatula so that I do not need to dig my fingers in.
Shaker Bottles
Fourth, I am discussing shaker bottles for loose powders. Once a shaker bottle gets low it can be difficult to get the product to dispense, yet you can see that there is still plenty of powder in there! For most shaker bottles you can easily pry the shaker top off with pliers. Remember, the manufacturer had to get the product in there somehow! From here you can directly access the powder.
Stick Products
Fifth in my how to use up beauty products tutorial I am speaking on stick makeup products. Sticks include concealers, lipsticks, and more. When you reach the bottom of the tube you end up with a flat product that you can no longer apply, but you can see that some product is still there. You can dig in with a knife and scrape out the remaining product and store it in a pot. Later you can apply the product from the pot with a brush or your fingers.
Tube Products
One of my favorite beauty product hacks is to remove the stopper from tubes! I did not always know that manufacturers put stoppers in the necks of tubes. They do serve an important purpose of scraping off excess product when you pull the wand out. However, when the tube gets low, the stopper prevents you from reaching a lot of trapped product. Tube products include concealers, lip gloss, mascaras, liquid lipsticks, eyebrow mascaras, and more. If you look closely at the top of the neck of a tube product you can see the stopper (example below). The stopper can be easily removed with pliers and discarded. You will be shocked when you discover how much product is still in your tube, and how much product you have thrown away in the past! For a while you will have to scrape excess product off of your wand back into the tube, as there will be no stopper to do the work for you.
Plastic Bottles
Next up I have the not-so-easy to work with plastic bottles, or those bottles you cannot safely or easily cut into. When these bottles get low I store them upside down. At application time I shake the bottle to dispense what I can, and I even stick my finger in as necessary. Try your best to get out what you can, but these are never a perfect job.
Spray Bottles
Continuing on with how to use up beauty products I have another simple hack for spray bottles. Sometimes when a spray or pump bottle gets low it refuses to dispense product easily or at all, even when you can still see product in the bottle! At times like these I empty the remaining contents into a brand new bottle of the same product. Or, for perfumes and body sprays, I remove the spray bottle and splash the product directly onto the skin.
Pressed Makeup
A real pain point when you are trying to use up pressed makeup is when you hit plenty of pan. In the example of the setting powder below, this much pan makes it hard to get an even coating on my brush. Which, in turn, makes it difficult to evenly set my foundation and causes me to spend extra time working with the powder. You always have the option of breaking the powder on purpose and repressing it back into the pan. I have an entire tutorial on repressing broken makeup. This way you have an even surface to pass your brush over. Also, you are less likely to have powder get stuck in the edges of the pan which can break and fall out of the palette, causing waste.
Aerosols
Number 10 in my how to use up beauty products tutorial is aerosols or sprays from cans. These empty themselves well in most cases. I have no hacks for safely getting into these any using up any product. Aerosols and spray cans include shaving creams and gels, dry shampoos, texturizing sprays, hair sprays, and more.
Foil Packets
Continuing on I am mentioning foil packets, both for samples and full-size products. There are two methods of attack that I implement on these. Once is the folding the packet upwards, which squeezes every last drop out. Some products do not squeeze out as easily, like the thick clay mask below. For those I cut open the sides of the packet and directly scrape the product out.
Large Plastic Tubes
Here I have a demonstration of using the toothpaste tube squeezer for other purposes than toothpaste. With some larger plastic tubes it can be difficult to dispense product after time. You can use the tube squeezer on any tube that it will fit over to work the product downwards. When the product gets to the point that I cannot slide the squeezer anymore, I remove the squeezer and cut the top of the tube off. I then follow the first hack in this post by scraping the product out with a spatula and storing the tube in a plastic zipper bag until it is used up.
Beauty Waters
I want to include a quick tip for beauty waters, like toners. Most directions will state to apply the water onto a cotton round and then rub the round onto your face. By doing so you are throwing away water that is trapped in the cotton round. I splash the waters directly onto my fingers and then apply the waters to my face. This method works well for bottles that have a controlled lid like the one featured below. If your bottle has an open mouth, be careful that you are not pouring the water all over yourself!
Roller Balls and Pencils
Lastly in my how to use up beauty products tutorial I have a quick note on pencils and roller balls. For the most part, these types of products empty themselves. In my experience, when you reach the end of a pencil most companies do not put product near the end, so you literally end up with empty wood. If that is not the case for your pencil and it gets to the point that it is so small that you cannot sharpen it or hold it, I say just throw it away. Of course, if it is too small to put on the cap and you want to keep working with it, store it in a small plastic bag.
In conclusion of how to use up beauty products, nearly any beauty product can be hacked so that you do not waste a drop! Most of my tips are super easy and can be completed with tools that you already have on hand. Of course, if you have your own hacks to add or any that I have missed, please include them in comments below for your fellow readers. Until next time, continue to let your true beauty shine.
