How to Sanitize Lipstick: Alcohol Method, After Illness and Testers

Why Sanitize Lipstick at All?

Lipstick touches your lips and the moist skin around your mouth, which carry bacteria from saliva, food and your hands. Most of the time this is harmless, because your own germs are already on your lips. Problems start when a lipstick is shared, used during illness or kept for too long.

• Sharing: passes bacteria and viruses, including the virus that causes cold sores.
• Illness: you can reintroduce germs to your own lips after a cold, flu or mouth infection.
• Store testers: used by many people and often poorly cleaned.
• Old products: oils can go rancid and the surface collects dust and debris.
• Dropped lipsticks: floors and bags add dirt and microbes.

The good news is that traditional bullet lipstick is mostly wax and oil with little water, which makes it a less friendly place for bacteria to grow than water-based products such as liquid lipsticks or glosses. That is why a bullet can be cleaned reasonably well, while wand products are harder to rescue.

Why 70% Isopropyl Alcohol Works Best

Isopropyl alcohol is the standard choice for sanitising lipstick and other makeup. The concentration matters more than most people realise.

How to Sanitize Lipstick With Isopropyl Alcohol

This method takes a few minutes and works for bullet lipsticks, lip crayons and many lip balms in sticks.

1. Wash your hands

   Start with clean hands so you do not add new germs.

2. Remove the top layer

   Wipe the tip with a clean tissue, or shave off a thin slice with a clean knife or spatula if it has been shared.

3. Dip or spray

   Dip the bullet into a small glass of 70% isopropyl alcohol for about 30 seconds, or spray it thoroughly with a fine mist.

4. Clean the tube and cap

   Wipe the inside of the cap and the tube with an alcohol-soaked cotton pad or alcohol wipe.

5. Air dry

   Leave the lipstick uncapped on a clean tissue for several minutes until the alcohol has fully evaporated.

6. Wipe any tools

   Clean lip brushes with soap and water, then mist with alcohol and let them dry.

7. Cap and store

   Replace the lid and store the lipstick somewhere cool and dry.

Sanitizing Lipstick After a Cold, Flu or Cold Sore

What to do after illness depends on what you had and how much you care about the product.

Cold sores need special care. The virus that causes them spreads through direct contact and shared items that touch the lips. Stop using lipstick and lip balm on a cold sore, never share lip products while you have one, and replace any lipstick you used during the outbreak. A cleaned lipstick used on your own healed lips is lower risk, but many people prefer a fresh start.

How to Try Lipstick Testers Safely

Store testers are handled and applied by many people, sometimes directly to their lips. Even if staff sanitise them, the next person may use them before the alcohol has worked.

• Never apply a tester directly to your lips.
• Ask staff to sanitise the tester with alcohol and slice off the top layer.
• Swatch on your fingertip or the inside of your wrist to judge colour.
• Use a fresh disposable lip applicator for each shade if you want to see it on your lips.
• Throw away the applicator after one use and never double-dip.
• Avoid testers that look damaged, smudged or visibly dirty.

Disposable applicators are inexpensive and also useful at home when you share lipstick with friends or a partner. Each person takes colour with their own applicator, so no one touches the bullet with their lips.

Can You Sanitize Liquid Lipstick and Lip Gloss?

Liquid lipsticks and glosses are harder to clean than bullets. The wand touches your lips and goes back into the tube, carrying germs into the product itself.

• You can wipe the wand and the neck of the tube with alcohol.
• You cannot sanitise the product inside the tube without ruining it.
• Water-based formulas can support microbial growth once contaminated.
• After illness, sharing or a cold sore, replace liquid lipsticks and glosses.
• For everyday hygiene, avoid sharing wand products at all.

Tools are easier. Our guide on how to sanitize makeup tools covers brushes, sponges and applicators in more detail.

Sanitizing Lip Liners, Balms and Lip Brushes

Other lip products need slightly different care, because their shape and packaging change what can be cleaned.

• Lip liner pencils: sharpen to remove the used surface, then mist the tip and the sharpener blades with 70% alcohol.
• Stick lip balms: treat them like lipstick, wiping the top and giving the surface a quick alcohol mist.
• Balms in pots: scoop the product out with a clean spatula rather than your finger, and replace the pot after illness.
• Lip brushes: wash with gentle soap and warm water, rinse well, mist with alcohol and dry flat.
• Retractable lip brushes: clean the bristles the same way and wipe the cap before closing.

Pots and squeeze tubes are the hardest to keep clean because fingers and lips touch the product directly. If you are prone to cold sores, a stick or tube balm used only by you is a more hygienic choice than a shared pot.

When to Throw Away Lipstick

Sanitising cannot rescue a lipstick that has gone bad. Lipstick does not last forever, and old products can irritate the lips.

• It smells sour, waxy or like old cooking oil.
• The texture has turned grainy, sticky, crumbly or beaded with moisture.
• You see spots, fuzz or discolouration that could be mould.
• The colour applies differently or looks patchy.
• It was used during a cold sore or mouth infection.
• It is well past its period-after-opening symbol, often 12 to 24 months for bullets and less for liquids.

Our guide on how to know if makeup is expired explains the jar symbol and other signs across different products.

Everyday Lipstick Hygiene Habits

A few habits keep lipstick cleaner between deep cleans and reduce the need to sanitise often.

• Apply lipstick to clean, dry lips rather than over food or crumbs.
• Keep the cap on and store lipstick in a clean pouch.
• Wipe the tip with a tissue every few uses.
• Sanitise once a month if you use it daily.
• Use a lip brush if you like to share colour, and clean it weekly.
• Keep lipsticks away from heat so they do not sweat or change texture.

Breakouts around the mouth are sometimes blamed on lipstick when heavy balms or poor makeup removal are the real cause. The AAD’s acne tips recommend removing makeup before bed and choosing products that will not clog pores.

Dos and Don’ts

Honest Limits

Alcohol sanitising reduces microbes on the surface of a lipstick, but it does not sterilise the entire bullet. Germs pressed deeper into the wax, or viruses that survive brief contact, may not be fully removed, and there is little direct research on how well home methods work on lipstick specifically.

For most people who use their own lipstick, simple hygiene is enough. Sanitising matters most after sharing or illness, and even then, replacing an inexpensive lipstick is the lowest-risk option. No cleaning method makes it safe to share lipstick with someone who has an active cold sore.

When to See a Dermatologist

• You get frequent cold sores or they are slow to heal.
• Your lips develop a rash, crusting or swelling after using a lip product.
• The corners of your mouth crack and stay sore.
• A sore or patch on the lip does not heal within a few weeks.

Your Questions, Answered

The Takeaway

To sanitize lipstick, remove the top layer, dip or spray it with 70% isopropyl alcohol, clean the tube and cap, and let it air dry before capping.

Sanitising lowers surface germs but is not a guarantee, so replace lipstick after a cold sore or infection, never share it during illness, use disposable applicators for testers and throw away anything that smells or looks off.