Recent Adventures in Decluttering

So yesterday I went a little bit crazy...

And I cleaned out and re-organised my bathroom cupboard, because what else am I going to do when I have broken ribs and can't drive or go outside or go to work?

I am physically incapable of sitting still all day. So when I got out of the shower I decided I would give my skin a bit of pampering. I washed my face with cleanser, then I put on a deep-cleansing/exfoliating mask, when that was all washed off I used witch hazel toner, then I used a sample of Dr. Brandt "Dark Circles Away" collagen eye serum that I got from Mecca Cosmetica and after that I used Estée Lauder's Advanced Time Zone age repair moisturiser. I only had a sample of that moisturiser and seriously, it's amazing. I have to be super careful with what I use on my face and body because my skin is hyper-sensitive and I've had allergic reactions to so many products, so I have a bit of anxiety when I try a new moisturiser, but I would honestly go out to the store right now and buy a jar of this one.

So now my skin feels super soft and smooth and it actually sort of glows. Not in a shiny, oily, I-need-washing-why-are-you-letting-me-be-dirty way, more of like the I-am-so-happy-right-now-thank-you-for-using-those-amazing-products-on-me way.

Like a porcelain doll! No makeup. Also, my eyes are blue, although they look green here.

And after that I realised my whole bathroom cupboard was a big mess and I hadn't done a product purge in a while, so I set to work on fixing that. And in the process, I discovered a few peculiar beauty-related habits that I have.

I started by throwing away my empty body spray/perfume bottles.

Why do I keep these, knowing full well that they're empty?

I could just go out and buy a new one, instead of letting the empty bottles clutter up my cupboard. No wonder I never have any storage space!

Once I had done that (farewell, Body Shop coconut spray and Vera Wang Preppy Princess), I hunted around for something to keep my cotton pads in. I was getting really tired of having an ugly, long plastic bag of cotton pads in my cupboard and the opening to pull them out of was too narrow anyway. Eventually I found an old Napoleon Perdis box that was the packaging for a powder puff (which now sits on top of the chest of drawers in my dressing room). It's cute, with black and white stripes on the outside and pink on the inside, small and much more aesthetically pleasing than a plastic tube-shaped bag. I also put my heart-shaped container of cotton tips into a black velvety candleholder that I bought in Copenhagen. I could have taken them out of the container first, but I wanted them to be kept clean because they will sit in the cupboard and not on the counter (Mantra for this exercise: Declutter, declutter, declutter!)

The next thing I learned about myself is that yes, I have a lot of beauty products, but I don't have many that don't get used. I don't really have anything that I don't use on a regular basis. For example:

I have two cleansers. They are both Chanel, and one is almost empty, but they are for different things. I have one for when my skin is dry (this is the almost empty one) and one for when my skin is a little more oily. This is perfectly logical to me, because cleansers are not all created equal. They are designed for different things.

I also have two toners. One is Christian Dior and I bought it super cheap in Sephora when I was in Las Vegas two years ago. Two years ago. It has lasted me that long. And the reason it has lasted so long, is because I use it as sort of a treat product. I don't use it every day. My everyday toner is Witch Hazel. I have been using it on and off since I was about fourteen, and in between I have tried Clinique (burned my skin), Chanel (amazing but really very expensive for what it is), and various ones from the Body Shop which I only used because I worked there and I had to try things. They were horrible for my delicate skin so I stopped using them. But I always come back to my good old-fashioned $6 Witch Hazel toner from the supermarket. If it ain't broke...

Moisturisers are a tricky thing. Like I mentioned, I have supersensitive skin and the two main things my face will react very severely to, are cleansers and moisturisers. I have tried lots of different moisturisers and the only brand I have found thus far that is really good for my skin, is Chanel (and now, Estée Lauder- I can't wait to buy some more). I've tried all sorts of moisturisers, and I currently own three: Two in the bathroom cupboard and one on my dresser. The one on my dresser is Chanel. It's a gel instead of a thick cream and I absolutely adore it. It will probably be my staple for the rest of my life. Then in my cupboard I have a half-used tube of Body Shop brand "Nutriganics" which smells really nice but it's not great for my skin. I don't really know why I keep it; I should probably throw it away. Maybe next purge. The other cream I have in my cupboard is a Nature's Organics one that I actually forgot I had. I pulled it out from the very back of the bottom shelf and went, "Oh. I forgot I had this." It's a nice moisturiser and I like that it's an inexpensive cruelty-free brand, but it's much too thick and heavy for my skin. I kept it in the cupboard for summertime when I inevitably come home from the beach with little sunburned spots (I always manage to miss small areas). It's some sort of sorbelene and really, who says you can't use a facial moisturiser on your body?

My current everyday cleanser and moisturiser.

Another product I have more than one of is fake tan. I have two kinds of Bondi Sands tan, one light and one dark. The dark one is my favourite of the two, but I sort of feel like I should use up the light one before I throw it away. I guess that's another one of my peculiar beauty habits- I have a hard time throwing things away before they're all used up. I have been known to carry multiple perfumes, Lip Smackers and body lotions around in my handbag and using them excessively, just to use them up and feel justified in throwing them away and buying another one. There isn't too much left in either of my tanning lotion bottles, though, so I'll just carry on using them up before I buy more (cut to me in two weeks, buying more anyway :P).

One product that I definitely do hoard is Pond's Cold Cream. I currently have three jars of this in my cupboard and two of them have never been opened. Again, I can rationalise this. I adore this product. I love everything about it: The old-fashioned packaging (this is original stuff, not the new Pond's with its flashy metallic bottles. This is the old white plastic tub with the light green lid), the smell (it reminds me of being a young ballerina and taking off my stage makeup), the cooling sensation it leaves on my skin, the way it makes me feel like a lady in the 1940s whenever I use it. And I can't find it in shops, so when I found it online for $7 per large jar, I stocked up. I bought three of them at once. I will probably buy a bunch more the next time I go to that website and stock up on beauty products. I need to hoard this product. What if they stop stocking it? What will I do then? You don't even understand how much I need my cold cream. Don't judge me.

My stash of Pond's cold cream

For a long time, I have thought that I was a really big beauty product hoarder. But after jumping on Google and seeing pictures of other people's bathrooms, with literally ten to fifteen bottles of just shampoo and conditioner in people's showers or around their bathtubs, I feel almost like a minimalist. Perhaps it's because I clean out my collection so often and try to use things up that I've had for quite a while. Products go bad, you know. I just threw away an eyelash adhesive that I have never opened because it turns out that if you don't use that stuff, it goes off. It goes all clumpy and solid and turns yellow. Ew. I also threw away some fake eyelashes today that I have never worn. I don't really know why I even bought them (I was seventeen; I don't know why I bought a few different things. Why did I wear four inches of eyeliner? I chalk it up to lack of experience). They looked like drag queen eyelashes. I am not a drag queen. Best to leave it to the professionals, I think.

Shower products: At the moment, I have one shower gel in my shower, and one in my cupboard. I have two because I don’t like running out of shower gel and having to go to the store, just to buy another one. I’m usually a very busy person, I don’t have that kind of time to waste. So I keep a backup one and that way, I never run out! I think that’s clever. I also have one jar of coconut body scrub, which I don’t use all the time. Like my Dior toner, it’s a treat product. Also, it’s not good to over-exfoliate your skin and most of my shower gels are gentle exfoliators, so on a daily basis that’s enough. Once a week is good for deep exfoliation (but I often don’t have time… So I don’t use my scrub as often as that). So I guess I don’t really hoard shower products either, although I used to. When I worked at the Body Shop, I literally bought five shower gels at once and kept them all in my cupboard, choosing a different one each day. Which was really fun, but I was living in a house with a bigger bathroom cupboard at that time, so I had space for them all. I don’t have as much space anymore. And that’s probably a good thing, because what kind of crazy person needs five different kinds of shower gel? I guess I felt like I did at the time. So for body-washing products, we have a total of three. Surely that’s not hoarding behaviour.

In terms of shampoo and conditioner, I currently have exactly two of each. I have a DeLorenzo silver shampoo, which is actually purple but it keeps my hair nice and white, just the way I like it. I love this shampoo and I always buy it because it's packed with gorgeous natural ingredients like flowers, it's vegan friendly and cruelty-free, and it's the best silver shampoo I've ever used. I also have a Tigi Bedhead volumising shampoo which I recently bought. My hair is so super-long and I don't have it layered so I'm hoping this shampoo will help give my hair lots of volume. The conditioners I have are Redken All Soft to keep my thirsty hair nice and hydrated and silky, and Organix vanilla. Because it's vanilla.

I have exactly one rinse-out hair treatment. It is a Wella Salon Professional Repair Mask that a hairdresser friend introduced me to, many years ago. It's one of the best masks I've ever used. It's starting to run out now, so I'll definitely buy another one soon. I used to always buy the Macadamia Oil hair mask and I'll probably start buying that again also. I love hair treatments and my hair definitely appreciates it when I use them. But yeah, I definitely don't hoard as many hair products as some girls!

I currently have two facial masks and, as with my cleansers, they both serve different skin conditions. One is a breakout-soothing peppermint and coconut mask, for those times when I have an angry red flare-up on my fragile little face and the other is a deep-cleansing pore exfoliator for blackheads and pimples and general muck-removing. I think that's pretty rational.

My next collection is body sprays/mists/perfumes/deodorants. In terms of general, everyday deodorants I have only one. It is a Nivea roll-on, anti-white marks, garden variety deodorant. It works really well and it usually lives in whichever day bag I'm living out of at the time (gym bag, handbag, it travels between the two). But then we come to my collection of fragrances. This, I will admit, I am guilty of hoarding. But they're different smells! That makes sense, right? Sure. But what doesn't make sense, is why I pulled an empty can of Impulse "Tease" out from the back of my cupboard. Why? Why do I do this?

My gigantic fragrance collection is too big and vast to go into detail with, but I might put up some photos later if anyone wants to see just how many different kinds I have. It’s a collection, okay, it’s not hoarding. And I will continue to tell myself that.


In terms of miscellaneous things, I have one toothbrush, one tube of toothpaste (which reminds me, I need to get some more of that soon, I’m running out), two hairbrushes (one flat brush and one round brush- Hairbrushes do different things, okay! I need two different kinds), two combs (one lives in my handbag and goes mostly everywhere with me and the other lives in my bathroom), a fake tanning mitt, a bottle of Le Tan coconut-scented sunscreen, a green tea after sun gel, one hairdryer, one straightener, one curling iron, a tub of bobby pins (blonde), the various kinds of hair clips that came with my set of hot rollers (the hot rollers themselves live in my bedroom and I love them), one set of pink foam rollers/curlers, a jar of developer, a packet of powder bleach, half a bottle of pink acetone-free nail polish remover, a box of Epsom Salts, a leopard print hair colour mixing bowl, a good hair colour application brush, a half-used jar of Manic Panic “Virgin Snow” toner, a measuring tape (it’s best not to ask why I keep this in my bathroom), cotton tips and cotton pads (which I mentioned earlier), one packet of in-shower hair removal cream and the bladeless razor thing that comes with it. I had an old one as well but I threw that away. I am ridiculous with those things. Every time you buy a new packet, it comes with its own razor. At one point I actually had five or six of them. Whatever was wrong with me back then has clearly been fixed. Now I only have one. I also have one eyelash curler, one pair of nail scissors (which I also use to trim my hair because I’m too lazy to buy proper hair scissors and I only cut my fringe anyway), and one pair of tweezers. My hair styling tools live in one of those plastic trays that my mum bought when she was on a storage-organisation kick and my little things like the hair clips, smaller tools, etc live in a black and pink striped Juicy Couture gift box.

I am a bit of a fiend for haircare products, and this is because I have extremely long blonde hair which requires a lot of maintenance. So I do have rather a lot of products that I use on a regular basis to keep my hair soft and healthy and in good condition (nothing is worse than dry, dead hair). For the most part, I just brush my hair and use these leave-in products and avoid using heat on my hair. I only curl or straighten it when I’m working at the nightclub and I only blow-dry my hair once a week (I only wash it once a week, twice at most). This is part of the reason that my hair is so naturally long and healthy. I have the following products in my bathroom at the moment:

·         Macadamia Oil nourishing leave-in cream, which is a huge pump bottle and even though I use it all the time, it never seems to run out.

·         Brazil Nut anti-frizz smoothing curl cream, which smells incredible and also protects my hair from heat when I’m curling it.

·         GHD root lift spray, which I use after I wash my hair to create volume at the roots and also when I want to create extra volume when my hair is dry.

·         Tigi Bedhead “Ego Boost” split-end mender, which comes in an adorable hot pink and bright green pump bottle and has a funny name, which always appeals to me.

                             

Even that doesn’t sound like too much to me. Four products is pretty streamlined, I think, especially considering that my hair is as long as it is and requires as much attention as it does. I also have one can of hair lacquer (which is a really old fashioned kind of hairspray, if you’re wondering) which lives in my dressing room.

I used to be a really big hoarder of body lotions. I could never get enough of creams and lotions and yummy-smelling things. When I worked at the Body Shop I always had hundreds of little sample pots of various things, but the main one was body lotion. I have also received many different body lotions as gifts over the years and I’ve always had a hard time finishing them. Perhaps that is because I have become so busy and my schedule has become so hectic that I have less time, I don’t know. But I have slowly worked my way through the mass and last week I gave my almost-full tub of mango body butter to one of my girl friends because I can’t use it without thinking of the guy who bought it for me (not fun) and over time I have managed to whittle my collection down to the following products:

·         Body Shop strawberry body butter (almost all gone, sadly)

·         Body Shop coconut body butter (which I use so sparingly that I’ve had it since last April/May and still have most of it left. It’s my favourite)

·         Body Shop coconut shimmer lotion (same principle- I use it sparingly and still have most of it left)

·         An almost-empty jar of marshmallow flavoured “Baby Doll” body soufflé that one of my best girl friends gave me for Christmas almost two years ago and it has a gorgeous pin-up on the lid and it’s generally lovely. I have moved this into my day bag so I can force myself to apply body lotion more regularly.

Another thing I love is samples. I can’t help it, I just love them. I love to collect small products to try at home before I commit to the whole bottle. Space in my bathroom is highly limited and I don’t like to have too much clutter (which is funny, considering how much stuff I actually do use). However, I feel the need to clarify that I am not a serial sampler (Serial Sampler: A person who goes store to store, collecting samples and never buying anything). All of the samples that I collect are done so while I’m making a purchase of something else. I mentioned before that I just used my samples of the Estée Lauder moisturiser and Dr. Brandt dark circle corrector (which was nice but I won’t be spending $82 on the whole product). I also just threw away the remainder of my Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat highlighter because it was getting a little bit old. Whilst hunting through one of my makeup bags I also found tiny little perfume samples of Dior Hypnotic Poison, Chanel Eau Premiere, Viktor & Rolf Flowerbomb and YSL Parisienne. I also have a sample of a Chanel eye gel which I got when I was last at a Chanel counter, buying my moisturiser. It’s really lovely and gentle and I am considering buying a full-size one. I also have a sample of Chanteille cleansing milk which I am excited to try because it’s vegan, cruelty-free and full of pretty natural ingredients. I love that Mecca Cosmetica send you samples when you buy things from them online, I think that’s a really lovely touch. Why should you miss out on samples just because you didn’t purchase your products in a store? What a great way to build brand loyalty.

So that’s pretty much most of my beauty product collection, as well as a sort of confessional about my peculiar beauty habits. I hope you found this interesting! Stay tuned for Part Two: Makeup.



xoxo