Makeup wakeup call

I have problems letting things go. I save everything because you just never know when you’ll need it again.

I’m nostalgic about everything from plane tickets to lip glosses. Lip gloss? Really? Well, yes. There’s that great Bobbi Brown one I picked up during a layover at Heathrow last year that is the perfect tint for my lips. The red lip colour I wore on New Year’s Eve that was kind of scary and yet very rock’n’roll. And who can forget that great baby pink MAC number I wore to a party where I met that cute guy. Yup, I have memories attached to just about everything and makeup is no exception.

But that’s no excuse for my makeup drawer. Okay, drawers, shelves and basically the entire bathroom. I can’t let go of products and I really must.

I need a product wakeup call as much as all of my beauty-product loving sisters out there. 

But now, instead of trying to remember when I last refreshed my lovely makeup drawer, Cargo has come out with a fascinating idea: Timestrip technology. It’s like those refrigerators that notify you when your milk has gone bad. It’s a fantastic reminder that hey, instead of shoving that product in a drawer for three years, maybe you should actually use it before it becomes bacteria laden. You wouldn’t use a toothbrush for years, why would you use old makeup?

Basically, the lip gloss comes with a little packet that looks like a battery. It comes with detailed instructions but it's really not hard. You insert the packet into the top of the lip gloss and that's it. By the next day  the little timestrip window will start turning red. Once the window has turned completely red, your 9 months with this lip gloss are up. So you better be done with it.

Right now the technology is only in select lip glosses but Cargo says that more products may have it in the future. 

This one is the blu_ray Lip Gloss in Laredo. It's $24 and available at Sephora.

I love Cargo products regardless, but this new technology adds a little entertainment to your makeup as you can watch it ticking away. 

–Kate Daley