---
title: "Does Mascara and eye makeup expire? Unsafe or ineffective afte"
description: "Three months after opening, and this is one of the cosmetic rules worth taking seriously. What actually changes over time, whether it matters, and how to store it."
url: https://atoneplace.net/does-it-expire/mascara/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Does Mascara and eye makeup expire?

**Does Mascara and eye makeup expire?: Three months after opening, and this is one of the cosmetic rules worth taking seriously.**

Mascara: 3 months from opening. Liquid eyeliner: 3-6 months. Powders: 2 years

Every application pumps air and bacteria from your lashes into a warm, moist tube, and the eye is a soft-tissue route into the body with no barrier worth the name. Eye infections traced to old mascara are common enough that ophthalmologists raise it routinely. Anhydrous products — powders, pencils that can be sharpened back to clean material — have no water for bacteria to grow in and last far longer. The little open-jar symbol on the packaging gives the period after opening in months, which is the number that matters rather than the manufacture date.

## How to store it

- Never add water or saline to dried-out mascara. That is how a contaminated tube becomes a badly contaminated one.
- Do not share eye products.

## How to tell it has gone

- Any change in smell, clumping, or drying out.
- Replace after any eye infection, without exception.

> "Use by" and "best before" are legally different. Use-by is a safety date and should be respected; best-before is about quality, and food is usually fine well past it. Where the two diverge matters, the page above says which applies.

## Common questions

### Does Mascara and eye makeup expire?

Three months after opening, and this is one of the cosmetic rules worth taking seriously.

### How long does Mascara and eye makeup last?

Mascara: 3 months from opening. Liquid eyeliner: 3-6 months. Powders: 2 years

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## Sources

- US Food and Drug Administration — FDA (https://www.fda.gov/) [Public domain (US Government)]