Stage 4 of My Makeup Evolution: The Purge

After I discovered makeup and YouTube I think I spent an entire year collecting makeup treasures.  The small 3-tier Sterilite container I once had no longer fit everything; I had to upgrade to a 10-drawer cart to store all the blushes and eyeshadows and lipsticks that I had amassed.  I still remember the night that I sat down to re-organize all of my items in this new drawer system... I remember feeling giddy, euphoric almost, like a pirate in front of his loot, only mine were multitudes of blushers and eyeshadow palettes.  Once I had everything organized the way I had always imagined it to be, I would pull out drawers at random and just admire the beauty it held.  It was perfect.

And for a short while I was content with my gold.  It brought me joy in the morning to walk over to my treasure chest and casually decide which lucky product would get used that day.  But then I quickly realized I kept choosing the same products over and over again while neglecting the others.  I knew which ones were buttery and full of pigment, which ones did not exaggerate my oily complexion, which ones stayed on all day... and these were the ones I gravitated towards.

As this discrimination process began, so the guilt started to slowly settle in.  Each day that I pulled out the drawers, instead of eliciting giddy I began to feel sad for the stuff that never got used.  I even attempted to make amends with my conscience by deliberately setting those dusty items out for use, but the root of the problem was my dislike for the products and that could not be forced however much I tried.  Seeing these products lay in waste stirred up feelings of angst and guilt at my consumerist hoarding ways.  At the time that I acquired those products, they all seemed so special and necessary; now they just looked sad, excessive and wasteful.

Enter the purge:

Stuff I collected but never used - gave away to new homes

Very old stuff that I neither liked nor missed - Tossed

Stuff I tried, didn't like, and would never have used up even in 3 lifetimes - Tossed

Expired stuff I inherited + a pot of foundation that reeked of chemicals - Tossed!

It was hard letting go of things I once treasured, like letting go of my golden bounty.  I've definitely had moments of greed and allowed a few items to creep back to the keep pile, just "in case I need it one day."  Of course I never really did "need it" nor did I ever miss any of the items I purged; it was all a mental state of "want it, need it, have to have it all."  And man was it euphoric to break that diseased state of mind.

I gave away I items that I enjoyed owning but never would've used.  I emptied out tubes and jars of stuff I have tried and hate and of items that were plain expired, and recycled the containers.  I went on a self-imposed makeup diet to consciously use up products that were merely sitting pretty on my shelves. Bit by bit, I trimmed away the excess.

Some may say this purge itself is waste - throwing away products and giving away perfectly new items that I purchased with my money.  To this, I agree.  If nothing else at all, I want these experiences to be a record of excess and waste to never be repeated again.