Savvy Tips: Get the Most Out of Your Skincare Tubes

 

In the big green beauty wave, using every gram and drop of skincare is an absolute must. If you look closely, it isn’t only about maximising your beauty routine with the correct steps and layering. What I’m going to show you is incredibly easy, a priceless savvy tip…

 

You can save money on new products with nothing but a pair of scissors. Learn how you can get the most, really the most, out of your skincare packaging.

For this broke girl (me), squeezing the very last blop of toothpaste wasn’t enough… It was by pure chance that I found out how much product I’ve been wasting every day without even knowing it! Arm yourself with a pair of scissors to be surprised, because you won’t believe what you’ll find in your ’empties’.

 

What You’ll Need to Save Your Skincare:

• empty or recycled cosmetic jar containers (clean and dry)
• a pair of scissors
• a spatula or a knife
• plenty of paper towels
• gloves (if possible)
• antibac wipes.

The key concept behind this green beauty ‘savvy tip’ is: getting everything, or as much as possible, from your empty tubes and packaging. When you squeeze a tube, you may think you did a great job and got everything you could get from it. Nope!

You may squeeze and wring it to the impossible, but there’s still some precious product inside. At the very top of the package (the flattened and sealed edge), its sides and inside the nozzle. This is particularly true for those products with unusual packaging and design, such as pump dispensers and roller balls for cooling eye treatments.

 

I picked two tubes of skincare treatments – a face cream and an eye cream – and I destroyed them to show you the potential waste in these hygienic packaging.

 

How to Get the Most of Cosmetic Tubes

Before getting started, be sure your worktop is clean, and you have enough space because this tutorial is going to be messy. Make sure your scissors and spatula (or knife) are squeaky clean too. Your jars should be empty and clean. Sterilise them in a pot with boiling water. Pick them up with the help of a kitchen tongue; let them dry and cool down on some kitchen towel.

Note: Perspex containers can stay longer in boiling water, but plastic jars can only stay a couple of seconds in contact with piping hot water. Which means: pick them up before they melt.

1. Cut the tube at the top edge.
2. Scrape away and take the product from the inside with your spatula or knife.
3. Collect the product in your clean jar.
4. Cut the next portion away to reach the bottom of the tube (where the opening is).
5. Reach the trickiest areas with your spatula and take all the leftovers.
6. Collect everything inside your pot.
7. Store your precious cosmetics in a cool place or your fridge.

Note: while you proceed, keep your tools and your hands clean to avoid any contamination, and use gloves if possible. 

 

 

The amount of product you’ll find depends on its texture and the original packaging. You can’t really guess until you cut the package open! For example, I was sure I ran out of my snail serum face cream; I earned an impressive 13 grams of product.

If this tip won’t drastically change your life; it will save you some money, at least. Just consider that this snail face cream was £17.90!

 

What to Do Next: How Long Can I Use My Rescued Products?

Use your products, of course! You may have days of applications ahead but the best practice, in my opinion, is to store your jars in the fridge and use your treatments as soon as possible. Be sure to have clean hands and fingers every time you take the product you need.

 

Savvy Tips #2: Which Cosmetic Products Can You Save from a Half-Empty Tube?

Not all skincare and body care formulas are suitable for this rescue tip. Some can’t last longer, keep the same texture or efficiency once you extract them from their original package.

I recommend saving creamy, fluid and semi-fluid products. Avoid storing gels (such as face cleansers, gel eye treatments, and jelly primer), which tend to become patchy before drying up. Also avoid thicker creams and masks (particularly clay masks), which will dry pretty fast. Of course, you may cut a tube of face mask and use it all in one go. Unfortunately, whatever is left is doomed to be binned.

 

Savvy Tips #3: When to Throw Away Your Cosmetics?

Once you open the tube, your cosmetics come in contact with air and more easily with some contaminants like germs.

Time to play savvy, smart and safe: remember the Colour-Consistency-Odour rule. If your products have changed in colour or texture in the meantime, condensation has developed inside the new container or you can detect an unusual smell, it’s time to say farewell and bin what’s left.

 

How much can you save with this tip? I know you’re dying to know so go and grab your scissors!

Valentina Chirico aka Valens