I just noticed the following on the TSA website:
Some solid or powdered cosmetics items are permitted past the checkpoint; however, this is left to the discretion of the Security Officer.
This is not a guideline. This is a means to lead to chaos and a total lack of planning. On a recent flight, a security agent dumped $100 worth of my friend's makeup -- wouldn't let her put it in the bag that they made her check (with no option not to check it, even though there was nothing in it). Meanwhile, the woman on the flight next to her was applying lip gloss (clearly prohibitted) the entire time.
Discretion can be useful in certain situations. But discretion also leads to arbitrariness, and this particular prohibition seems arbitrary. Exactly how does this help me plan? How is this generally being handled and what are screeners being told?