Lipstick mold or wax bloom?

[Anonymous]

Hi All, what are your thoughts on this? This lipstick is not even that old (last year's mac star trek collection) so I was so surprised to see it covered in this whitish film...

[jayyxobeauty]

This happeneds when a product hits air and is put away. So the box usually tells you how long it’ll live (usually on the bottom it looks like a tube with a number). If you want to save something for a long time then don’t open it at all because the count down begins when you open it (12m= 12 months)

[BrwnSugaG]

wow - i didn't even know that could happen. hope it's still usable!

[itscarin]

@AnonymousLooks like asbestos. 

Just kidding!  It looks like wax bloom.  Everything I've googled on the subject says that you'll *know* when a lipstick turns rancid by the smell.  I also haven't seen many legitimate photos of mold growing on lipstick. 

Mold needs some nutrients to grow, and since most lipsticks aren't very nutritious (it's just powder minerals for pigments and some kind of emollient (to give it a creamy texture) it's not an attractive place for mold to grow.  I'm not going to say it is extremely rare but I'd say it's "pretty rare".

In trying to explain the film on your lipstick, I'd think back to any temperature changes it may have experienced.  Was it stored in a car at some point?  By a window?  Did you have it in your purse in a tropical climate where you were out for a couple of hours and then came back into an air conditioned climate?

[Anonymous]

Thanks @itscarin ! The lipstick was in my makeup storage with a bunch of other summer colors that I haven' used since last year and it was the only one that changed.