How do you manage to use up products? Share!
Unless I really focus on finishing something, it’s unlikely that I will. For skincare, I usually stick with whatever I open until it is gone, but otherwise it’s rare!
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Well for a long time my entire collection was 3-4 eye shadows, 2 lipsticks, 1 black eyeliner, and a compact of pressed powder, so it was pretty easy to use stuff up.
I remember those days lol
Since I’m a makeup and skincare junkie, it’s really hard for me to use up anything. I think the only way for me to do it, is to stop reading blogs, stop buying new stuff, and focus on finishing up my stash, which means I probably won’t have to buy any skincare for at least 1 year and any makeup for 5-10 years. I wish companies would shrink the size of the product and also shrink the price. Like the MUFE Artist shadows are HUGE, will take me forever to finish one, but if they halved the size and only charged $10, I can buy more and finish more.
I agree about shrinking products and size.
Great idea. I have the same problem..
A very good idea indeed! Most of the makeup buyers are not MUAs, so it is hard to finish a large pan of a shadow or a blush. It would make my makeup additct’s life so much easier if some products were smaller in size and proportionately cheaper.
For color cosmetics, I don’t generally finish anything. On the other hand, for things like skincare and mascara, I just make sure not to have more than 2 types of product open at the same time.
I usually have multiple lip balms open at one time, but I also finish those regularly.
It takes a lot of consistent wear to use up a makeup product.And since I have so much variety I’ve only totally used up a few. Some need replacement after expiring or damage though . Thus giving me the excuse to buy more unneeded makeup, lol.
With the exception of foundation, skincare, primers, mascara and liners, not much ever gets completely used up. Perhaps a favorite lipstick or gloss, or an everyday workhorse eyeshadow ( I hit pan on my beloved MAC Orb!), as well. Oh, and every once in a blue moon, a blush!
I can usually put a dent into some products by using them every day for a month, or by travelling with them.
Sometimes you can mix some less popular shades together and make a new one you want to use all the time!
By being too poor to buy anything new, I have to use what I have already hahaha.
I only really buy what I love and need. so I usually use up everything I own!! Eyeshadow is the one item it takes me longer to hit pan on and use up, but eventually those go too! 🙂
I usually use up my most basic cosmetic products, which are items I never skip during my makeup application. They are my:
• MAC concealer
• MAC Fix + spray
• [Facial] Primer
• Mascara
These are the only products I have to replace every few months or so. Everything else rarely reaches the empty mark. Blushes and highlighters are my most difficult cosmetic products to use up. Hitting pan on a blush or a highlighter is almost like a folklore.
For skincare, I usually use a product until it’s gone before open another one. With my BB cream/TM and concealer I use daily, I use them consistently until I finish the last drop and I change them only on weekends or when I need more coverage. With the rest of the products, although I try to focus on them, I have no success in even hitting pan.
I’m currently working to finish a few products I’ve had a long time (such as foundations/brow products) and things that are smaller and easier to finish (samples). I have no idea how to go about finishing powder items such as my blushes, bronzers, highlights, and even eyeshadows because I use so little every day and I have so many of each. Currently on a low/no-buy until I make a serious dent in my collection. I’m also constantly destashing and getting rid of products I know I will not be using, but I haven’t found a great place for these unloved products yet.
Get in contact with a local women’s shelter or resource center if there’s one near you. Some of them will accept donations of clothing, toiletries, and makeup. When I still lived in ND there was a resale shop that helped low-income and homeless women get ready for job interviews, and I often donated makeup and dress clothes to them.
There’s also a few communities online. I use “highendmakeup” on livejournal, and I’m sure there’s makeup sale/trade reddit threads, or craigslist. I know ebay doesn’t allow the sale of used makeup though.
I use up my holy grail products rather often…brow pencil, concealer, makeup wipe removers, bronzer, face powder, eye shadow transition shade, certain eye liners, etc. My skincare stays the same so I always have backups of those products. But yet, the blush that I wear 90% of the time that I have worn makeup for the last 3-4 years just got a dent in it. I have a million highlighters laying around that I will never finish. And I have finish ONE lipstick in the past 4 years that I’ve been into makeup.
I try to keep stuff in rotation I want to finish up but, like you it’s unlikely that I use up makeup. I’m a little better with skincare though since I’m less adventurous with it but I have to really keep a product in rotation before I start to do some damage. The only makeup I’ve hit pan on took me years lol
I only ever manage to use up my staples, like foundation, mascara, eyebrow products, and brown eyeliner.
I rarely use up all of a color product. Typically I get tired of it and/or replace it with the “latest and greatest”. The only exceptions with color products are: Trish McEvoy Instant Eye Lift (replaced twice and still use), Bobbi Brown LE Cool Palette (used up a couple of the shades and replaced the palette before it was out of stock), and the Smashbox x Nickki Hilton shadow trio which I’m almost done with. I’m pretty finicky with skincare and now that I have favs, I seem to be replacing those (Korres brightening scrub, Dermalogica Clean Start, BioDerma, Lancome Bifacil, Boots Advanced Intense serum, Trish McEvoy retinol eye cream, Paula’s Choice Anti-aging clear skin hydrator, Trish McEvoy vitamin C cream, Trish McEvoy Weekly peel).
I’m honestly pretty bad at it. The only products I’ve finished are everyday products like foundation, eyeliner, mascara and powder and when I throw out stuff it’s usually because it’s old. I use different lipstick, foundation and eyeshadows etc all the time! I do the same as you regarding skin care though.
Skin care- I can use up easily as I have a certain routine and not a ton of products and I use it everyday. The only skin care products I have a lot of are masks and there are some that I use more than others so they get used up quicker.
Makeup- I have to focus on a product to use it up except for primers, setting sprays, lip scrubs and lip primers as I use those every single day I wear makeup.
Hair Products- I do not curl, straighten (already straight) or blow dry my hair (air dry) so my hair products are pretty limited. I do like to mix up my shampoo and conditioners so I have to focus on using those to ensure they are used up. I have many cans of dry shampoo but I go through those easily as I don’t wash my hair everyday so they get used up quickly.
Until very recently I’d never finished anything! The only things I really finish are mascara (but that’s usually when they dry up), foundation (since I use the same one 90% of the time), and skincare. I never finished skincare until a few months ago, since now I have a routine I love and have been using for a while.
I have been focusing on a few products this summer to use up (and been pretty successful!) so I think each season I’ll target a few to motor through. I’ve been quite restrictive on what I purchase as well – only replacements for stuff that gets daily use, and if it’s a new product, it must replace a used-up one.
It depends on the product. Skin care, concealer, face primer, eyeshadow primer, cosmetics, and primer that I wear daily or frequently obviously get used up pretty regularly, obviously. I don’t own a ton of different skincare. I own one of each thing I need, and any samples or smaller jars from subscription boxes get used when I travel. Mascara I throw out every 3-4 months. I wear it every day, and by the end of that time, it either goes clumpy, dries out, or starts irritating my eyes and giving me sties. So unless it’s a sample size, I never use it up before I need to throw it out.
On easy way to use things up is to go on a no buy for one product and use up stuff in your stash. I was on a lipstick no-buy for a few years, and I used the last of a bunch lipsticks and lipglosses in my collection. Other than that, I rotate through my collection, but I don’t know if I’ll ever finish a lot of the color cosmetics I own. I get too bored to just wear the same thing day after day.
If I hit pan on a product, I do find myself using it more often to finish it up. It doesn’t really make sense, but I do it any way. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I like the no-buy idea! When I got my UD Naked Smoky Palette, I saw that there was literally no more comfortable space fir any more large palettes, told myself I didn’t need any more large palettes for probably 5-10 years…..and then late last night? BAM! Not one, but 2 beautiful UD Palettes! Smdh ???
Those two UD palettes. *sigh* I won’t be able to resist those. Not even gonna try. 😉
Same here, UD slayed it! But I don’t even begin to know where I’ll put them??? Storage space is an issue….
The downside to huge palettes. I have a shelf with my Vice Palettes and other large palettes, but they don’t want to stack nicely when some of them have raised designs on the top.
Spectrum is coming out right around my birthday, so I’d better figure out something. That baby will my b-day present, even if I have to buy it for myself. 😀
I think I really need that palette myself! So I somehow will find room somewhere, perhaps a new wheeled Sterlite since my other one had the wheel snap off due to my over-stuffing it, LoL. Digging the Spectrum and also TF Stardust Vegas Nay palette too after watching Phyrra’s tutorial on it! Perfect smoky 90’s grunge look ?
I don’t… I toss out mascara & liquid liners after a certain amount of time, or if something goes “off”, I throw it out, but even those aren’t “finished”. My skincare doesn’t change much, so I will get through those, as well as haircare (again, not much changes), and like mascara/liquid liner, I have limited products in rotation.
I’ve been thinking about doing a project pan, but it seems so hard. Forcing myself to use only one or two of my eyeshadow palettes until they’re gone sounds tedious, but it would probably give me more realistic expectations of how much makeup I really need (not much, obviously). I’ve also been trying to go on a makeup no buy, but this is the worst time of the year to start, the holiday palettes are already coming out. ?
By accepting that I probably won’t. I’m doing much better with foundation lately; my beauty kryptonite. Sadly, I haven’t completely stopped purchasing and trying out more of the latest greatest, but I’ve slowed my acquisition rate considerably and also have not abandoned the small handful that continue to impress me. So I actually am chewing through TF traceless perfecting, Armani lasting silk, Koh Gen Doh Aqua, Dior Star and Missha BB. As far as the rest: Eyeshadows, blushes et al… I can’t imagine coming remotely close so I don’t stress or criticize myself for the pleasure.
I never do : (
I have to really make a conscience effort to finish something. I was a MAC collector for a long time, and have so many products that go untouched, so lately I’ve been pulling them put and use until I finish then and then I’ve been back to mac-ing for an eye shadow that I want or lipstick. Skin care is easy I use until its done as well as hair care.
I use up the products I really love quickly. Mostly skin care but lip stuff too. My most replaced products are Burts Bees Tinted Balms. I wear them almost every day regardless of the rest of my face!
I often don’t finish products. I either pitch them if bad, use a makeup spatula to remover products in tubes. (I cut them open about a thrift of the way down and use the small piece as a lid, I invite my daughter and granddaughter over to take what they want, assuming no eye infections which I seldom get as I wear glasses contact lenses.
I only have one set of skincare at a time – so I use that all up.
I have lots of lipsticks that I use – because it depends on what I am wearing – so I use those and I haven’t bought any more for a little while
But it’s my eye shadow palettes – I am a complete sucker for these and now that Vice 4 and Spectrum are out – it is going to be hard to resist the temptation to buy both. So what I do is rotate my eye shadows around and some palettes I use more in different seasons.
I use up skin care, primers, foundation, concealer, black liquid eyeliner, mascara, and my favorite lipstick (Rouge Bunny Rouge Murmerings), but that’s it. Prior to 5 years ago, for years I only wore one shade each of blush, lipstick, eyeliner, foundation, concealer, and mascara, so back then everything would get used up–I must have owned an eyeshadow or two but I honestly don’t recall wearing them. I might have had a second shade of lipstick that didn’t get worn, too 😀
I’ve managed to hit pan on a few items which were bought in the last year, when I focus on using up my stash.
After I clean brushes on Sunday, I go through my collection and pick out a look for the week and pick something I haven’t used in a while. I’ve been doing this for quite a while now and it’s worked pretty well.
Same same. Other than regularly getting through mascaras, I’m trying to be better about using up foundations, concealers, etc.
I have a little set of makeup that is my go-to stuff that I’ll constantly use for my everyday look or when I’m in a rush eg my MAC Quad in Brule, Wedge, Handwritten and Typographic have been repurchased several times. I don’t tend to run out blushes (because they’re too big) or foundation (because I’m constantly trying out new ones). But my holy grail eye shadows, brow gels, eyeliner and mascaras get used up.
I say to myself just about everyday that I have makeup to last for the next 10 years; even after I’ve de-stashed! I usually run out of mascara, eyeliner, eye primer, face primer. hair stuff & skin care. I have hit pan on several things so I just rotate through them. I find that they are used up much quicker since I wear some of the everyday. I’m doing pretty well, some of them are almost gone!
When I hit pan on a product, I’ll put it in my daily basket until it’s all used up, working on an eyeprimer, a blush, a eyepencil and two eyeshadows right now and it works for me this way.