There's nothing that annoys me more than realizing my mascara is all used up and dried out when I'm quickly trying to run out the door in the morning. Considering I set three alarms and hit "snooze" on all of them, I don't have a whole lot of time to spare trying to reach the last bit of product in the tube. Plus, mascara can be really expensive, so I loathe buying new tubes [1].
Luckily, I've found a few simple hacks to get the rest of the product out of the tube. Whenever I seem to be out of mascara, I run to my kitchen and fill a mug with water. I throw it in the microwave for a minute, then place the mascara tube in the mug for a few minutes while I run to get dressed. When I return, the dried-up mascara has loosened and I have more product in the tube again.
If I'm so late that I don't have those few minutes to spare, I sprint to my bathroom and grab my saline solution for my contact lenses. I place a few drops in the tube of mascara, which usually provides enough moisture to be able to get a good amount of mascara on my lashes with a few passes of the wand.
If you still can't get out the last drop of mascara, there's one more solution, but it takes a little bit more time. You can remove the stopper from the tube [2] with pliers or tweezers (be careful!). Even though these tips will help extend your mascara's life, if your tube is more than three months old, it's time to replace it [3] for the sake of your eye health.
