Can Coronavirus Be Transmitted Through Makeup and Other Beauty Products?

The coronavirus pandemic has limited the things that people can access in order to avoid being exposed to COVID-19. Health experts discourage direct contact on items as it may be a vessel of the virus, and touching your eyes, nose, and mouth is prohibited.

This raised a lot of questions about whether it is still safe to use makeup since it is directly applied to the face. According to Dr. William Schaffner, the professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee, said that there is no need to worry about contracting the virus through makeup. If there is a risk at all, it is very low.

Can you still use makeup?

Dr. Schaffner stated that you can still use your own makeup, however, there are limits that need to be applied now. He said that lipstick, mascara, and powder should not be shared.

Beauty retailers around the world are now following the advice of medical professionals because in-store testers of products will no longer be available during the coronavirus pandemic, it is a step that retailers took to help stop the spread of the virus.

A Columbia University pediatrician and journalist, Dr. Alok Patel, talked about his patients, mostly teenagers, who asked him if they can still use their beauty products and if it is still safe to share it with their friends.

Dr. Patel said that people should think about how the coronavirus is transmitted. The virus can live on surfaces for days, it can survive in the air for at least three hours and it can be transmitted by touching your nose, eyes, and mouth.

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The risk factor with using beauty products is that people usually use their hands if they apply makeup or other beauty products, and it comes in contact with their eyes, nose, and mouth.

Dr. Patel added that it is best to wash your hands before you apply makeup products on your face, as it is one of the best practices for staying safe.

As for the plastic and the glass bottles holding foundation, powder, lipstick, and other cosmetic items, there was a study published in April 2020 in The New England Journal of Medicine.

It was reported that the virus can live on plastic surfaces for up to 72 hours. It is not necessary to regularly disinfect your products if you are the only one using it, as long as you are consistently washing your hands, according to Dr. Patel.

For those who have symptoms of coronavirus or have tested positive, then you should not be sharing makeup with anyone, but if you must, then the products must be disinfected. Health experts clarify that you do not need to throw away your beauty products if you get sick with the coronavirus, especially if you are the only one using them.

Dr. Schaffner said that over time, the virus will die and since you are the only one using it, you are not going to give the virus to someone else in that way.

Coronavirus update

As of May 25, the number of coronavirus patients worldwide reached 5,500,268, with 346,719 deaths and 2,302,027 recovered cases. The United States remains as the top country with the most coronavirus cases, with 1,686,436 infected people, 99,300 recorded deaths, and 451,702 recovered cases.