Beauty Sins Confession: I Don't Throw Away My Mascara When it Expires!

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If there's one product that I can't stop buying, it's mascara.  God help me, there's nothing better than taking your lashes from womp womp to WAM BAM!   I love trying different ones all the time and currently have well over a dozen different mascaras in my collection at this very moment and I'm in lash heavean.  Only buzzkill here is that apparently mascara has an expiration data.  I say "apparently" because I willingly choose to disregard this fact for myself, lest I end up wasting a good chunk of change throwing away product every month.



Glancing around the internet I've found the expiration time for mascaras to be anywhere between 1 month to 4 months.  Yea....not for me.  I just threw out a mascara that I've had since I was in college (hint:  I graduated going on 2 years ago) a couple months back.  It was working fine and I couldn't bring myself to throw it out until the brand decided to have a nice sale and I picked a new one up.  Mind you, like I said, I'm constantly trying out new mascaras and I don't wear makeup everyday, so the individual tubes don't get used up very quickly at all.  Drugstore mascara usually costs you around $8 a pop, if you're lucky, and higher ended tubes can reach far past $20, it feels like throwing out currency.  


I'm well aware of the unhygienic consequences here.  And being a germaphobe in nearly all other places in my life this whole mascara ordeal puzzles even me.  But I guess since I see it as my own germs it doesn't disturb me as much?  If I was someone who did other people's makeup I wouldn't hesitate to throw out mascara on time, but I'm not so I don't.  


I did find someone online who suggested throwing mascara out once the "popping" sound stops that occurs when you pull the wand out of the tube, and I think I'm much more comfortable with that rule.  Maybe I'll start doing that, as it seems like a less wasteful option....(probs not though).  


Are you strict about expiration dates when it comes to mascara?  Or do you let your "waste not, want not" side dictate when you throw the tube away?