When was the last time you washed your makeup sponge?

Makeup sponges are the perfect environment for bacteria to grow. A published research study explains that their design allows bacteria to build up so much that it can risk your health!

Out of all the makeup sponges they tested, they found that 93% had some kind of organism, and 25% had faecal contamination – actual poo!

This is because people tend to keep their sponges in the bathroom, which then come into contact with poo particles from flushing the toilet travelling through the air.

Please don’t put that on your face!

After collecting 1000 used sponges, the results were disgusting. In terms of evidence of bacteria…

74% were worse than a toilet seat

27 were worse than a university toilet brush

And 82% failed the 3M hygiene limit – so gross!

A shocking number of the sponges we tested were as bad as the research study suggested – our tests really showed that if you don’t wash your makeup sponge properly, horrible organisms could grow in them.

So how can dirty sponges actually effect you?

Tested makeup sponges had an average of 1 million bacteria colonies on each sponge – that’s 1000 times higher than the EU safety limit for beauty cosmetics!

The types of bacteria found on makeup sponges can be really harmful. They can lead to acne, skin infections, viral illnesses, and even harmful immune system issues like sepsis.

The types of infections that you can get from these bacteria are also really hard to treat.

You really, really need to clean your makeup sponge.

Experts and brands recommend that you replace your sponge every 2 – 3 months. But over 300 million makeup sponges end up in a landfill each year because we keep throwing them away. If you lined that many sponges up, it would stretch from the North Pole all the way to South pole!

Most makeup sponges are NOT biodegradable, so when they’re thrown away, they sit in landfills and contribute to the damage of our environment.

If we can wash our makeup sponges and prolong the amount of time before we bin them, we’d all be taking the right steps towards environmental change.