I
t is up to the whole industry to make the necessary steps to change the way the industry conducts itself and we recognise this will take time, courage and patience, but meanwhile, here are the SBA's top tips to protect yourself when testing products instore and at the beauty counter.
Sanitize your hands before you touch the products with an antibacterial gel. Ensure the demo staff do the same. If they don't, ask them to, but ensure it's done infront of you before they start their treatment or demo on you. Afterall, you don't know what the last client might or might not have or if hands were washed after going to the bathroom!
Don’t test makeup straight from the container with your fingers – ask the sales assistant to decant products with a new and clean spatula to a mixing palette, jar, petri dish, tissue or to the back of a clean hand before applying with a disposable makeup applicator. Don't let them use the end of a makeup brush.
Cotton buds and disposables on the counter. Tissues, cotton buds and makes sponges are often the counter, but be careful if they are "hanging" around where customers can touch them and put them back - you'll be amazed at what we have seen! Trial makeup brushes should be taken from a sealed, clean container when you know there's no potential contamination.
What out for "double-dipping". This is a major issue of contamination in the makeup and beauty world and it means that a brush or applicator has been loaded with the product, applied to the customer (therefore the customer's germs are now on the product and brush), the same brush is reloaded with product (imagine a lip gloss or bacteria) and then applied again. Now the product and applicator are exposed to germs.
Ensure staff use disposable mascara wands and makeup applicators . Bacteria live in all our lashes and using mascara, whether on yourself or as a professional makeup artits, means it's very easy to contanimate the product and the user. The moment the mascara wand touches the lashes, bacteria is transferred. Bacteria thrive in dark warm environments and within six months a mascara tude will be overrun with bacteria. Now imagine the number of potential users of a demo wand? Would you share you toothbrush?
Don't allow brushes to be use on you that you cannot guarantee are 100% clean. We do not believe that with the number of customers a day through a beauty counter, the lovely brushes and applicators you see are cleaned to guarantee no germs. A quick spritz with a cleaner and a wipe on a tissue is not enough and we do not recommend you allow brushes that are not new or disposable to be used. It's otherwise a game of Russian roulette.
Watchout for the dirty brush belt. This is a breading ground for bacteria - like the dirty beauty counter, a dirty brush belt is a sure sign to avoid a trial.
Use your common sense. If something doesn't look, feel or smell right, don't touch it and that includes the sales staff and the beauty counter.
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