I have no business owning more than four lipsticks. I’m a creature of habit when it comes to makeup – once I find something I really like I go to it again and again. I do have usually end up purchasing skincare. Somehow, despite these things I have more than four lipsticks. I’m too ashamed to disclose the figures here, and I don’t know how it happened! So I decided it’s time to face my small hoard of makeup, to throw out expired things and stuff that I never use. Does it spark joy? Yadda yadda yadda. Look at that, two pop culture references, I’m relatable!
Anyway, let’s begin with this:
I dumped it all on the bed. I got lipstick on the blanket almost immediately! Who could have foreseen that? I see several items that I know for sure have expired and wonder why I didn’t throw them out sooner. As a first step I sort things into categories. Concealers, hightlighters, liquid lipsticks etc.
So pretty! I pet the shiny shiny tubes. And then I check dates, and begin with the hazardous waste. I’d recommend starting there, it’s easier to part with something that might give you some kind of unsightly skin infection if you tried to use it. It’s still very painful to throw out a beloved Chanel palette. Bye, old friend. Next I move on to things that just didn’t work for me. A lipgloss that looks pretty but feels stick and seems to dry my lips out. A mascara I’ve only worn twice because it immediately flaked and smudged. A lipstick that makes me look like I recently clawed my way out of the grave. I feel free, elated, I can do anything!
So here’s what I ended up tossing:
Not bad! In the lower part of the picture there are products that were old. Old as the hills. In the upper part are some things which I kind of hated, for one reason or another. Let me put in a little disclaimer here: You may love some of these, it’s different strokes for different folks. I love Nars so much as a brand, but the Audacious mascara was a huge bummer for me. It was coming off AS I WAS APPLYING IT. Also it kind of made my eyes sting. A Nudestix lip pencil I got as a freebie I wore once. It was a shade of brown which was extremely unflattering – I felt real bad in it. Real bad. The peach gloss from Too Faced was sticky and drying, though a cute shade. Most painfully of all, this special edition lipstick from Fenty, it had to go because realistically I’m just not going to put on a lipstick with glitter in it. That’s why the Urban Decay had to go too. Hot pink glitter, very pretty in the tube, but not right for me. An Antipodes lipstick which was in a shade which was just too purple. And the NYX setting powder seemed to dry me out too much. I feel as though I’ll be doing a second round of cleaning soon, but I feel like this was a really good start!
That’s it for this week!Find me on instagram @vivienne_austen, I’m there on the regular posting reviews and dreamy pics.
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