Beauty Gizmos That Really Work

Lip Gloss with an Expiration Date?

If you're the kind of woman whose purses (and desk and bathroom) are littered with lip glosses, you probably don't remember how long they've been around—and you might want to. Every time you let air into a lip gloss tube and double-dip the wand (contaminating the formula with saliva), you create an environment in which bacteria can thrive; toxicologist Joe DiNardo suggests tossing gloss after six months (when preservatives have likely degraded). You could date every tube with a Sharpie, or consider Cargo's new glosses: Before using one for the first time, you push a plastic strip into the cap. At nine months, the strip will have turned completely red, indicating that you should chuck it. (Cargo found that its preservatives remain stable for nine months.) It's an easy way to know when your gloss could be giving you more than a dose of shine.

— Kate Sandoval