Give Your Dried-Up Mascara New Life With This Quick Fix

There's little worse than a dried-out tube of your favorite mascara — especially if it goes kaput long before its advertised expiration date. The lash makeup, in general, has a life span of about three months before it's supposed to be tossed (safety first, kids), but we've definitely encountered a tube here and there that went dry mere weeks after opening it. Not cool, mascara makers. Not cool.

But, before you shed any tears over your dearly departed mascara, head over to The Beauty Department. The site offers a genius trick to revive your bone-dry lash enhancer in a snap. The secret? Eye re-wetting drops. Now, keep in mind that you can't use just any ol' Visine drops you've got lying around. The key is to re-moisturize, so you don't want anything formulated to reduce redness.

We're all for breathing new life into past-their-prime cosmetics, but the main question we have here is about safety. Usually, mascaras will dry up because they've hit their expiration date, but they'll sometimes lose their moisture because we left the cap off for too long. You've just got to be careful to note exactly why your mascara is dried out. Before trying to revive it, we suggest patch-testing your clumpy mascara on your hand to see if your skin becomes irritated. If you're in the clear, go on and get some more life out of that tube. We all need a little tune-up sometimes. (The Beauty Department)