Stay safe and keep your make-up on

Make-up professional Rebecca Rajpal, based in Calcutta and London, on safety practices when meeting a client:

Dos

• Use disposable masks, gowns and gloves when doing a client’s make-up.
• Use disposable lip and eye wands, sponges and powder puffs to eliminate chance of contamination and reinfection.
• Scrape products on to a steel palette with the help of a spatula and then apply it on a client instead of directly from the product container.
• Use ziplocks instead of pouches for storage of make-up brushes and equipment.
• Use a hard suitcase or plastic container instead of porous and soft ones for carrying the make-up. It reduces chances of contamination.
• Disinfect hair tools and surfaces with 70% concentrated alcohol.

Dont’s

• Don’t blow on brushes.
• Don’t try to disinfect make-up by spraying isopropyl alcohol, as the product may spoil. Try to keep make-up safe in the first place.
• Don’t leave everything to last minute. Plan ahead.
• Don’t keep touching and placing products on your workstation while doing the make-up. Put down everything at once, sanitise your hands and then start the make-up.
• Don’t have long nails and wear metal jewellery as they can trap germs, risking infection.
• Don’t use 99% concentrated isopropyl alcohol as it evaporates too quickly.
• Don’t use a felt tip liner, eye and eyebrow pencils. Instead invest in gel pot liners and brow pomade.
• Don’t reuse the same brushes before proper sanitisation.

Contact @rebeccapolizzimakeupandhair