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Post in Beauty Confidential
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Show Me Your Declutters!

I received an order today with four new lipsticks,

(Lancome L'Absolue Lacquer...I will never ever stop mentioning these every-dang-where 😄😍)

but had absolutely no room for them in my containers. While the thought "buy more containers" crossed my mind for a brief second, I quickly dismissed it as I'm starting to feel overwhelmed with too much stuff. I'd been pulling out one or two here and there, but today was the big reckoning!Sorry I didn't stage a better pic, but that's 55 lip items that are now gloriously gone from my stash!Sorry I didn't stage a better pic, but that's 55 lip items that are now gloriously gone from my stash!

This is only the stuff I pulled today; I have a small train case packed full of the other lippies (and some palettes) that I've been slowly pulling over the last couple of months. Do I still have more I could get rid of? Yeah, most likely...if I was on the fence, I erred on the side of keeping it rather than tossing. And I didn't swatch every single keeper to weed out similar shades, so there's probably still a good bit of overlap in my berry-heavy collection. But my oh my, I feel soooo much better now. I found not only things I had forgotten about, but things I really had no clue I even owned in the first place 🤣

 

So...do you have too much too? Ready to clear up some space and salvage a little sanity? Share your declutters with us; we wanna see it! 

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

@PinkEvergreen That's fantastic! I know part of what's holding me back from a much deeper cut is that a lot of it would involve sending perfectly good products to the landfill. I don't have people in my life right now who I could share hand-me-downs with.

 

What I need is a friend with a teenager! Haha

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

@fieldsofclover @RGbrown Teenagers are definitely where it’s at lol 😂 They aren’t picky like adults, love to experiment, and have already seen most of what you give them used on YouTube and have ideas on how to use it. 

 

As for having a network... it did take me some time to create my “makeup recycling network.” I honestly don’t know anyone as devoted (okay, obsessed) with makeup as I am, and most of my friends don’t even wear makeup. So I spoke to colleagues, friends, family, and neighbours, and even cross-country, to find people who would be interested in it. I don’t mind mailing declutter boxes if it means makeup finds a good home. 

 

So, yah, that part was a bit of a chore, because I didn’t want to give good makeup to people who would just toss it. Doing the declutters was actually much more fun than establishing who would make use of the products — go figure 😊

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

@PinkEvergreen Same here, I got one friend into makeup, but that's it. Once, I set some stuff to someone (not on BIC) & they later revealed to me that they tossed most of it, without even trying it!

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

@RGbrown Great idea for a thread!  I don't have pictures, but I went through in December and took out everything I hadn't used in the preceding month, at a recommendation from a book (Lazy Perfection by Jenny Patinkin).  After the purge, I stopped reading the book, lol.  So I didn't finish it.  But the purge was worth it!

 

I didn't have much makeup to start and most of it was trash, just really old and expired or stuff I wasn't that into.  And I was ruthless.  It hurt to throw some of that stuff away, but I'm thrilled I did.  I don't regret it at all.  Of course, I'm now accumulating more.  Just better stuff and things I actually use (for the most part).  If only I could stop!  I just counted the other day and I have 18 lippies in my purse, but to be fair that's almost everything I own in that category.  I look forward to seeing more declutter from other people.

RE: Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

@sprocketta, 2 thoughts- 1) realizing you don’t need to finish a book is an accomplishment all of its own. That deserves a 🙌🏼 and 2) 18 lippies in one purse? I think I had 10 at 1 point, and realized I had a problem bc there was no way in decluttering that mess. I needed them all. Then this month, thanks to this thread I tossed the majority of them. No pics, but I guess personal satisfaction is better than none.

Re: RE: Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

@eshoeUnidentified the 18 is most of my lip collection. I hate putting lipstick/lip gloss on at home because it's just going to end up on my coffee cup at work (I'm not a fan of mattes). So I carry it with me so I have choices. It is kinda risky because if I lost the purse I would be super upset about losing those. One day I was on a hot bus with the sun beating down on my purse and I was terrified they would melt. Thankfully they didn't.

 

Glad you got your purse under control. Decluttering is tough. It's hard to let go!

 

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

@sprocketta lol! That used to happen to me too! I kept forgetting to put the lipsticks away day to day, just kept them in the purse adding whichever I wore the next day. Then I ended up with a bunch of lipsticks in my purse at the end of the week!😂

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

@sprocketta

Congrats on the lazy purge 😄

It's a vicious cycle though, isn't it? Getting rid of it all just to start right back over. I'm hoping to break that cycle and keep new buys at a minimum...all this trash is so overwhelming and wasteful. ☹️

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

Yes @RGbrown my goal is to use what I have without going crazy and buying tons more. Hard to say no sometimes though.

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

@RGbrown What a great idea! I just did this the other day, I'll have to go through what I pulled & take some pictures 🙂

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

@ohheyitscindyk oh yay, can't wait to see more declutters! 😀

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

This is such a great thread, I declutter, but then I have a problem throwing some of the items away. I have too many darn lipsticks, but I just dont have the heart to throw them away. I just store them in a different area, and try to get around to using them

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

@Anastasiya13 yep, just tossing them is hard to do. I'll probably have this box sitting around for eternity 😄

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

This is from back in March... I took the photo but didn't really know where to post it 😂 The first two were were well-loved but the Chanel is old and had turned and the Dior met an unfortunate death (open tube rolled off the dresser onto the carpet).

 

The rest are regular declutters... not oily anymore so half the Becca sat until way past it expired, and some colors that were no good for me.


IMG_20180310_232645.jpg

 

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

@fieldsofclover Why did you declutter the Bite High Pigment pencil on the far right?

 

The reason I ask is because I bought several on sale and they don’t smell very nice... sort of like old mineral oil. I’m wondering if they’ve expired or that’s their normal odour. I don’t really enjoy applying them because of that, and because they have a slightly gritty texture. 

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

@PinkEvergreen That one was way too light for me... my natural lip color is close to Bite Sake or Thistle.

 

Sounds like yours might be expired... I got a few on sale and really liked the formula, just couldn't nail down a color. But there's no scent to mine and definitely no texture. I've wondered whether mine might die soon, I'm always suspicious about clearance like that 😂

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

Ugh, looking at this photo made me decide I need to repurchase that Dior before buying another random high-end lipstick... I really love that shade (Avenue). At least it was almost done so it wasn't much wasted product, just didn't get the satisfaction of finishing it!

RE: Show Me Your Declutters!

I did a small declutter last night, I had no idea I had so many unused lip products. I didn’t want to toss the Chanel, but it makes my teeth look yellow, and I have other reds that don’t do that, so it was time to say goodbye. The “Temptress” shimmering powder is a few years old, and while I love the color, I never use it. Then I read the ingredients and it was a no-brained. Glad I hardly ever used it!! Ferric ferrocyanide?!?! 😳

Re: RE: Show Me Your Declutters!

Oh no!!! I’m dreading to do this with my Tom Ford lippies too @eshoe

Re: RE: Show Me Your Declutters!

@eshoe

Oh, I'd hate to toss a Chanel too! Part of my phase two purge will entail having to decide about some of my higher end stuff, and I dread that. I don't have anything quite that expensive, but I do have some NARS and such to go through.

 

I'm no ingredient expert, but I did a quick recon on ferric ferrocyanide. It was one of the first synthetic dyes, accidentally discovered in 1704 by two Berlin chemists, and is also referred to as Prussian Blue or sometimes Berlin Blue. It was first used to dye the Prussian Army's uniforms since it was much cheaper than other dyes available at the time. Even though the chemical name sounds awful, it is not toxic as the cyanide is tightly bound to the iron, and has been permanently approved for use in cosmetics by the FDA since 1978. ☺️

 

It also has an interesting medical application, treating people who have been contaminated with radioactive cesium or thallium, or non-radioactive thallium; it binds to those metals in the digestive tract to keep the body from absorbing them. Fascinating!

RE: Re: RE: Show Me Your Declutters!

@RGbrown, wow thanks for the info! Glad it sounds worse than it really is. Now I want to go dig through my trash 😆 but I will resist!
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