You know when you’re getting to the end of your mascara, and the wand looks all flaky and you feel like you aren’t getting any product out so you start aggressively pumping the wand in and out of the tube in the hope it will grasp any last remains of mascara? Stop. Doing. That.
It turns out that, instead of getting the last bits of your product, you could be drying out the mascara even more by pumping in air to the tube—something Alexis Androulakis, product development expert and one half of @thelipsticklesbians, said is going to “destroy your mascara”.
In a viral TikTok video, which has gained over 490,000 views and 36,000 likes since being shared on April 15, Androulakis explained why pumping the wand is “the number one mistake people make with mascara.”
Jay Yuno/Getty Images
By pumping the wand and adding air into the tube, you are speeding up the drying process and cutting down the amount of usable time you have left with the product, as well as potentially introducing bacteria to the tube (and your eyelashes).
She shared, “the air is going to destroy your mascara, you’ll be done with it three weeks sooner than you ever should have been.”
Androulakis went on to explain the proper way to get the most out of your mascara, explaining that “you actually just want to twist. You generally want to twist your tube and you want to let your applicator hit the wall.
“If it hits the wall, it can collect the bulk [of the product within the tube] that’s sitting on the side.”
@thelipsticklesbians This is the biggest mistake I’ve seen fellow beauty queens do with mascara! PSA: Pumping is a big no-no as it introduces air into the tube which will dry it out the bulk (aka what inside beauty industry folks who develop the product call the actual formula inside the tube) much faster. Mascara IS technically getting drier over time, but you want to hit that sweet spot over time through regular intended use, which is swirling the wand inside the applicator tube to gently to coat it with the bulk instead. Not pumping to load more bulk. Say no to the pump! Now you know! 💗 thelipsticklesbians beautytok mascara makeup
♬ original sound – The Lipstick Lesbians
What Do the Comments Say?
Viewers of the video who already know and love the hack were quick to share their own experiences, as one said, “I’ve known this for 15 years from a YouTube vid and every time someone pumps their mascara it drives me crazy.”
“When I worked at Sephora, I said this to clients all the time!! They’d complain that the mascara didn’t last long and was dry and I’d ask if they pumped it…95 percent of the time they did this.” Said a second.
Another added, “A girl in my class pumped her mascara and we all screamed in horror. She never did it again.”
Others, who weren’t aware they were ruining their products, said, “OMG, explains why my mascara dries up so fast.”
Another comment read, “I never thought of twisting! I’ll do that now; I always just scraped the extra on the edges,”
Perhaps controversially, one user shared: “I like to dry out mine a bit cause I hate when they’re like too wet haha gets messy on my eyes otherwise.”
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.