Martha Stewart likes LeClerc, a posh French makeup brand, so far so normal. But Martha Stewart being so enamored with a discontinued liquid eyeliner of theirs that she’s been using her final five tubes for 15-20 years by periodically adding water? Now that seems quite out of character for the perfectionist home & lifestyle queen. Experts advise that eye products like mascara and liner should not be used for longer than three months. So if Martha’s been applying her prized eyeliner for 15 years, she’s 57 months late in tossing the expired product. This all came to light in a video Martha filmed for Allure where she takes us through her daily makeup routine. Allure made the caption about her love of bronzer, but it’s the unhygienic eyeliner practice that has fans worried. Unsanitary makeup habits: it’s not a good thing!
“This is my secret for every day,” Stewart says in the clip, shared on Nov. 2, while holding up a tube of LeClerc liquid liner. “It’s not made anymore. It’s probably 15 or 20 years old. I have five of these, which I cherish.”
“I just keep adding water to it,” she explains. “It has not dried out, incredibly.”
Stewart applies the “silvery, gray-brown” liner to her top and bottom lash lines, “just to make my eyes look a little bit wider.”
Of her makeup routine, the author says, “My makeup artist Daisy’s watching and she’s probably cringing at what I do.”
For the record, eyeliners are generally not recommended to be used for more than a few months, as eye makeup can become contaminated with germs very quickly, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Stewart shares another beauty secret to keeping up her youthful glow — bronzer.
“I usually just bronze myself a lot and that gets me out the door,” she says, calling out the Westman Atelier Butter Powder Bronzer as her go-to.
“My granddaughter Jude says, ‘Martha, you use too much bronzer,’” Stewart adds. “But I like bronzer. I’ve always used too much bronzer. It just makes me feel healthy, which I am.”
The star has been promoting her new Netflix documentary Martha, which chronicles Stewart’s life and career as America’s first self-made female billionaire.
During a Tuesday, Nov. 12, appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, the chef said her grandkids — granddaughter Jude, 13, and grandson Truman, 12 — had already seen her doc.
“They watched my documentary,” Stewart shared, referring to Truman and Jude.
“What did they think?” asked Drew Barrymore, 49.
“Well Jude, who’s 13, said, ‘It was very good. I think I’ll watch it again,’” Stewart recalled.
She also spoke about her thoughts on the documentary overall, saying: “Oh, well, I thought it was a good representation of a 20th and 21st century woman and giving hope and caring to the female gender in America. Really.”
What gets me about Martha Stewart using the same eyeliner for roughly 60 times past the recommended usage, is that it absolutely seems like the kind of thing she would judge someone else for, if the brush were on the other eyelid. I mean, I guess we can count it as further proof of how indestructible she is, that gross old makeup can’t take her down. Although we are missing critical commentary from her dermatologist and ophthalmologist in this conversation. But seriously kids, do not try this at home! As for Martha being bronzer-happy, apologies to her granddaughter, but I don’t think it’s too much! Of course it may be more striking in person. But speaking as a pale person myself, who is often advised to use bronzer to add a note of “this is the face of someone who is actually alive” to my appearance, I get it.
Last thought: “I thought it was a good representation of a 20th and 21st century woman and giving hope and caring to the female gender in America,” is quite the lofty statement for a documentary she keeps saying she doesn’t like.
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- 9/6/24, New York, New York, United States Martha Stewart during Libertine Spring 2025 collection, held during NYFW at the Elizabeth Street Gallery in New York City, Friday September 6th, 2024.,Image: 905451506, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Jennifer Graylock-Graylock.com, Model Release: no, Credit line: Jennifer Graylock-Graylock.com / Avalon
Photos credit: Arlene Richie/JPI Studios/Avalon, Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Netflix, IMAGO/mpi099/MediaPunch/Avalon
Her granddaughter calls her by her first name??
i dont find that strange. My kids call their Grandad( my Dad) by his first name. that was his preference. some people just perfer it, doesnt mean they arent close
This was the only thing I took away from this 🤣
Ha! I call my maternal grandparents by their first names because when I (first grandchild) was born they “weren’t ready to be grandparents.”
My MIL insists our kids call her by her first name. My husband also calls her by her first name. They’re WASPs. I’m Italian American; I expect to be called Mommy and nothing else. No matter how old my kids get. And the grandkids will only be able to call me Grandma.
I called my grandmothers by their first names. Granted, they both went by nicknames that sounded sort of like something a grandchild might call them, lol. I think that’s a Southern thing: give your kid a normal* name and then proceed to use some funny diminutive or even a totally different moniker based on their middle name or something.
*that is if you consider “Zula” a normal name. My paternal grandmother was the youngest of nine children and her mother was already 46 when she was born. I think they wanted a “Z” name to manifest her being the last one.
She and Camilla are basically the same age.
Martha’s skin is AMAZING
my kids call me by my first name, have for years (they’re adults, but it started when they were teens). initially it was just when they referred to me when talking to other people, but eventually stopped calling me “mom”. I don’t mind it.not a grandmother yet though.
Her granddaughter…I forgot her daughter had a child and never knew if it was a boy or girl. Alexis. Mean girl jr.
Gosh wish she’d been discontinued 20 years ago.
I wonder if she tried to find other liners when she heard it was being discontinued and they were all awful, which I can relate to. I just can’t find makeup that works on my face the way I see other people’s makeup look, it’s kind of depressing.
And it’s so easy to end up keeping something for years, especially if you don’t wear makeup all the time and you can’t remember when you opened something. I will throw stuff away but I have to really remind myself. The three month thing for eye makeup is a little annoying too because it seems like the product is too big to finish in that time period, they need to make smaller sizes
The eyeliner stuff reminds me of goop’s vagina candle and jade egg ridiculousness. A cry for headlines.
And now some intern is going to be tasked with rounding up whatever the company still has somewhere and sending it to her.
In 2020, one of my chemo drugs gave me a SCORCHING case of blepharitis, which is just a ton of sties in your eyes. I’ve never had a stye, but the eye doctor had to flip back the eyelid and pop them all (she is a darling lady and was upset and apologizing to me the entire time). Afterwards, my sister had to guide me (I was also on a walker at the time and bald and nauseous) back to the car because I was shaking with horror at what I had just endured. Of all the terrible things being done to me that summer, getting rid of those styes was near the top. Long story short – I buy the smallest travel sizes of eye makeup and mascara, put a label on them of start date and religiously toss them 3 months later because OH MY GOD you don’t want styes or blepharitis!!!
omg! I’m so sorry that you had to go through that! I had a friend who used to get styes and I know they’re painful, and I think of that when forcing myself to toss old makeup. Having an infection like yours sounds terrible, and I will probably remember your comment when tossing old makeup from now on. Your doctor sounds so nice, and I hope that you are doing much better these days!!
Thank you; I got into remission after a lot of treatment. It’s a chronic cancer, so I will relapse several times before the cancer, or an infection, has its way with me. At least now I KNOW what to look out for with some of the drugs. I still see that eye doctor (because of ongoing problems after treatment), and she is so kind and gentle I forgive her every last horrible thing she does to me! Finding a small size of mascara I like was the key. And washing my eye makeup brushes religiously after every use has been a new good habit.
I’m so sorry! Your comment is everything I need to go through my makeup religiously and get rid of things. You have done me a service. Martha needs to read this.
As a makeup lovah, I have a very hard time throwing out old makeup. Especially, if it was something limited edition. There are things you can do to help sanitize it. But what Martha is doing is a bit reckless. But there is also something relatable about it. When you have a holy grail product you can’t replace. You will hang on to it for dear life.
Martha, she’s just like us! (no, no she is not)
I keep old makeup. If it’s not causing an infection why should she stop using it?
I am pretty bad about throwing away makeup, mostly out of laziness and failure to track how long I’ve had things. It’s really only the eye makeup that concerns me though, and I don’t wear that every day anyway. Blush isn’t going to do you any harm if you keep it past a few months.
This story! She must know that makeup formulas have improved enormously in the last 15 years? Get yourself an Urban Decay 24/7 Ink eyeliner, you will never look back.
Germs build up in old makeup. Why take the chance with something you are putting near your eyeballs? So I don’t believe this story for one minute. Just like I don’t believe she hasn’t had work done (my own face hurts just looking at her).
Have to agree with her….
All these makeup companies have expiry dates saying don’t use after or else!! I have never had an issue with old makeup
I am convinced they add expiry dates only to keep stock moving!
Martha is the queen of needing RARE components, it’s just like her to idealize an eyeliner from 2010 and claim nothing is as good. Ages ago a friend who like to cook and entertain wanted to make something out of her cookbooks and the recipe, no joke, called for 10 pounds of duck fat. What store carries that?? I had an oily stain a while ago and I looked to see Martha’s remedy. Apparently the best remedy needed me to go to a saddle shop and get the perfect $40 soap.
One of the biting profiles written about her around the time of the insider trading debacle mentioned that she only used very thin silver chopsticks when eating Asian cuisine that were nearly impossible to use. I never forgot reading that.
OMG. Of course Martha would eat Asian food with very thin silver chopsticks
I’ve had one horrible eye infection some years ago which I’m still traumatized about so all I can say is : ew.