Tuesday 31 December 2013

Makeup Clearout!

Hi!
 
 
Yes I am writing this post as a form of procrastination... I have four essays to write over the next couple of days and I can't be bothered to do any of them. Serves me right for taking English Literature and History as a-levels...
Anyway this is much more fun to write about than the Russian revolution in 1917.
 
So I was looking through my makeup drawers and discovered that there are a whole load of products that I haven't used in ages...some of them too old/dried up/used up and I hadn't even noticed.
 
After doing some research I've found the lifespans for makeup products:
 
Mascara - 3 months
Pencil Eyeliners - 2 years
Eyeshadows - 2 years
Cream Shadows - 1 year
Lipsticks - 2 years
Cream Blush - 1 year
Powder Blush - 2 years
Foundations/Concealers - 2 years
 
 
Now...I'm not going to lie...I do NOT stick to these guidelines and personally I think some of them are myths.
I definitely don't throw away mascaras after 3 months...I throw them out when they've either dried up or I've used them up; I don't see the point in throwing out a perfectly good mascara. Similarly I definitely will not throw out an eyeshadow after 2 years if there is nothing wrong with it.
But its up to you! Personally I throw things out if I've used them up or if they can't be used anymore. Obviously if your lip gloss smells funny or your foundation isn't the same anymore then its probably time for a clear out. :)
 
 
I realised that there were some old, unusable products cluttering up my drawers and I thought that if I'm not using them anymore there is no point in keeping them.
 
 
Wow. That's a lot of makeup :P
I also threw out a couple of old, dried up nail polishes too so I've cleared up a lot of space in my makeup drawers.
 
1) Lips
 
 
This is the drawer that I think needed a clearout the most. There were several lipglosses that were old and some that were leaking (one of my biggest dislikes with lip products) and I just didn't want or need them anymore.
 
I threw out:
  •  A L'Oreal gloss that I didn't ever even like... the smell was too strong and it was too frosty for me
  •  A Natural Collection gloss that started to smell different and I hadn't used in months
  • A Max Factor gloss I got for free a while ago. I LOVED this colour but now its old and I've used up most of it anyway.
  • An Urban Decay mini lipgloss that came free with a set that I didn't like the colour of to start with.
  • An old Lipmate lip balm that was really old
  • My mini Benefit Lip Plump. I used this to mute out my lip colour before lipstick but I've used up most of it and even so I can use concealer for this purpose.
2) Palettes
 
 
These came from my "small palettes" drawer.
I got rid of:
 
  • My Benefit The Realness Of Conealness palette. I've taken out all the mini products that came in this box and I've still got them. However there were 2 products in a pan in this box; one was the Lemon Aid which I've pretty much used up. The other was the Boi-ing which I dislike and anyway, its in the wrong shade. I felt it was time to get rid of this clunky packaging in my drawer!
  • Urban Decay lip palette. This is really too old for me to justify keeping. I didn't even use the lip colours in there anymore anyway because they were old. I liked to keep a hold of it because its pretty packaging but its silly to let it take up space when I don't use it. 
3) Eyeshadows
 
 
I honestly don't know why I haven't thrown these out before now. Two of them were given to me by my sister ages ago and the other one was a shadow I never even liked.
Two of them are by Virgin Vie and the other by Barbara Daly and it had such awful pigmentation I swatched it and then it was shoved to the back of the drawer and forgotten about.
I also almost threw out a Body Shop eyeshadow that looks like a bruise. Before I remembered that I actually use it to look like bruises sometimes when I'm taking photos for my art projects (yes they tend to be quite dark...) so I decided to hang on to it :)
 
4) Eye...stuff?
 
 
I don't know what category these come under.  :P
One is the a Beauty Parlour eye roll on that never really did anything but was hanging around in my makeup drawers for a long time.
The other is the Bourjois Brush Concealer that I've actually used up now! It was very useful and I've finished every little bit of it now which makes me feel satisfied :) You can read a full review HERE.
 
5) Eye Liners
 
 
There wasn't a lot to throw out my my eyeliner drawer...apart from:
 
  • My old Body Shop eyeliner. Again, this was given to me by my sister a long time ago and to be honest its too dry to use properly. I thought it was time to give up on this one.
  • I also got rid of my Barry M glitter eyeliner. This stuff never worked even when I got it and has been drying out more and more ever since.
6) Mascaras
 
 
These were definitely ready to be thrown away...
 
  • I have two of the Maybelline Great Lash and seeing as I don't particularly like either I thought it seemed right to throw out one (the older one) and keep the newer one just as a backup mascara in case I'm ever caught without any.
  • My E.L.F Volumizing Mascara has now pretty much completely dried up and does nothing for my lashes now. You can read a review of it HERE if you want. It pretty much came dried up.
  • Ah my Stila Fibre Optics Mascara. I thought I'd done a review of this but it turns out I never got round to it. For a while this was my favourite mascara! It's really volumizing and made my lashes thick and full without clumping up or sticking them together. I was a big fan of this and sad to see it go, however now I've pretty much used it all up.  
 
Wow that was quite a long post... :P
It was actually surprisingly fun to go through my makeup drawers and get rid of products that were taking up unnecessary space. I also discovered some products that I'd forgotten about in my drawers - ones that I'll definitely be getting use out of in the next few days and weeks.
 
And... I personally think the best thing about it is that now I'm able to go and find more pretty makeup items to fill those drawers - products that I'll actually use!
 
Have you had a makeup clear out recently?
Thanks for reading!
Libby x

No comments:

Post a Comment