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MUA Hygiene Horror Stories
Relaxing Minds- MUA Taj wrote: Zomg, when I was a kid I wouldn't even get my face painted--I knew it was gross way back then!!! I think I've only ever had it done once in my life, lol! Jan 03 10 05:16 am Link Ok so just starting out, and totally unaware....What are the right procedures to use so that I can make sure that my MUA is clean???? Jan 08 10 11:43 pm Link Cassie MUA wrote: Dito !!! Jan 09 10 01:14 pm Link J C Makeup wrote: Ive seen that happen at my store, Customers will have me run and snatch lipstick out there hand so fast like a mad woman! lol Jun 22 10 09:56 pm Link Ashley C MUA wrote: Ive also seen a lady let her little children just try on makeup without sanitizing first. Jun 22 10 09:57 pm Link NSwift Makeup wrote: I buy disposables also but I always wonder how to cut the wand off the mascara. Do you use a set of pliers or something. I just keep the wand on and use my disposable wands. Same thing for my glosses! Jun 22 10 10:01 pm Link Manda Marie88 wrote: Why blow on brushes?lol Jun 22 10 10:05 pm Link TREVER JAMES MCWILSON wrote: There is an artist that uses a pill box but used a wand to dip, used a painters small canvas to put the product! Is that ok? Jun 22 10 10:07 pm Link Ashley C MUA wrote: I have my lipsticks de-potted into palettes or little containers. I sanitize my stainless steel spatula, scrape out what is needed, put it on my stainless steel palette and work from there. Nothing that touches the palette or my brushes touches the product. The spatula is the only thing that touches the product (sanitized before each time I need to touch the product if I haven't taken enough out on the first go). If I can't use my stainless steel spatula, I have a wealth of little disposable spatulas to take the product out of the container with. Jun 22 10 10:17 pm Link J C Makeup wrote: Those people happen at every counter. I can't believe people don't think of the nastiness on those testers. That's why Mac cuts off their tester wands. When I worked at MAC, we had a woman that would come in and ask to try on a lipstick, then when you weren't looking, she'd bite it off and leave taking her new shade of stollen germafied lipstick with her!!! Nasty!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jun 22 10 10:52 pm Link J C Makeup wrote:
Jun 23 10 06:47 am Link Christin C wrote: I had to read this twice.... YUCK YUCK YUCK !!!! Jun 23 10 08:15 am Link Christin C wrote: WTF!!!!! That's just taking it to a whole other extreme! Maybe she was just a thief and didn't want to take the whole tube so she'd chomp of a section, walk out the store, spit it into a container and just use that. Jun 23 10 08:18 am Link When I worked retail, I had everything from ladies/kids/clients trying on products straight from the source (lipsticks, mascara, lip gloss, eye liners, etc.), so much so I would interrupt their "play" by going, "Oh, hi there! Just to let you know we have our brushes and disposable applicators if you wanted to try on some product." I had one lady then tell me, "Oh...no....that's okay!"  Shocked, I responded with, "Well, I was just offering, I'm not saying you're not unclean or unsanitary, but you just don't know if someone's come in before you and did the same thing you are with that product and they might have something, you know, I'm just making sure you're watching out for you." She paused...her face turned sour and she goes, "Yeah, you're right, I didn't think about it like that." Didn't THINK about it is more like it! I've also worked with models on sets where when I pull out my disposables they let you a sigh of relief and tell me I'm the first MUA they've worked with who have those and that normally the other MUAs use products straight from the source (yes, mascaras included, I was horrified to hear that) and sometimes the model had to bring their own disposables JUST in case! Jun 23 10 08:24 am Link I was getting my make-up done backstage before a swimsuit show, and was watching another model get made up. The MUA licked her pointer finger, then deposited some spit onto it, she then started dipping her angle brush into it to get the brush wet, put it directly onto the product to pick up some eye shadow, then straight onto the models eye... over and over again for both eyes.... Today, I work as a MUA as well as a model.... and thinking back on that... I could drop dead XP Ive also seen a MUA put some brushes under her arm pit to be held, bristles right under her pitt!! Then pulled them out and put them straight onto a models eyes...poor girl knew it was happening too and looked like she wanted to cry...  Jun 23 10 05:00 pm Link Brooklyn M wrote: O M G Jun 23 10 05:15 pm Link Ashley Gravelle wrote: Holy shit. I think I just threw up in my mouth. Jul 13 10 03:04 pm Link Other than the horrific stories I've read on here, I might add that back when I was in school, there was one particular girl who happened to be a smoker that would never wash her hands after smoking. Go figure she was my partner one day and every time she went to apply something to my face, I would smell her cancer sticks all over her hands. I nearly gagged every time she got close. It's one thing for someone to choose to smoke - I don't really care - just don't shove it in someone else's face  Sep 28 10 02:49 pm Link One time I was asked to help do makeup for a haunted lagoon type thing for Halloween. when i got there i mixed my makeup & used a new disposable sponge on each face. I turn around too look what the other "MUA" were doing and they had made an assembly line for face, lips, eyes etc. & the kept using the same sponges, brushes & it was so GROSS! I didn't go back after that! Sep 29 10 12:54 am Link Glamourpuss Make-UpHair wrote: LMAO!!! I get ALL the time too! Even cradle cap and scalp warts, BARFFFF!!! Sep 30 10 05:10 pm Link Kevin-James Bennett wrote: lol...i actually saw a makeup artist do that very recently before she put the brush on the model's eye. It took every ounce of self control not to scream @ her. I am also OCD about hygiene when it comes to my equipment that I can never understand how some muas can come on a shoot w/ dirty equipment eg. air brush bottles looking like they have seen better days, pigment mess inside and all over makeup case, double dipping from foundation palette...etc Oct 12 10 05:27 pm Link Leza1121 wrote: OMG Nov 04 10 11:15 pm Link E E S wrote: Herpes of the eye. Too disgusting. Nov 04 10 11:17 pm Link Wow, I'm clearly not nearly as concerned about hygiene as I should be. -cough- I'll have to keep a closer eye on it. I've never been upset when I share eyeliner/mascara with someone and I did have friends who would freak about it -- I never really got why even though I respected their opinions. I mean, I know I don't have a freaky eye disease and I'm fairly sure THEY know it, it's not like we're strangers... I would probably be less okay with sharing with seventeen other models, glad my MUAs so far have been organized and hygenic. That said -- the fact that there are little eyelash mites on my face has made me whimper a few times. And the story about the MUA who put EYELASH GLUE in the model's eyes and only one could be saved made me literally drop my jaw. I am never letting an MUA put anything in my eyes without triple-checking to be sure of what it is and even then it's a gamble. AAAAHHHH. Nov 05 10 12:40 am Link I'm so glad i was trained the right way from my school, i'm even alergic to hand sanitizer yet i still use it even thought it burns the crap outta my hands. I was trained to never double dip and use disposables. i use spatulas & palettes i dont re-use cheap eyelashes but i do clean & re-use them while i was in school but never for shoots. Nov 05 10 01:09 am Link Not the smartest idea reading this thread before bed. Some of this is just plain common sense... it's baffling what some MUA's don't stop to think about. Nov 05 10 10:57 pm Link Wow, that was a long thread to read! I'm going to put my 2 cents in on a couple points and add some others: As to the disposable mascara wand discussion: I generally DO use and carry disposable mascara wands. I NEVER double dip. HOWEVER, I do have several mascaras that have stiff hard plastic type comb/stick applicators (Rimmel, Boujois, Clinique, Napoleon Perdis, Shiseido Majorca Majorca range, etc) and I DO use that wand from the tube because I like the functionality of the wand. The CAVEAT to this is that I ALWAYS alcohol it before and after EVERY time I put it back into the tube and I always make it a point to tell the model "I'm going to use this wand straight from the tube, I have sanitized it with alcohol before and after every use, are you ok with this?" and I alcohol it off and wipe it down with a baby wipe in front of the client or model so they see me do it (even though I really don't have to because its been IPA treated before I put it away the previous time). They are hard plastic wands, not like typical nylon bristle mascara brushes. In my opinion, these types of wands are just as easy to keep clean and sanitized as any stainless spatula as the hard plastic is not porous. Someone might say even doing this is unsanitary but I honestly don't see what the panic is about with those types of mascara wands as long as they are being sanitized before and after properly. To the point about needless waste: I do agree with this sentiment. There is far too much unneccesary waste that occurs. Some of it is a necessity, such as disposable mascara wands. But I'm with KJ on this, I find disposable lip wands to be a complete waste of time and that goes for disposable doe foot applicators too. The doe foot applicators NEVER seem to want to get product on them when you put them into the tube and you just get product on the stick part of it and the disposable lip brushes are always shite. I always carry around at least 4 different lip brushes and I buy them cheap from ELF or Crown. If I alcohol them down I don't see the big deal. I agree with the thoughts on the sponges. You shouldn't use the same sponge on different models. I do buy nicer "egg" sponges that I can wash thoroughly and reuse but I do keep the cheapy wedges along too. I've also been making it a point to carry along a wipe off towel, which is cut up black teeshirt (I prefer the poly/cotton blend ones), with a hole cut in the center and clipped with one of those carabiner clasps hooked to my belt (I also clip a plastic bag to it for trash). When I'm using my quick change brush spray in between people, I spray the brush, and wipe it on my towel to clean off my eyeshadow brushes. I have a much better time with doing that than needless extra waste with Kleenexes or wipes. I'm sure some on here might think that's "ew" because I use the same towel to clean my brushes off during a job but my towel is typically very large (so I pretty much never hit the same area on it twice) and I have a TON of these so I wash them after every day and use a fresh clean one. And I'm really only doing this with brushes that were used in powder products. My brushes used with liquids or creams products, I wipe with either my Body Shop Tea Tree Oil wipes or baby wipes. And the majority of my brushes are all Taklon (I hardly carry any animal hair ones) so I'm eliminating the potential for bacteria cross contamination pretty well I think. As for metal palettes, I generally work right off of my metal spatula, but for cream foundations (I use Becca's alot. I have all the shades chunked off into a Japonesque palette), I take some out of the palette and work off my sanitized hand. I just have not been successful working with cream foundations off a metal palette. I feel like I need to work off the back of my hand to get that stiffer consistancy cream warmed up and softened first. As for lips, I make my own very nice and professional looking lip palettes. And no not with those fucking pill boxes either. I melt lipsticks into metal pans and put them into magnetic palettes (I have several large MUFE ones that I made--extremely time consuming though!) I always take product out with my spatula and work off from that. Ok, whew. I worked for Sephora for nearly 5 years so I assure you, I have more than my share of ew stories. But one that comes to mind is I don't know how many times I have personally seen customers take a BRAND NEW lipgloss or mascara right out of a box, use it, put it back in the box and BACK on the shelf. Even though there was a TESTER right in front of them to use! When I caught one lady and confronted her about it, she outrightly told me that she heard that the testers at "places like ours" were all filthy and didn't want to use the tester because of that. BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT I guess using a brand new product right from the tube and then putting it back into the box so that someone ELSE can buy the product YOU just tainted and used on yourself is perfectly acceptable? I mean really, I am shocked by the completely LACK of elementary reasoning skills of many people. My final 2 cents about the "filthy tester" thing and that story (Dr. Oz did a whole segment about it) is that A) in the study, they also did not test LIVE BNIB/sealed product also for microorganisms and bacteria and therefore there was no CONTROL group to compare against. And by extension B) There is nothing to say that the same types of bacteria wouldn't also be found on BNIB products as most products are 1. handled by people in factories, 2. assembled by machines that may or may not have been sanitized. Unless a product is completely assembled in a 100% clean space environment (Boscia and Fancl do this) there are NO guarantees your BNIB product will be void of the same things a used one would. I'm not saying to throw caution to the wind, I'm just saying that there are many many stages of manufacturing that a product goes through before it hits the stores shelves: from the raw materials that went into it, the people who've handled the packaging or product components, the machines that do the assembly to the transport of the product to their final destination. Do germys exist on testers? Yes, yes they do. Do they most likely also exist on BNIB products? Yup, I would almost bet my house on it (and the microbiologist who commented earlier, feel free to chime in). I worked for Sephora for nearly 5 years and used PLENTY of eyeshadows, lipsticks, eyeliners, lipgloss testers which have all had histories of questionable use (always doing at least my own part to use them in a sanitary way) and I have not once EVER gotten a cold sore, infection, pink eye or any other unfortunate malady. I could just be lucky, but I would say if anyone would catch anything, it would be someone using various testers on themselves 5 days a week, for nearly 5 years. In the end, I am way more worried about fecal spores on our common paper money that I was handling on a regular basis than what might have been crawling on the eyeshadow tester pan. And I totally agree what others have said about only being able to do so much about sanitation at counters or stores. Most if the unsanitary practices are caused by customers and unruly unsupervised children than sales associates. When a store has thousands of people coming in and out of it daily, there is absolutely no way you can police every single person. And even if you do see someone doing something unsanitary, its frowned upon to say anything to the customer for fear that the customer will be embarrassed or offended. Custys are so sensitive. LOL Nov 06 10 12:56 am Link Lilium Makeup Artistry wrote: ((gasp)) Nov 10 10 11:06 pm Link |
