The Best Ways to Test Makeup—Safely

Allure Daily Beauty Reporter

By Sarah Wexler,Allure magazine

When I was in junior high, you could find me and my friends cruising the mall makeup counters on most weekends. We'd swoop into department stores and jam our fingers into the cosmetic testers, hoping not to attract the attention of the saleswomen, who might pressure us to actually buy things, or, worse, inform us that teal eyeshadow might perhaps not be the most appropriate look for 13-year-olds. I cringe now thinking about the garish colors I wore, and also how I applied it-with my hands, straight from the grubby testers, without any regards to hygiene.

So, are those in-store testers just kind of icky or can they actually be dangerous? To find out, I asked Elizabeth Brooks, a professor of biological science who ran a Rowan University study on makeup tester germs. Turns out, the news is not good: "More than half of all testers were contaminated, and we found staph, strep, and E. coli bacteria from feces," she says. Not only is that disgusting, but it also means that by trying an eye shadow or lipstick, "you can contract pink eye, infections, or even viruses like herpes or hepatitis," Brooks says. (Herpes, people!) But since we know that no one wants to buy makeup without seeing how it'll look on, we found out how to do so safely:

Ask the salesperson to prep the tester. For lipstick, he or she should dip it in alcohol, then scrape off the top layer, and use a new, disposable applicator-not their finger-or a brush sprayed with alcohol. Since all of the contamination is on the surface layer, sharpening works for lip- or eyeliners. Powders can be just as germy as creams, so you can try bringing your own makeup alcohol wipes to clean them (we like Beauty So Clean Cosmetic Sanitizer Wipes), though Brooks says to make sure you wipe the entire surface of the tester, and that you still have the salesperson scrape it afterward.

Shop on weekdays. Brooks took samples on different days of the week, and Saturdays were the most contaminated days, presumably since there are more mall shoppers on weekends. The least-germy batches were Friday morning and Wednesday morning, since the nights before tend to be low-traffic.

Quit the pot. Don't try anything that comes in an open jar people dip a finger into, such as lotion, lip gloss, or loose eye shadow, because then the contamination isn't just on the top layer-it's throughout, so there's no way to clean it, says Brooks.

Get cheeky. It's fine to apply foundation, blush, or any other products to the back of your hand, cheek, or jawline, since "the worst thing you could catch is a zit," says Brooks. But unless you know you're getting a clean sample, avoid applying testers to your eyes or lips, which are direct entry points for germs and can lead to infections and viruses.

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Photo Credit: Condé Nast Digital Studio