The concern over COVID-19 continues to grow. Although many of the brick-and-mortar stores that initially shut their doors have reopened and vaccinations are under way, social distancing and mask-wearing looks like it will be our new normal for the foreseeable future.
There’s no denying that the thought of person-to-person contact can be a scary one right now. But as we sit in our homes, trying to balance work and grapple with reality, it’s important to maintain a certain degree of normalcy. My way of doing that is with makeup. Though no one really sees me day-to-day (save for a few of my coworkers on Zoom), I still feel the need to get somewhat done up during my work shift, because that’s just what I’m used to. But then, anxiety sets in, and I start thinking about all the germs and pathogens that could potentially be around me, which makes me wonder: Should we be sanitizing our beauty products now?
I always give my makeup a wipe down — maybe not as often as I should, but whenever I can remember. I’ll spray some rubbing alcohol on my palettes and compacts to clean them a bit. However, in the middle of a pandemic, should I be doing more? To ease my mind (and maybe yours) I reached out to experts to weigh in.
“I would ensure that if you are letting others borrow your makeup that you are wiping down the surfaces that they touch,” says Amesh A. Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Health Security. He also notes that you definitely should not be sharing your makeup with someone who is actively sick at this time. In agreement is Nada Elbuluk, a clinical assistant professor of dermatology at Keck Medicine of USC. Elbuluk does not recommend sharing any makeup, particularly during this time period. If the outside surface was touched by someone else then it is appropriate to disinfect the surface immediately after.
“The coronavirus can live on surfaces for various periods of time depending on the surface material. For this reason it would be beneficial to sanitize the outside surfaces of makeup containers.” Elbuluk adds.