The time has come to continue my road to minimalism. I decided to tackle my makeup collection. Here we go.

Let me start with this: If you read my this post where I walk you through my minimalistic (and daily) morning routine, then you will see that I do not wear much makeup. That being said, I love makeup and I have a plethora. Honestly, it’s a problem.

After reading Marie Kondo’s “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” I have slowly but surely been organizing my belongings. My latest purge was of my makeup collection, and I decided to chronicle it for you.

Now that they are no secrets between us, let’s drive right in.

Here is the overview. I keep my makeup sorted by category in two plastic organizers. Although they are bulky and not exactly ‘cute’, they work well for me. As you can see from the pictures, although everything is sorted, it is all just haphazardly in its respective drawer.

Although I keep the products sorted neatly, there is definitely room for some better organization with in the drawers. I am going to keep this in mind as I go.

Let’s break it down by category:

I’ll start with face products:

In this drawer I have primers, foundations, concealers and powders.

Before:

When I lay the products out, this is what you get. I probably haven’t worn foundation in a year, but it is comforting to know that I have options should I want it.

Well, this purge is already off to a rough start because I kept almost every last one of these products. I opted to part with a Smashbox BB cream. I was given this product and the color is a little dark for me (story of my life). I also tossed a concealer that has been in my collection for a little too long. I also checked to see if any of my foundations were expired. They were all within date, but come 2017, things are going to get serious. In the end, I kept 2 primers, 2 powders, 4 concealers, and 7 foundations. Yikes.

If I had to really strip my collection down to the bare bones, the three I would keep would be my Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua (mine is almost out), Make Up Forever HD, and YSL Le Teint Touche Eclat. For primer, the Hourglass one would stay. For concealer, I always reach for Maybelline’s Fit Me.

After a little organization, the products went back into their drawer.

The next drawer is eyeshadow. Once again, I have much more than I need, but I hate to part with them.

Here is my extensive eyeshadow pallet collection. As you can see, I love the Urban Decay Naked pallets (my favorite is the third). The Marc Jacob pallets were gifts, but are amazing quality and that slim packaging makes them great for travel. The Becca pallet is my go-to daily pallet because it has five matte browns that can do no wrong. The Lorac Pro is also uber travel friendly and offers 8 matte and 8 satin shades. As I love and use them all, I kept each of my pallets. Apparently I am not really good at this whole ‘tough love’ thing with myself…

I then turned my attention to my single eyeshadows. Unlike foundation, eye shadow doesn’t really go bad (well, it does have a shelf life printed on it, but I take that more as a suggestion). It does, however, go out of fashion. So good-bye gold eyeshadow from Sephora. I also opted to pass along an Urban Decay duo and my LoReal Infallible eyeshadows in Iced Latte and Taupe. Although they are great quality, I never reach for them so they deserve a better home. I also tossed this creme highlighter pen that I never used (thanks, Birchbox).

 

I kept my MAC, Burberry, and Clinique eyeshadows and packed them all away.

Well, not much smaller than when I started, but baby steps should be celebrated too.

Here is my favorite drawer: Blush, Bronzer, Highlight:

As you can see, this drawer needed some serious organizing. With so many products, I was starting to have to double stack them. When this happens, I only tend to use the products on the top layer. I needed to slim this collection down so I could lay them all out neatly.

First, blush. Here is what I started with:

As you can see, I love Tarte Amazonian Clay and Dior blushes. They are nicely pigmented and have great staying power. The Tarte blushes especially are great for travel because the packaging is so minimal.

I did opt to part with The Balm’s Hot Mama blush, as it is an exact dupe for Nars’ Orgasm, which I already own. I also said bye-bye to a BareMinerals blush that was a gift with purchase. Benefits’ Rockateur blush was a toss up for me. I love the product but hate the bulky packaging. I ultimately kept this product because it does get a lot of use. I was also on the fence for the Josie Maran Coconut Watercolor Cheek Gelee in Vacay Rose. It is a really unique product in my collection, a gel stain, but I do find it a little hard to use compared to powder blushes. I decided to keep it for now and check back in a few months. I kept two of my MAC blushes, Dainty is one of my favorites. Overall, I am happy with my collection.

For bronzer, I kept my skin tone in mind.

Bye Tarte’s Park Ave Princess, you are too much of a Golden Goddess for me. Same with the BareMinerals product. It is way too dark. Both the Chanel Bronze Universal and the Nars Multiple in Altai give an identical effect. They will run you the same price, so if you are choosing one over the other, Chanel every time. I will say though, the Nars product is better for traveling … I decided to keep both. I really rock at this… I rounded out my collection with one powder product, the NYC Sunny bronzer.

I again struggled when it came to highlighters.

The Mary-Lou Manizer from The Balm was almost out, so I tossed that. I also passed up Benefit’s Whatt’s Up creme highlighter because I like my liquid ones better. For liquid highlighters, I kept my Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector in Pearl and my Josie Maran Argan Enlightenment Illuminizer. I kept my MAC Mineralized Skin Finish Natural Natural in Soft ‘n’ Gentle and my Hourglass Ambient Lighting trio. For a bronzy glow, I love my Dior Amber Diamonds. Two liquid and three powder options, all with different variations of gold, pearl, or pink undertones. I don’t know about you, but I am buying the justification I am selling.

Now that the big organizer is done, on to the little one.

Let’s start with eyeliners and mascaras.

I have four mascaras and four eyeliners. I decided to keep the mascaras. Two (the Covergirl LashBlast Fusion and the Clinique High Impact Extreme Volume) are your standard black mascaras. Only difference is one is waterproof, which is why I feel ok keeping both. I am also keeping my Clinique Under Eye Mascara, which is perfect for the bottom last line (yes, it is kind of excessive, but it was $10 and I wanted to try it out). The last mascara is a purple one from Dior and I love it. When layered over black mascara, it subtly brings out the hazel in my eyes. It is a fun touch.

For eyeliner, I nixed two from Maybelline in black and purple. Although good products, my potted gel eyeliners were dried up. I did keep two liquid eyeliners though. One in black (Stilla’s Stay All Day) and one in purple (Eyeko’s Skinny Liquid Liner).

The rest of the tools in this drawer all stayed: my Shu Uemura Eyelash Curlers, my Sonia Kashuk sharpener, and my Simga Flattop Kabuki foundation brushes.

Ok, on to lipstick next:

Lipstick is another product that I really love.

 

My favorite brands are MAC (Up the Amp, Capricious, Ravishing, Lovelorn, and Rebel), Revlon (Colorbutters in Red Velvet and Berry Smoothie, and Moisture Stains in Cannes Crush and India Intrigue) and Rimmel (Kate Moss’ line 12, 28, 103, and 104). These make up the majority of my collection and then I have a few one-offs from different brands. I am keeping Dior’s Cherie Bow, YSL’s#15, and Bite’s Fig & Damask.

For the stick products, I kept my Nars pens in Rikugien and Cruella, My Soap & Glory Sexy Mother Pucker in Fuchsia-Ristic, Bite’s Amarone, and Urban Decay’s Love Child. I find that these Cranyon-like glosses apply easily and offer on a sheer wash of color.  I parted way’s with a Revlon Colorstay product that dries out my lips too much.

Alright, here is where things got serious: Lip Gloss.

Honestly, I have no idea how I came to accumulate so many. I don’t even really like lip gloss. They are sticky and annoying, and the only good time to wear lip gloss is at the movies, where you know you will not be eating, talking, and a gusts of wind won’t blow your hair right around.

I decided that if I don’t wear lip gloss often, I should only keep my favorites. With this in mind, I made my choices carefully. I opted to keep a few shades that aren’t overly sticky and suit my skin tone: Jemma Kidd’s (discontinued lip gloss), Dior’s Dolly Pink, and a Bare Minerals set I was gifted (although they are kind of sticky). They offer a nice variety of colors and are pretty nice quality. I also kept a clinique Chubby Stick in Super Strawberry.

What a difference, right? I parted with some Jouer minis, my Baby Lips and Piki tinted capsticks, and the ultra stickies in the top right corner (Benefit’s Sugarbomb, and unknown colors from Urban Decay, Stila, NYX, and Sugar Pop). I also passed along my lip liners, as I never use them. Too much of a hassle. Also with lip products, you have to keep an eye on the expiration dates.

Here is the finished product. Now this is what I am talking about!

Total purge by the numbers:

In total, I got rid of 36 products. Honestly, this is more than I thought I would part with! Still have some work to do, but I am proud nonetheless.

I decided to add a twist in to make this post a little more interesting. As I write this, I am on an airplane headed to Oregon (you can read the recap of my trip here). Everything that I am writing is purely from memory. The pictures and full product names have all been added later. What I have decided to do is toss any product that I fail to mention. I think this is a good way to really prove to myself which products I don’t need in my life. If I cannot remember that it is in my collect, then it really isn’t important to me.

Here is what I forgot to mention:

• Nars’ lipstick in Dolce Vita
• Stila’ Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick in Beso
• NYX’s Lipliner Pencil in Hot Red
• Make Up For Ever’s Lip Line Perfector
• LoReal’s Colour Riche Balm in 118 and 218

With those five products added in, my total comes to 41 products! I am honestly not bummed at all about loosing the above five. They meant little to me and did not get much use.

I decided to extend my purge even further once I was home. I really do not need so many foundations. I am parting with my Clinique Even Better in shade 24. It is a great foundation, but it targeted for acne-prone skin, and that really isn’t me anymore. I also parted with my MAC blush in Well Dressed. I think this one has gone a little old because it barely shows up on me, and I am very pale. I revisited the BareMineral Marvelous Moxie lip gloss set I was gifted. I knew I did not need all 7 shades, so I wanted to nix a few. While trying some on to see which colors suited me best, I was reminded of just how sticky they are. I realized I was keeping them because they were a gift. As I have learned, a gift is not reason to keep a product. It is just weighing you down. All 7 were passed along.

My new grand total is 51 products purged! I feels so good and I am really proud of myself. I will continue to toss products I don’t use and watch out for ones expiring.

-TM

Do you keep your makeup collection to a minimum, or are you a collector like me? Let me know below.