The Beauty Products With Ugly Consequences for Your Drains

There are thousands of beauty products and scrubs out there designed to moisturize, exfoliate, hydrate, soften, de-wrinkle, and firm skin. Similarly, hundreds of make-up brands are devised to close pores, eliminate beauty marks, enhance skin glow, and get rid of those annoying crow’s feet. Users of these products likely worry about whether these products have natural ingredients, contain alcohol, or were tested on animals, but whether these products clog your drain is never a topic of conversation. And yet, many do. 

Our drains take a heavy beating, particularly if you have small children who might not be as careful with things slipping through their fingers and into the sink. So let’s talk about plumbing stoppages, clogs, and ways to prevent them. 

Use Exfoliating Ingredients With Caution to Avoid Clogs 

Exfoliation is an important step towards better skin. True. So whether you use home-made exfoliation products or buy them from Bed Bath and Beyond, some of these ingredients can have effects on your plumbing. This happens mostly when these products are used over long periods of time without pipe maintenance or precautions. 

Some body scrubs will contain ingredients such as coffee grounds, oatmeal, and ground nutshells. These ingredients are not often dissolvable in water. Exfoliation is about using rougher materials to wash away dead skin cells, the ingredients are therefore designed to be thicker, rougher, and thus not very dissolvable. A lot of beauty body scrubs are also made with a lot of oils, which can also exacerbate a plumbing problem. 

Olive oil or coconut oil popular today in many naturally-based shampoos and scrubs can—over time—create plumbing problems. These oils can cause a plumbing stoppage because they are also not dissolved in water so easily. These oils are tricky, as they may slide through your drain as the hot water is running, but catch on to hair or other slimy stuff and coalesce into a nice and thick layer of grime. 

Consider Dissolvable Ingredients 

There are many good scrubs and products out there that contain more dissolvable ingredients. These include products that are based in brown sugar or sea salt. Even these ingredients can cause problems if used in excess. Jojoba oil, for example, is a little less viscous and can be a better alternative if you want to use products that contain oil. Installing a drain strain can be quite a big help to stop some of the thicker elements of these along with hair to go down the drain. 

What About Makeup and Other Beauty Products? 

We’re glad you asked. Many people use the bathroom sink as a beautifying station. Makeup won’t pose a direct problem unless you find yourself routinely tossing this down the drain. Thick liquid foundations might pose a problem because they can theoretically coat the inside of the pipe and join with hair and other gunk already hanging on in the drain. If you are constantly losing thick powder or eye shadow down the drain, you might want to implement regular pipe maintenance. This will ensure there is no clog happening without you noticing that will come back to bite you in the wallet later. 

Quick Drain Trips – Keep Your Drains From Clogging

Prevention is the magic word when it comes to plumbing. Here at New Age Plumbing, many of the problems we see and deal with are often preventable or caused by a lack of maintenance. Here are a few quick tips:

• Install drain catchers. These little contraptions will catch all the sticky hair that makes its way down there and acts as a net that catches other stuff. 
• For your make-up removal routine, begin with make-up remover towelettes. This way the makeup is not going directly down the drain. 
• Avoiding throwing away that old foundation or the thickened powder down the drain. Any beauty product should be discarded in the trash. 
• Watch the kiddos around the drain. Kids like to see things disappear. A favorite pastime of toddlers and young children is seeing things disappear into the darkness of the drain or toilet flush. Make sure your kids are supervised so they don’t accidentally toss your foundation down the kitchen sink. 

Watch out for these other potential drain cloggers:

• Body lotion
• Shaving cream
• Hair gel and hair products
• Coconut oil or olive oil products 

Having Drain Problems? Call Professional Plumbers to Diagnose the Problem

Signs of major drain clogs are often visible before they become a significant problem. If you notice the water draining slowly, a minor backflow, or even a funny smell coming from the drain, call a professional plumber to address the problem. It might be an easy fix or require quick flushing or drain snake treatment. Call New Age Plumbing today and get things flowing right!