When your face cream expires, don't throw it away - you can use it in other ways too

All the beauty and cosmetics products that we use typically have an expiration date that must be respected: from makeup to the creams and lotions we use in our beauty routine, there is a maximum number of months within which to use the products after opening them. In general, expiry periods are shorter for products (especially creams) for the eyes than for those we that we use for the rest of the body.

There are also products that should still be kept in the fridge or, at least, in dark and cool places, and if we don't do this we will notice that their content changes consistency or color: in these cases it is likely that they have expired  before the use-by date. In most cases, however, and unless they have come into contact with destructive bacteria, various types of creams and lotions are still usable well past their use-by dates, even if the active ingredients inside them will not be very effective. So instead of using them for skin care (as we may have done up to that point), we could use these expired products in many different ways.

Creativo

• Scrubs: A recently expired body cream can come in handy as a body scrub. Just mix it with a little sugar or salt, dry coffee grounds or even powdered lemon peel to get a delicately exfoliating product to use before taking a shower - rinsing it off immediately after massaging it on the body. If, on the other hand, it was a face or eye cream, you can mix it with a little sugar or oats to create a face scrub.
• To eliminate adhesive residue: a bit like using olive oil, when some adhesive remains on a jar from the labels and similar, you can use an old cream, that you do not trust to use on the body anymore, to remove any sticky residue.
• To secure plastic / rubber suction cups: if you have hooks or other objects that adhere to a surface thanks to plastic or rubber suction cups, and these are no longer gripping properly, you can try to cover the cup with a very thin fiilm of cream. In this way, they will adhere to the support surface again as if they were brand new.
• Leather and hide products: it is a bit risky to use creams and lotions for the body (or face) on leather or hide products - whether they be shoes or furniture. In fact, you need to make sure that they are free of alcohol and perfumes, and it is always better to try them first on a small piece of the surface to see if they may damage the item. If not, they will be able to nourish the leather and make it look more polished and beautiful. The only downside is that, compared to dedicated products for these materials, their effect is short-lived.
• There are also those who use old body creams for the treatment of wood. The creams are applied directly onto soft cloths that are then on the woood until it is completely absorbed. Also, in this case it is suggested to test the procedure first on an invisible portion of the wood's surface, so as to note what kind of result it produces.

Have you ever used an old body cream in any of these ways?