Does your vanity look more like a dusty household command station? Is your purse harboring an embarrassing posse of expired lip products?
Spring cleaning isn’t just for your living spaces, closets, attics. Your every day skincare and personal care products need to be kept up-to-date, decluttered, and tidied as well.
Now’s the perfect time to give your routine a serious top-to-bottom spring cleaning. Whether you’re someone who loves to “collect” various skincare products, samples–OR if you are someone who doesn’t tend to buy or use a lot of products, these tips are for you!
Here’s a list of our top 7 spring cleaning tips for your beauty routine:
- Sanitize your ‘beauty’ surfaces: vanity, bathroom, or closet drawers and shelves. We recommend a simple DIY cleaning solution of 4 parts distilled water to 1 part white vinegar, with your favorite essential oils added (we love a blend of lemon, peppermint, and lemongrass for cleaning). Be sure to store in a glass bottle and shake before using.
- Inspect all of your lotions, potions, and makeup. Give each product a general packaging dusting and cleaning (you can use the DIY recipe above). Discard anything that is expired or shows signs of microbial contamination, such as change in color, texture/separation, or smell.
- Label the products you are keeping with an appropriate expiration date. Check out NAA President, Rachael Pontillo’s in depth article about shelf life in Dermascope for more info.
- Use this thorough inspection as a chance to declutter. Let go of ‘not quite right’ or ‘what was I thinking?’ products! If you’ve purchased a product that for whatever reason isn’t the right product for you–even if you spent good money on it–it’s not doing you any good sitting on your shelf. If you haven’t used it in 3 months, chances are, you’re done with it. Let it go.
- Give your travel toiletries bag and purse(s) this same attention. Travel-sized samples go bad too, and tend to create Mary Poppins-style clutter in your carry-ons and purses. Spring cleaning your purse or travel bag will help you travel lighter in both your daily life and on trips.
- Check or change your shower filter or whole-house water filtration system. It’s a good time to make sure that minerals and metals in the water aren’t sabotaging your fresh spring skin. Change your filters (or purchase a new filtration system if you don’t have one already).
- Wash your pillow, slipcovers and pillowcases. This should be done at least once a week anyway, but now’s a great time to take advantage of the spring breezes and let them air dry.
What’s your favorite spring cleaning ritual for your skincare routine?
Please share in the comments below!