Spring Clean Your Beauty Routine: A Makeup Artist's Guide to Starting Fresh

As a makeup artist who regularly gives makeup lessons, I know that there is a particular kind of chaos that lives in the average makeup bag. A dried-out mascara whose purchase date has been lost to history. A lipstick in a vibrant shade bought impulsively and worn exactly once. A concealer in a shade that was never really quite right. You name it, I've seen it!

Spring is the perfect time to address all of it, not because your bathroom drawer is judging you, but because a seasonal reset genuinely makes your beauty routine work better and your heart feel just a little lighter. Fresh products, clean tools, and a slightly lighter touch are exactly what your skin is asking for as the weather shifts.

Step One: The Purge

Before you clean a single brush or buy a single new thing, take everything out and look at it honestly. And I mean everything: the whole drawer, the travel bag, that little pouch in your purse you haven't fully investigated since fall. The makeup you bought for your wedding 20 years ago (YES, I HAVE SEEN THIS).

Purging expired makeup is a sad yet extremely necessary part of being a makeup artist. Keeping products beyond their PAO date is downright reckless for a professional

First, the rule that matters most: every cosmetic product has a PAO symbol — a small open jar icon with a number inside, like 6M or 12M. That stands for Period After Opening, and it tells you how many months the product is guaranteed by the manufacturer for the preservative to still work after you first open it. You'll find this symbol on the product itself or on the box packing. Take note, or even better, take actual notes and use a permanent marker to write the date you opened it somewhere on the product. If you can't remember when you purchased something, it's probably been overstaying its welcome and it's time to give it the boot.

General guidelines to keep in mind:

1. Mascara and liquid eyeliner: 3 months, no exceptions. These products live near your eyes and are a fast track to potential infection when old.

2. Liquid and cream foundations: 6-12 months depending on formula and packaging. Pump bottles stay fresher longer than open pots.

3. Lipstick and lip gloss: 12-24 months. If it smells waxy or off, trust your nose.

4. Powder products (blush, eyeshadow, bronzer): 2 years. These have the longest shelf life but still need regular sanitizing.

5. Skincare: check the PAO, but also use your senses. If it smells different than it did when you opened it, something has changed.

Remember: when in doubt, throw it out. I know it hurts. It pains me deeply because I have to do this every single year in order to ensure that the products I stock in my professional kit are up to snuff. Do it anyway! If the idea of putting these items in a landfill is as troubling to you as it is to me, make sure to take the empties to your nearest Detox Market or Credo Beauty for recycling. This is also an opportunity to become radically discerning about what new things you bring in.

Step Two: Sanitize What Stays

Once you've edited down to the keepers, it's time to sanitize. Sanitizing reduces bacteria on products and tools that are staying in your rotation. It is not a substitute for discarding genuinely expired products.

For powder products, spray the surface lightly with 70% isopropyl alcohol and let dry completely before use. This is standard practice in professional makeup artistry and works beautifully for personal use too. I keep a small spray bottle on my vanity so I can spritz my powder palettes often.

For lipsticks, you can wipe the surface with a tissue and then spray lightly with alcohol, or slice off the very top layer with a clean tool. For pencils, sharpen them and then give them a light spray of alcohol. Let dry before replacing the cap.

For makeup brushes, a thorough wash is essential. Dirty brushes can harbor bacteria, apply product unevenly, and genuinely compromise your results especially if you're using different colors and not cleaning in between. I use a gentle brush cleanser or baby shampoo (some folks even use Dawn), wash each brush individually under lukewarm water (never hot), reshape the bristles, and lay flat to dry. Do this for everything: foundation brushes, powder brushes, blush, eyeshadow, the works. If you've been skipping this step, the results will seriously surprise and delight you.

Step Three: Give Your Scalp Some Attention

Your scalp is skin, and it deserves a spring reset too. Months of dry shampoo, heavy conditioners, and winter product buildup can leave it congested and unhappy which affects not just scalp health but hair growth and texture too.

Enter the detox shampoo. A clarifying or detox shampoo used once a week for a few weeks in spring can remove buildup and reset your scalp beautifully. I like to follow it with a nourishing leave-in hair serum focused on the lengths and ends to keep hair happy.

Step Four: Rethink Your Facial Cleansing Routine

If you're not double cleansing, spring is a great time to start. The method is simple: first cleanse with an oil-based balm to dissolve makeup, SPF, and the day's grime, then follow with your regular water-based cleanser to clean the skin itself. It sounds like more steps but it is genuinely one of the most effective things you can do for your skin, and once you start you won't go back.

My current first-cleanse obsession is this cleansing balm which melts into an oil on contact and rinses clean without stripping. It removes everything, leaves no residue, and somehow makes the whole process feel luxurious rather than like a chore.

And while we're talking about cleansing: please retire the regular washcloth situation. Standard washcloths harbor bacteria between washes and can be surprisingly rough on skin you've just carefully cleansed. I've switched to these cleaning cloths that are sensitive skin-safe, incredibly soft, and genuinely better for your skin barrier. It's been a small change with a noticeable difference.

Step Five: Transition Your Skincare for the Season

Winter skin and spring skin have different needs, and your routine should reflect that. As temperatures rise and humidity increases, a few adjustments go a long way:

1. Lighten your moisturizer. The rich, occlusive cream that saved your skin barrier in February may feel heavy and pore-clogging by April. Consider swapping to a lighter gel-cream or lotion formula for daytime, keeping the richer version for nights or as-needed.

2. Reintroduce actives gradually if you've scaled back. If you backed off on retinol, AHAs, or vitamin C during winter to protect a compromised barrier, spring is the right time to bring them back slowly.

3. Don't abandon your barrier support entirely. Even in spring, ceramides and gentle humectants remain your friends, you're just using them more lightly.

4. Keep wearing SPF because you didn't stop wearing it even in the winter, right? I will never stop saying this.

   
   

Step Six: Book a Facial

After a long winter, professional treatment is genuinely worthwhile. A good facial in spring addresses any lingering dryness, congestion, or dullness that your at-home routine can't fully reach. Think of it as a professional reset button before the warmer months ahead. Your skin has been through a lot, and it deserves to be worked on by someone who really knows what they're doing. (As a licensed esthetician, I may be slightly biased. But I'm also right.)

The Less Is More Reminder

My favorite part of spring is that it is also an invitation to simplify. Fewer products, used consistently, will almost always outperform a complicated rotation of things you're only half-committed to. A clean, well-edited routine consisting of good cleanser, targeted treatment, moisturizer, SPF, is genuinely enough for most people most of the time.

You don't need to replace everything you just discarded. Try living without it first before finding the right replacement and you might be surprised to discover that less is truly more.

All of my current product recommendations, including everything mentioned here, are on my product board. These are the things I actually use and actually trust, as both a beauty professional and someone who takes her own advice.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using my links. All opinions and recommendations are honestly my own, and I earned them by personally testing these products. My skin type is Fitzpatrick II, mature, on the oily side, and sometimes dehydrated.