A Beauty Blog from Nancy, the Avon Lady of New Jersey

Investing in quality skin care products – especially those with anti-aging ingredients can have a significant impact on your skin’s appearance. But if you’re storing them improperly, it could cause the ingredients to break down more quickly, making them less effective and ultimately, a waste of your hard-earned money!

Follow these tips to store your skin care products – maximizing and prolonging their effectiveness.

Skin Care Storage Can Affect Efficacy

It may not seem like a big deal, but the location your skin care products are stored can have a big impact on their effectiveness and shelf life. Things like light, heat and air exposure can accelerate the breakdown of essential anti-aging ingredients your skin care products contain.

For example, Anew Vitamin C Brightening Serum is a powerful antioxidant that has strong skin benefits including brightening, helping reduce dark/sunspots, hyperpigmentation and helping protect your skin against other environmental UV damage. Vitamin C is notorious for being a fairly unstable ingredient and thus needs to be formulated, packaged and stored properly in order to maintain potency and antioxidant benefits.

Follow these 3 tips to get the maximum benefit from your skin care products end payoff and shelf life.

TIP #1: Stay Away from the Light

As a general rule, it’s a good idea to keep your skin care products in a dark location.

Direct sunlight can accelerate the breakdown of many anti-aging ingredients, so keeping your products in a car or near a bathroom window may lower their effectiveness.

Keep them in a bathroom cabinet or drawer, somewhere it’s low light and air tight.

TIP #2: Keep it Cool

In addition to light, heat can render active ingredients ineffective. For this reason, some products can benefit from being stored in a refrigerator. We love a small skin fridge! Super cute, helpful and makes application of skin care super refreshing!

Things like belif Aqua Bomb Hydrating Toner, Isa Knox Anew LX Ultimate Eye Serum, Isa Knox LXNEW Platinum Oil Serum,belif Aqua Bomb, Anew Vitamin C Brightening Eye Cream and Jeju Aloe Fresh Soothing Gel are just a few products you’ll thank us for cooling down!

Note: always store a true oil at room temperature. Farm Rx Green Goddess Facial Oil is a beautiful product, but the Jojoba Oil in the formulation is subject to solidify if too cold. It doesn’t mean the product is bad; simply warm to room temperature and you’ll be back in business!

TIP #3: Avoid Steam

Did you know that steam from a shower can quickly break down key active ingredients? And steamy environments are the perfect breeding ground for mold and mildew.

We know a lot of people store skin care on their bathroom counter as it’s convenient, but in truth it’s the worst place – can get lots of light, hot and steamy!

Another great reason to ensure if you keep skin care in the bathroom, it’s not only stored in a dark area, but sealed off like a drawer or closed cabinet.

Even better? Find a place outside of the bathroom to help ensure they’ll stay cool, dry and provide optimal results upon application.

Don’t Forget

Once you open your products, it’s best to use them up and throw away 6 months to a year, even if the expiration date reads longer.

Curious about when to toss?

*Shelf life attached with main brief for reference, but all information is in the appendix here for ease of reference.

MOISTURIZER, SERUM, TONER AND ESSENCE
Period after opening: 6 months to 1 year.

These three skin care essentials typically last 6 months to 1 year after opening. This window is large because products can lose efficacy depending on how you take care of them. To maximize the life of your moisturizers, serums and toners, be sure to tightly cap them after use and clean off the bottles and containers every few uses. This ensures that no excess gunk or bacteria falls into the product so your fave formulas can continue to work efficiently.

Also, moisturizers are often packaged in a container and applied by hand, so it’s also very important to make sure your hands are clean before each use. If hands are not clean, the product can become contaminated. Use a mini spatula for safer application. Taking care of your product and taking these sanitary measures will keep the product’s efficacy at a maximum.

CLEANSER
Period after opening: 1 year.

Cleansers can last up to a year. Over time, cleansers can lose potency, so they won’t provide the benefits that they did when used within the POA. This means that your moisturizing cleanser or anti-aging cleanser will longer work effectively. Many of our cleansers contain preservatives, which are beneficial in cosmetics according to the FDA. When used in skin care, preservatives help prevent harmful bacteria from growing; in turn protecting both the product and the consumer.

EYE CREAM
Period after opening: 6 months to 1 year.

Similar to moisturizer, serum and toner, eye creams should be tightly capped to ensure maximum potency for each use. Eye cream is often packaged in a container and applied by hand, so it’s also very important to make sure your hands are clean before each use. If hands are not clean, the product can become contaminated and lose its payoff. Not to mention, since eyes are very sensitive, this could cause irritation and possibly even infection. You can also use a mini spatula for safer application. Once again, taking care of your product and taking these sanitary measures will keep the product’s efficacy at a maximum.

MASKS & EXFOLIATORS
Period after opening: 1 year.

Exfoliators and face masks that are packaged in a tube or jar can last up to a year after opening. To ensure you receive the full payoff, make sure that your face masks are always closed properly and clean them after every few uses. Sheet masks, on the other hand, have the lowest period after opening of any skin care product. Sheet masks must be used as soon as they’re opened, as they dry out extremely fast. If unopened, a sheet mask can last up to a year.