Bacteria live in all our lashes and using mascara, whether on yourself or as a professional makeup artist on clients, means that it’s very easy to contaminate not only your mascara tube, but your customer.
The moment the mascara wand touches the lashes, bacteria is transferred to either the product tube or directly to the other eye. Bacteria thrives in dark warm environments, and within six months a mascara tube will be overrun with bacteria.
“Double dipping” is a term that all professional makeup artists and beauty professionals should be aware of. It means reloading the same product by dipping the applicator into the container more than once. Think about a mascara wand when you have loaded it with product, applied it to the top lashes and then put it back into the tube of mascara and then apply mascara to your client’s bottom lashes or continue to build on the top lashes. The bacteria that live in all our lashes will have transferred from the first application of mascara into the tube and, of course, onto the mascara wand. The product in the tube is now contaminated and so is the applicator. So unless it is a new tube of mascara and you intend to give the product to that one client, your brush and mascara should not be used on another person.
Some makeup artists believe that by using a disposable mascara wand avoids the cross-contamination, but think about it, it’s the double dipping too. That’s why with mascara, liquid, liners, gloss and any products that have an applicator with the product, you must NOT use it on your client and must use a disposable or a brush that is only dipped once “mono dip” or “single use”. Put that brush aside safely if it is reusable and ensure it’s disinfected 100% before using on another client.
Double dipping applies to applies to all makeup and beauty products and procedures that use applicators and tools (think waxing – yuk), and results in cross-contamination of both products and customers.
The dangers of double dipping are real, should not be underestimated and can include any of the following health problems:
Conjunctivitis ('pink eye') - an inflammation of the conjunctiva causing redness, itchiness and watering.
Blepharitis - bacterial inflammation of the eyelid.
Corneal ulcers - affects vision and can cause blindness.
Herpes simplex – the highly contagious cold sore virus, easily transferred by contaminated lip brushes.
Ringworm – not a worm, but a fungal infection of the skin that can multiply rapidly in product such as blusher.
Impetigo – a highly infectious skin disease caused by staphylococcus bacteria, easily transferred through brushes and applicators
And many more through the transference of bacteria, viruses and fungal spores.
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