Why I threw away 80% of my makeup

and other beauty products as well.

Before I get started with this post, I want you all to know that I’m aware that the premise of this discussion comes from having the privilege of owing so many products that they became a clutter. And also that most were bought with my hard earned money.

When it comes to clothes, shoes, bags, watches, skincare products, jewellery, I always have had a limited amount of them. That’s just the way I have always been. But when it came to makeup, I had a completely different mindset. I remember myself as the little girl standing in front of a mirror, applying my mom’s lipstick on my cheeks and lips but never did I even imagine that I would end up owing more than 700 lipsticks. Only owing, not using! When it came to the usage part, I chose only from my 7-8 safe lip colours for everyday usage. Sometimes, a different shade to get out of the rut. But that would happen only once a while.

When one has just entered into the world of beauty, it’s only natural to shop a lot out of curiosity and sometimes only because you’re in the learning phase. Out of the 10 products you shopped for, only 3 work for you. If you can’t make the disappointing products work for you, it’s best to dispose the remaining ones (throw/donate) and be more careful with your purchases the next time. But what I would do (and I’m sure many others too) was to store them in hope that someday I would make use out of them. That day never came. This was before I started my blog five years back.

When I started beauty blogging, I had no idea of my talent in coming up with fresh excuses to shop for every new launch in the Indian beauty market- even if I didn’t like it. I just wanted to experiment. Of course, I enjoyed the process but didn’t realize about the garbage I was collecting. It viewed it as a treasure back then.

Fast forward this to 2017 and I realized that I was overwhelmed by my makeup collection. I’m the type of person whose mind stops functioning when there are too many products around her/him. No wonder, I prefer online shopping to malls. Fewer people too. I did a small de-clutter back then and was satisfied. The “haul culture” of beauty blogging wasn’t tempting me anymore. I was extra careful with my purchases for a certain period of time but I didn’t even realize when things went back to square one and before I knew, my cupboards, drawers, bathroom shelves were over-flowing with beauty products again.

I don’t know how it hit me suddenly but it just did. I finally came to my senses when I started checking my monthly bank account statements. 50% on beauty items! 20% on food. And that just wasn’t okay for someone who wasn’t enjoying makeup shopping anymore but was rather doing it out of her habits.

It’s the job of brands to churn out new products on a consistent basis, create new trends/campaigns  to keep themselves in limelight and increase their profits but that doesn’t mean you have to drag yourself too every time and get sucked into buying products every now and then.

I also think that your age has to do with this mentality. I’m in my mid twenties now, have more responsibilities, bills to pay and that has definitely contributed a bit in changing my relationship with makeup.

Gone are those days for me when I would enjoy reading/watching beauty content without any apprehensions because 95% of the content these days is more of an advertisement than an honest opinion. And things are getting cleverer (shadier) than ever. I would feel some invisible pressure to keep up with the reviews of the new launches. Not anymore. It doesn’t affect me.

So, I finally began with de-cluttering my beauty products, books and jewellery as well. It took me an entire week to do it. Basically, I was ruthless.

You can watch my de-cluttering phase on Instagram story highlights HERE.

I’ll show you my now edited, cut-down beauty stash but for now, I’ll answer the most asked question from me on Instagram:

Do I regret buying all the beauty products I threw/donated/sold?

The answer is no. And that’s because I wouldn’t have otherwise reached my saturation level and got to this stage today where I’m a lot more clear about my relationship with beauty.

Do not get me wrong.

I love makeup and skincare. I love doing it every day and no, it’s not a compulsion. I totally enjoy the process. Now, I enjoy it even more because my favourite products are within my reach which gives me more freedom to experiment. I don’t feel lost anymore.

This beauty blogging world is truly special to me. I’m never EVER gonna stop blogging as long as there are still a handful of people reading my blog and enjoying it. It’s my baby and I’m truly, madly in love with it. It has given me so much in terms of confidence, me-time, self-expression, photography and  writing. Not to mention, I have met some lovely women.

I have no intention of purchase ANY makeup product before the start of 2019. So, I’ll make sure I just ask them as gifts for my birthday. Just kidding. But I might. I really want that gloss.  I want to finish a significant amount of my beauty collection before I purchase anything now. I think the only categories I’ll be attracted to are foundation and lip products.

Of course, there’s going to be less content on my blog now but nonetheless, it’s going to be 100% honest as usual. I’m no more interested in keeping up with new launches anymore. So, if that’s your jam, I’m sure I’m gonna see you around.