I have so much makeup and until yesterday afternoon, it was literally scattered all over the place, making it hard to find things when I need them. A while back, I was hoping to become a makeup artist and I started collecting bits and pieces to use on clients. I was keeping these things in my hot pink Kate Hill cosmetics travel case that my parents lovingly bought for me a couple of years ago. It’s perfect because it has a little coathanger inside it so you can hang up your makeup case in your hotel room and see everything at a glance. Amazing! Anyway, I have since realised that I should probably focus on my career in psychology (whenever that starts…) and sort of gave up on the makeup thing for now. So I went through this case first of all and worked out what I would keep and throw away. When I opened it up, I was confronted with my first dysfunctional makeup habit: Keeping cotton tips that have only been slightly used for smudged eyeliner.
Yeah, take a second to process that one.
WHAT.
So these cotton tips had a small amount of eyeliner smudge on one end, and were clean on the other end. And not only that, but I realised that I have cotton tips all over the fucking place. Like a squirrel hiding acorns in different locations. I am officially crazy. I have cotton tips in my bathroom cupboard where they belong, in my travel case, in my handbag, in one of my makeup bags… What the fuck am I doing?
So once I threw away all of my half-used cotton tips and put the clean ones in their proper place in the bathroom, I emptied the whole case, zipped it up and put it away so I couldn’t be tempted to squirrel away anything else inside it. I found a bobby pin (one single bobby pin. Why?), a really old MAC lipstick that I remember buying thinking I was getting a certain colour, then getting all the way home and realising they gave me the wrong colour and being too timid to go back and exchange it, an empty perfume bottle, an almost empty bottle of Emporio Armani Diamonds, an unopened, unused Chi Chi eyeshadow palette called “Fashionista,” a bottle of shimmery highlighting fluid that belonged to my mum, a couple of Napoleon Perdis colour discs (the really old kind, one bright yellow and the other bright orange), an almost empty jar of Body Shop radiance beads and a sparkly dark purple Avon nail polish that my mum ordered from my ex-boyfriend’s mum who is an Avon lady. And after all that, she didn’t even like the colour, so she gave it to me. I attach so many stories to all my products, I think that is why I have a hard time writing concisely about them and why I’ve put it off for so long!
I threw away the empty perfume bottle, radiance beads and MAC lipstick (it was getting old and gross and the colour never suited me anyway), put the highlighter back in my mum’s makeup drawer; and took the rest of the products to the bathroom for sorting. In hindsight, I could have done all of this whilst sitting down and resting my broken ribs, but I’m stubborn.
I currently have in my possession five makeup bags (not including my travel case), and four more coming in the mail. I use all of them for something. One of them is so pretty that I keep it decoratively in my room and it holds two sets of fake eyelashes, a long string of pearls and a garter. One is a glittery pink Victoria’s Secret one which I used to carry in my handbag but it molts sparkles worse than I molt hair so I have found a new use for it. One is a tall, clear plastic one with hot pink sparkly edges, one is an old silver Christian Dior Parfum makeup bag and my favourite of all is my black vintage lace with pink satin lining Peter Alexander cosmetics bag that my mum got me for Christmas one year. The Peter Alexander one houses only my most expensive, most special designer makeup (mostly Christian Dior, a bit of Chanel and, as of yesterday, Nars), and this has not changed, however I have taken a couple of things out of it. I reorganised the contents of each of these bags and I now use my Dior bag mostly for nail polish, but also for perfume samples, smaller half-empty perfume bottles and a few of my cheaper lipsticks (Chi Chi and Revlon, and all of them are some sort of pink). In my clear makeup bag (which is a perfect bag for hand luggage when travelling, just as a side note) I put all my makeup brushes (there aren’t many of these and I really need to invest in some new ones), my toothbrush and my toothpaste.
I only own two foundations, although I really need at least two more (one for when I’m tanned darker and one for work). I use Diorskin Forever because it’s super lightweight (although it doesn’t give as much coverage as I need for work at the nightclub, which is why I need a heavier one) and a YSL foundation which I love for the same reasons but it’s a slightly different shade than my Dior one. I put these on my dresser, along with my gold YSL powder compact. I love the way these two simple, elegant bottles look sitting on my dresser, it looks so old fashioned and that makes me happy.
My two foundations and my powder. Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent are my favourites.
I found my Victoria’s Secret makeup bag sitting on a pile of my scrapbooking supplies in my room and when I opened it, I found the comb I had spent the last three months wondering where in hell I’d lost, my mini gold YSL mirror, a black hair tie which I also thought I had lost, a bobby pin (clearly these are my other kind of acorns, along with cotton tips) and a bunch more cotton tips (surprise). I emptied these things out and decided that my temporary everyday makeup bag would be a simple black fabric clutch that I usually use as an evening bag. I put my mirror into my current day bag, the comb into my makeshift cosmetics bag, and the rest of the things away in their proper place in my newly organised bathroom cupboard. Then I covered the bathroom counter with all of my cheaper makeup, and started picking through it. I decided to throw away my Body Shop bronzer because I’m over it, my half-empty Nivea tinted moisturiser because it doesn’t suit my skin tone and I never wear it anyway (it had been banished to the back of my cupboard along with the old moisturiser I forgot I had) and my Body Shop concealer.
I also did something that I should have done months ago, and threw out the packaging/boxes from some of my makeup. For example, my Napoleon Perdis bronzer came in a really pretty box and I kept it despite the fact that it was broken and the bronzer slips out the bottom. And I have a Chi Chi lipstick in a box as well. So I got rid of all these things and felt much better afterwards. They take up so much space!
I learned today that my makeup collection is slightly out of proportion in terms of its contents. For example, I have two foundations and two mascaras (one for everyday wear and one for very special occasions only); but I also have three liquid eyeliners (one extra special one and two of the exact same brand and colour because I wear it all the time and I never want to run out of it) and only one kohl eyeliner, which is extremely short and needs replacing but I’ve had it since I was seventeen and I’m twenty-three now, so it lasted a really long time. I only have one lip liner and it is bight red, despite the growing population of pink lipsticks in my makeup collection.
I also discovered that I have amassed a gigantic collection of eyeshadows. I have six individual Napoleon Perdis colour discs (hot pink, black, cream, dark brown, bright yellow and bright orange) and one Napoleon Perdis jar of creamy, glittery stuff that I generally use when I’m wearing a costume. I have one Chanel eyeshadow palette with dark brown, cream, pinky-peachy-sparkliness and soft green. It’s my springtime fairy palette. I have a pale lilac shimmer dust from Revlon called Diamond Lust. There is the brand new Chi Chi eyeshadow palette that I discovered in my room, along with a small glittery rose coloured shadow (also Chi Chi). I have two individual Christian Dior eyeshadows (light blue and light green). And my favourite of all is my Christian Dior eyeshadow palette which has so many gorgeous colours that I will never run out of it. My favourites in that palette are pale lilac and navy blue.
Another thing I seem to have a lot of is blusher. I have three Dior blushers and two Nars ones. In fact, I have two Dior ones that are exactly the same colour. One of them I haven’t ever used. This was an accident, I went to buy a new one and I accidentally purchased one the same colour as I already had. Silly rabbit. My favourite colour of blush is pink. I love any kind of pretty pink blush. I recently purchased Nars “Gaiety” which is a gorgeous candy pink with hints of lilac and lavender. I also just bought Nars “Orgasm,” partly because its name made me giggle (and blush!) and partly because I felt that it was time to try something other than just pink. Orgasm is a lovely peach colour with golden sparkles. I’m excited to try it, especially when I’m tanned.
My current blush collection! Can't you see why I need more?
I got into bronzers quite late. I had a brief flirtation with a Napoleon Perdis one when I was seventeen and first getting into higher end makeup, but from eighteen til twenty two I mostly stuck to the same formula of matte face + bright pink blush + babydoll eyes + bright lipstick. As I said before, I had a Body Shop bronzer which I threw away today, which leaves me now with exactly one bronzer. It’s Napoleon Perdis Blush Patrol and I love it because I can use it whether I’m tanned or not and it still looks nice. I intend to purchase some more bronzers as it gets closer to summer.
Napoleon Perdis Blush Patrol bronzer, feat. Whipped Dream Tan Enhancer.
I don’t use concealer, so I don’t have any. The one I threw out today hadn’t been touched in probably a year, so into the bin it went. It’s not like I paid for it (the only thing I miss about that store- free castoffs from the hygiene kit). I also don’t use much in the way of highlighters or radiance fluids. I do, however, have a Chi Chi product that my mum gave me from her makeup collection, which is sort of a sparkly powder, bronze coloured but it pats on just like a soft, almost colour-less shimmer. I have no idea what it’s called but it comes in a hot pink ball shape with a teeny tiny powder puff and my favourite thing about it is that it looks like a Poké Ball.
As far as powder, I have two. I have an Yves Saint Laurent powder compact which I save for special occasions, and another castoff from my mum’s makeup, a Nutrimetics translucent finishing powder which I wear almost every time I put on makeup.
I don’t use primer anymore (I used to, but I’ve become pretty low maintenance compared to how I used to be- I can do a full face of makeup in fifteen minutes now, ten if I’m feeling particularly low maintenance), but I do have a Napoleon Perdis eye primer which works really well and is especially good for when I want to put on glitter or shimmer dust because it sticks to the primer and doesn’t fall all over my cheeks.
And then, we come to the last category in my makeup collection: Lip products. I have an interesting relationship with lip products. I have somehow managed to collect roughly seventeen lip products. I used to have more, I’m not entirely sure where all my Lip Smackers disappeared to, but suddenly I don’t have any left. So this is what I have in terms of lip products: Nine lipsticks, two flavoured lip glosses, two coloured lip glosses, one lip lacquer, one lip scrub, one lip liner and one tub of lip balm. In my handbag I always carry at least one tube of paw paw ointment, but I don’t consider this lip-specific because I use it on fresh tattoos, rashes, scrapes etc as well.
Of my seventeen(ish) specific lip products:
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Five are different shades of red
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Six are different shades of pink
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One is dark plum coloured lipstick
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One is vanilla flavour
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One is cinnamon buns flavour and glittery
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One is cotton candy flavour
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One is a browny-pink sort of colour
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One is an edible bubblegum flavoured lip exfoliant (and also pink)
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Six are Christian Dior
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One is MAC
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One is Chanel
And they all go temporarily missing the instant I put them into a handbag.
The funny thing is, I have worn all of them. I use my lip balms on a regular basis, I wear my pink lipsticks and lip glosses to work in rotation, I exfoliate my lips with my Lush bubblegum scrub almost every day, sometimes more than once a day. I don’t often wear red or plum anymore, because I never go out, but I used to wear them all the time. There was once a time when the only colour I wore on my lips was red. Now I save them for special occasions and dress-up nights at work.
I can justify having every single one of these products, and I can justify why I want more. I can do that with all of my makeup. I am running out of all my cream eyeshadows, so I clearly need to buy a new one, and I know exactly what I want to go and buy. With regards to lips, I need multiple lip balms because I always carry lip balm with me and I like to have backups. I need multiple lipsticks because if I have lots of them, I never run out of my other ones. I have different kinds of flavoured lip gloss because I have too many favourite flavours to just have one. I really need to get a lip liner that isn’t red because these days, I rarely wear red lipstick. I need a heavier foundation for work and a darker one for when I’m tanned. I need to buy an eyebrow pencil because I don’t have one. I’ve never owned one, I’ve just borrowed my mum’s. I need to replace my kohl eyeliner because it’s almost all gone. I can literally give you a reason for exactly why I have what I have, and exactly why I need to buy the things on my makeup shopping list.
A girl can just never have too much makeup!
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