Dr Hilary's warning over grim side effect caused by out-of-date beauty products
For many people, their bathroom cupboard or cabinet will be a graveyard full of half-empty bottles of lotions and potions.
From moisturisers and toners to exfoliants, sun cream, and serums, we've all been guilty of trying something a few times and then leaving it at the back of the shelf to make way for a must-have new product.
But according to an expert, you need to pay much more attention to when you first bought those products - and be sure you're getting rid of them at the right time.
Dr Hilary Jones, adviser to the Hada Labo Tokyo Skin Care, explained to The Mirror exactly how long to keep your beauty products for and when it's time to pop them in the bin once and for all.
Skincare products have expiration dates (stock photo) (Getty Images)He said: "These products will have an expiration date. So what's important to realise is that they will go off and stop working if you keep them for too long after they've been open. "So look for a little open jar symbol with a number on the packaging. And that tells you how many months it can be used after you've opened it. That's a good indication of when you should stop using it.
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"So it's important that you don't keep it for years and years that you have a symbol and check to see if you need to buy some more." Do you have to be really strict about this?
According to the doctor, it's "probably ok" if it's just a few months out from the sell-by date, but he claims you wouldn't want to use it for more than a year afterward. And that's only if you've been storing it correctly, of course.
Be sure to look out for the use-by symbol on your products (stock photo) (Getty Images/iStockphoto)"If it's a few months and you've kept it in a cool environment it should be fine," he explains. The expert added that there are two things that can happen if you continue using a product after it's expired - and they're pretty grim.
The first is that the product will stop doing what it's meant to do. So for instance, an SPF will stop protecting you against the sun. And the second is that it will start to attract bacteria, which "will make it not just useless, but potentially harmful".
"It's a false economy to keep it for too long," Dr Hilary admits. A sign of it becoming contaminated with bacteria is that the product might have started to change colour.
But when it comes time for you to get rid of the old and bring in the new, Dr Hilary admits you don't have to spend a fortune on big-name products to see a difference in your skin. Instead, he claims it's a myth that you need expensive products, instead you just need to spend some time on your skincare routine.
He added: "If you spend a little bit of time getting used to a skincare routine you will see the results and you don't need to spend huge amounts on products. "Some of them are extremely good and affordable. And I'm not at all convinced that spending 10 times that on a little pot of something that's got a wonderfully fashionable brand name is all that worthwhile."
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