A charity shop volunteer has pleaded with the public to stop donating used beauty products, describing the items as "absolutely ridiculous" and "rubbish". The appeal comes as many people seek to declutter their homes while supporting charitable causes, but volunteers often receive items that are unsellable.
Vanessa, who posts on TikTok under the alias The Lit Spirit, shared a video showing a box filled with used eyeshadow palettes, lip balms, makeup sponges, lip pencils and eyeliners. She said: "This is just some of the stuff that we in charity shops have to deal with. How do you think that we can resell this?"
She then held up a heavily worn makeup brush with product caked into its bristles, remarking: "Yep, definitely gonna be selling that. Absolutely, wow." After discarding some of the items, she added: "Absolutely ridiculous." Overlaid text on the video read: "Please stop donating tat. Your trash is not our treasure."
Viewers were quick to comment, with one asking why people do not simply throw such items away. Another noted that some use charity shops to ease guilt about being wasteful. Others shared similar experiences, including donations of dead slugs and bags of grass cuttings, with one person comparing the practice to fly-tipping.
The British Red Cross advises that items posing a hygiene risk should not be donated. It states that new, unused cosmetics, aftershaves and perfumes may be accepted if they remain sealed in their original packaging, but used products can carry germs and cause infections.
