The most recent time where I was frustrated was just having to move it from California to Arizona, because of the volume alone. My sister and I individually wrapped a ridiculous number of nail polish bottles (even having donated over half of what I originally had). So, that was a moment where I did NOT enjoy it at all, haha!
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Wait, you live in Arizona now?!? How did I miss this?!?
Yes, when it’s disorganized or over-flowing, I get frustrated, so I try to keep it organized as much as possible.
The years between my first nice stash (17-30) and my 2nd nice stash (52-57). Yep. Those years of only DS, and not all that much at that.
Me, too!!
Hi Nancy! What means DS? Sorry… english is not my first language ☺️
Do not feel bad Connie. English is my only spoken language (other than Latin and no one speaks that) and i don’t know what Nancy meant by DS either.
Hi Connie, it stands for “drug store”. HE stands for high end, LE can mean limited edition, or someone may use it for low end.
Thank you Nancy!! Christine O, now we know ??
Most of the time, no. I sometimes have a tough time deciding what to use, though.
Sometimes I feel guilty for having so much makeup. There’s no way I’ll ever run out of anything! It’s an expensive hobby.
Yep.
At the moment, I would much rather have a smaller, or edited, stash. I want a stash that includes only everything that I use, or will use in the future. In the past few years, my makeup stash grew quickly. I’ve finally reached my limit and no longer buy. At this point, I am unsure what to do with cosmetics that I know I will not use. Can we have a convention in each major city where we swap/resell new/gently used cosmetics? Just kidding, but the idea of this seems so fun.
To state it more simply, I want a stash that is not overwhelming, but loved and enjoyed.
Tam, I hear you. May I suggest the Konmari method? Pick up each item individually and ask yourself if it “sparks joy” i.e. if you really love it. Keep only those things you love. Just looking at items in a pile won’t do; you have to pick up each one.
For the ones you don’t love, if they are unused or barely used, consider donating them to a shelter for homeless teens or to a women’s shelter. Anything like lip products or mascara cannot be safely donated, so accept that those will have to be tossed. It can actually feel **good** to throw away things you know you don’t even like! Good luck.
I don’t enjoy makeup that I feel I spent too much to acquire. Then it’s like I’m putting dollar bills on my face instead of makeup. Not that I don’t enjoy higher-end stuff, but I’ll only buy it when it’s on sale.
There is a place online to sell. I don’t remember the name, but it was a pop-up ad for a while on this site. Google the idea, sure you’ll find it.
You could also try Swapidu. They popped up as a result of Makeup Alley stopping swapping. I haven’t used it yet, but you can offer items for sale as well as swap.
You could try to sell things on Ebay or that kind of sites. There must be makeup-swapping groups also in the US, hahaha!
Glambot will buy your new and used makeup from you. I’ve done this, and they seem legit. You can’t recoup all your money, but at least you can get something for it! I don’t know if I’m allowed to post links, but you can Google “Glambot” – it will come right up. Make sure to look at their “accepted brands to sell” list first.
When I am cleaning it 😉
Oh yeah, moving all your stuff must have been hell, eek! Already dreading that moment here too, although my collection is probably nowhere NEAR as ginormous as yours.
When I have to throw something away because it’s too old. That’s usually when I take a hard look at my collection and realize how little of it I use, and it makes me feel guilty.
Yes, right now, because just like you I have to move it.
No (well, I wish it was waay larger, but that does not make me not enjoy it! 🙂 ) !!!!
That said, I don’t enjoy how I store it one bit (it definitely deserves a better setup, which I cannot currently provide), but I’ve worked diligently for 4 years to get where I am now with my collection and the time has come when I do not see anything that does not belong there or I don’t enjoy using. Happy times!
Hahahahaha! Yes actually twice the other day. I decided that warms, pales, super shimmery, and certain brights no longer looked right on me with my newly re-dyed black hair. I went through a massive purge (and then went back and reclaimed a few I had pitched – like the Summer Chanel palette). Still, I have several pounds of discarded makeup; much of which I only used once. Then I felt the need to “fill-in” the gaps so I went on the hunt for products to do that.
I also got frustrated when I decided to swatch and upload my entire lippie collection (all of which I kept during the purge) into Snupps. The process took HOURS. In the end, though, I’m really happy I took the time to do this. Now all I need to do is click on a subcategory (cream lipstick, shimmer lipstick, etc.) and I can easily see the shades I already have!
Assume Snupps is a database. Suffer from major hole-in stash syndrome. I find that having a bunch of Zs can become confusing, already have every color and a couple of LEs. Depotted Nars doesn’t come out often enough. Org by brand, rather than color, due to pan similarities, so still have to pull out up to 4 Zs, to met what I want. Also, my stash migrated to 2 floors, so I deselect the upstairs, main storage stuff. Guess my don’t enjoy is really neglect.
Snupps is a free app available for I Phone and Android. You basically set up “shelves” which you name yourself. You can make the shelves public or keep them private (like I did). Then you can enter items into each shelf with pictures. So for me, I set up multiple lipstick shelves by finish. I swatched each lipstick, entered them onto the correct shelf and added in the brand name and product name. You can also add in more description, price, amount left, purchase price, etc. What’s awesome is now if I’m looking at a cream lipstick (as an example) I pull up my cream lipstick shelf and immediately see every single swatch shade I own. I will most likely do the same for my eyeshadows when I get another burst of motivation.
From California to Arizona… do you enjoy living in Arizona?
Yes, I do!
yes… mostly because i’m trying to use up all of my products before i go on a big spending spree at sephora but i still buy something new here and there to refresh my collection
Trying to figure out storage solutions is not really fun. And sometimes I feel a little guilty about the volume and cost of it. I think the worst is when I clean out/ purge and have to get rid of things that I have barely used. But mostly I really enjoy it 🙂
The Great Makeup Purge of 2014. I had been obsessively buying loose pigments from 2008-2011 and then hit a saturation point and told myself no more purchases because what I had would last a lifetime. But then I found myself reaching for the same items over and over again because my collection was just too overwhelming. Finally, during winter of 2014, I got frustrated and tossed E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. Filled TWO kitchen trash bags full. I kept a small train case but then eventually purged that of all loose pigment as well. Now I limit myself 1 of each of my HG base products and 3 each of foundation (pressed, loose, CC), blush & lipstick (warm, neutral, cool). Eye shadow is the only place I allow myself to amass a (manageable) collection but I try my best to return items I don’t love or pass down my gently used products–or straight toss if I can’t do either. …I still struggle with the I-like-but-don’t-love items and trying to be stricter with myself in regards to those. It’s a work in progress.
I forgot to mention that I no longer do loose pigments. Maybe I traumatized from the Great Makeup Purge of 2014–I dunno. 🙂
You threw away everything? Couldn’t you give it to friends or family? (I wish I had been there, hahahaha!)
Unfortunately, none of my friends/family are beauty junkies or their interests lie in other areas. My sister-in-law loves lip products and my childhood best friend really only does eyeliners–and I can’t pass on lip products (or any cream product for that matter) and I only do one eyeliner. 🙂
Ah too bad! But I totally agree with Pearl: super impressive… And yes I am a sucker for eyeshadow as well…
That is impressive! It takes discipline to do what you did and what you are now doing. I have a thing for eyeshadow as well, especially palettes, and it is my most collected beauty item.
STORAGE. My bathroom is the size of a small closet, so keeping things stowed away neatly is always a nightmare.
Yes, there was a time that I didn’t like my stash: It was too large! And included items I wish I’d never purchased, had gone bad or should have returned — and on and on. I threw away so much money and wondered how I could be so stupid! It made me feel awful about myself. It was a hard lesson to learn: Hand pick every item with great care! Keep your stash to manageable, beloved items only. Don’t be so impulsive!!!!! Such an expensive lesson to learn!
Yes. Earlier this year I tackled the master bedroom bathroom whose every orifice was jam packed with makeup product. There was serious stacking going on. I have had plans for years for a rather elaborate makeup up station/throne, but pared down my expectations and working with a much smaller budget, simply redesigned the space I have (my walk-in consisted of two rooms) and the smaller of the two is now my dedicated makeup station and storage space. It feels great! I love my woman cave, but time has a tendency to disappear while I am in there ?
I spent considerable time plowing through my hoard and subsequently donated box after box of clothing, footwear, handbags, makeup to my mail carrier (seems like a symbiotic relationship…she brings the packages after all…). Her daughter is in University so the majority ended up on her floor in residence. Apparently the makeup and the denims were like a feeding frenzy.
Probably only when I have to carefully move it all twice a month so I can clean my dresser! It collects dust and dog hair like crazy!!
When I force myself to throw/give away not bad items that I never reach for. They were good at some point of my life so I feel attached to them.
About four times a year. I go through my complete collection every 3-4 months, get it all out, clean every drawer/shelf and wipe down EVERY. SINGLE. ITEM I own (and toss expired ones).
Since that takes houes, I regularly curse my stash, but then I can’t imagine downsizing, because I’m one of those annoying people who actually use every single lipstick they own, even if it’s only a couple times a year.
When I drop an item on the floor and it is destroyed. When I finish a item I love and it is discontinued and cannot be replaced. Otherwise I don’t dislike my collection 🙂
I have a couple of plastic towers filled with makeup and usually keep them pretty organized and neat but for whatever reason I left a particularly heavy drawer slide open while I was away on vacation this past weekend. My cat I’m guessing jumped into this open drawer subsequently tipping the entire tower forward causing untold amount of mess. I’m tan so my loose powders are darker and STAIN my off white carpets. I’m in the process of wiping each product clean of powders/pigments clean before I have to shampoo my entire floor. A smaller collection would have caused far less mess.
CATS!!! Yep, I definitely understand. I have 3, one is a 28 lb. Maine Coon who can get rather wild and pouncey, and knocks things over sometimes. The cat deal is real!
I get frustrated and overwhelmed because I have a lot of stuff and a small bathroom in which to store it. Sometimes it overflows out into the rest of the house, which annoys my husband, so that makes me feel bad, too. I’m always going through and purging. I sell what I can (used on Glambot, new on eBay, other stuff I can donate, and the rest I just have to throw away. 🙁 )
Nope. It always makes me happy.
Very occasionally, I feel a pang of guilt. Rather than regret, I continuously try to improve in terms of being very thoughtful about need v. want before making a purchase. It’s getting better.
Same with me as well 🙂 I feel so great when I do my makeup cause I know all the products I use are good and make me look better, how I’d want this and that product in my collection, yada yada. On the other hand, guilty is the exact feeling when I think about how much money went into it! The struggle, as they say, is VERY real 🙂
I think there were times I didn’t like or appreciate what I had when my collection wasn’t organized. It seemed overwhelming and everything was in disarray and it made it look all the more used and dirty. Organizing fixed that but there are still times every once in a while, like say right before a purge that I feel like it’s cluttered and that takes away from my enjoyment of it. Other than that, I love looking at it everyday, the organization and display of it, the fact that I have options that suit me, and that it is edited and curated by me and for me. In other words, MINE ALL MINE.
Only when I think about how much some of it cost me for stuff I rarely use. The older I get the better I am about that though.
Nope! But reading comments, I think my stash is much smaller than some people’s. (And I still feel guilty for having so much!) It’s definitely more than I can really use but moving it wouldn’t be that difficult. I used to be grouchy about how disorganized it was but I bought a couple little storage units at the Container Store and love how nice and tidy everything is in my bathroom now.
(For anyone trying to organize, I have the three drawer case and the top container with the lipstick holders here: http://www.containerstore.com/s/bath/cosmetics-organizers/clarity-stacking-collection/12d?productId=11000162&green=E22593C7-2840-5B82-B2BE-F86BEBACA51A. Recommended!)
Yes! When I’m rifling through it (all) trying to find some color that I KNOW I have in there somewhere. Pulling everything out, hunting, dumping it out of the bag so I can sort through everything and not being able to find what I’m looking for. Too.much.stuff.
I’m a brush junkie so when I have to clean them up I realy do not enjoy!
I regret the number of lip products I’ve accrued. I’m very strategic with my redemption of promo codes for good free samples, etc, so I would say at least half of my collection was gotten for free (most of it not DS either – thanks Sephora promos) but I counted a few months ago and was somewhere in the 120s. I know I’ve bought or been sent/sampled at least 10 more since then. I have so many awesome lip products that I never use because I’m overwhelmed. I’m starting to feel like that about my eyeshadow palettes too (I know some people prefer singles, but I’m probably 80% premade palette for my collection, I just find them really fun when they’re well-made!). But I’m planning on buying the ABH Renaissance palette with my Ulta 20% off code tomorrow and just picked up the Bunny palette last week because I’m a sucker for anything that even hints at pink or sienna/orange. Send help!
Considering most of what I own is locked in a storage unit in another continent, and another chunk is locked in a suitcase in yet another continent… I think rather than not enjoying my collection I just don’t GET to enjoy it, which is frustrating. >.<
When I don’t use it. Sometimes I’m just way too tired to even fuss with makeup, usually for a few days in a row, and on those days I feel guilty for having so much makeup.
1. I have some products that I have love/hate relationship. When they work, OMG, they’re marvelous. When they don’t…I’m ready to throw them out (more likely giveaway).
2. When I’m disorganized and can’t find what I KNOW I have. That’s on me though.
3. When a look just doesn’t end up looking like I had in mind, or what I wanted. It’s more than just a little ridiculous to go the grocery store with a deep smoky eye!!
The only thing I can Imagine is that it is really hard to decide what to wear When you have a big makeup Collection. When I am in a hurry and cannot decide which Lipstick to use that makes no fun.
I pretty much have it all under control because it was so out of hand. I don’t like to rush and dig through clutter and have to guess what’s old. I learned to be more frugal, throw things away at that moment. Have everything labelled. At least that part of my life’s not a mess. My closet and clothes, that’s a tackle.
Only in the sense that I sometimes feel I have too much. I feel like I’m always searching for the perfect bronze eyeshadow in every formula, and then I can’t decide which one to wear. It’s a constant quest.
Nope…..I always enjoy it.
I can’t think of a time in all of these years when I haven’t enjoyed my makeup collection. I have always added to it making it all the more fun and interesting. I give away products that I know I won’t use. I purchase backups all the time so when I tire of a particular product and have backups, I give those away too.
Never!
there was a point where I was frustrated by the amount of lip products I had, and the spinning lipstick tower I had (which holds 84 lipsticks!) couldn’t hold everything and at that point I decided enough was enough! and I was moving soon anyways so what better time to declutter my whole collection? so I decluttered and purged out the stuff that I didn’t like and stuff I haven’t used in a while. I have two too faced 9 pan palettes that I’m having a hard time getting rid of though… sugar pop and a la mode eyes. the quality in these palettes just isn’t all that great though so I think I’m going to pass them on.
it was pretty great decluttering because I rediscovered some products that I love but just wasn’t reaching for because I had SO much stuff, and it also helped me discover that I prefer cream/liquid highlights to powder ones. go figure!
The only time I don’t enjoy my collection is when I’m looking through my collection and acknowledge to myself there are a couple of palettes I really don’t use enough to justify the money I put in them.
I’m bipolar and in my manic phases I buy like crazy because the act of choosing and purchasing feels good to me. On the flip side, during depressive phases I feel absolutely no joy from things I usually love and that includes my high end makeup collection.
I have Borderline personality disorder and oh my gosh I feel you!! Whenever I’m shopping/in a high mood level all I do is spend my money on my friends and myself. And then I see my bank account and go into a depressive mood level!!
I adore my makeup collection when I don’t feel the guilt of overindulging my vanity. Too much! ?
Nope. Lol
I love all my makeup, trouble is I have so much of everything that at times I get frustrated with all of it. I have a big vanity room and a bathroom with huge cabinets from ceiling to floor that hold all my makeup. I am very,very organized with each item, so that isn’t an issue. The problem is, do I use it all????? NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! So once a month I go through everything and get rid of makeup that I haven;t used in the past 2 months. I have 4 small granddaughters that love all kinds of makeup to play with, so I split it among them. Sometimes my daughters take it too. At least I don’t feel as bad as if I was throwing it away. At times the guilt takes over me and I say to myself “do I really need all of this makeup”? Then a little voice in my head tells me “YEAH you do”LOL
When trying to keep it organized so I know what I actually have. Also, I hate when I have to find room for newer purchases. Sometimes I hate it when I realize that it is so expensive and I don’t use everything that I purchased or don’t use it enough to make it worth spending all that money. And than I end up feeling guilty.
Is it weird that I feel a little star struck that you live here? Haha. I live in the far East Valley and at this exact second the monsoons are being beautiful! I’m glad you like it here ?
When I’m under a lot of stress, my makeup collection can feel overwhelming. I’ll sit down to do my makeup, open a drawer for eyeshadows, blush, lipstick, etc., and I’ll just sit and stare at everything, feeling indecisive and frustrated. I’ve realized that having a smaller collection would simplify my life, and I’ve even considered giving the bulk of my makeup to my daughters, but I’m not ready to do that just yet.
Definitely when I’m sorting through my palettes trying to remember what I have. I have been keen to depot and arrange my duos and quads into Z-palettes for a while now, but I haven’t yet, due to the expense of obtaining them in NZ. I have accepted that I just prefer my neutral shadows to my brights, but I still get them out sometimes and look at them wistfully. I also look at my underperforming shades and get somewhat annoyed haha
Only when I’m not sure if I have something, because I have so much, and end up buying something I love, but don’t need 2 (or more!) of
OMG yes. This week actually. I’ve work less makeup this week than I have all year. I even went into Sephora to get makeup-full and didn’t find anything I liked or was just grumpy. I condensed my collection then gave away some lipsticks I never used and didn’t like but all of my lipsticks are not my friends this week. I’ve been on gloss all week. LOL I don’t know either, just makeup-moody I guess.
Like a lot of others, I feel guilty for having so much. I haven’t touched 80% of my collection yet. And when I’m doing my makeup I get flustered because there is just SO MUCH. Too many choices! But other than that, I love my vanity area, and my collection. It’s my happy place.
I love it, but sometimes I am too lazy to enjoy it, like if I’m going to be home all day. Full makeup usually takes 30-45 minutes, a time investment, that I wish I had more patience for as well. But when I am motivated and I have time, I love having a big selection to choose from. The lipsticks have become my favorite, because it’s so easy to try them on just for fun, while other products require more effort. And sometimes I enjoy just looking at my collection, savoring all the beautiful colors an imagining what I can do with them.
My air conditioning is broken right now, so at the moment it’s hard to enjoy makeup. Facial perspiration makes it very hard to apply makeup! I can’t use my bronzers at all until it’s fixed.
Probably when I look at some of my eye shadow palettes and think, why did I buy that?
Most of the time – nope.
Actually, no. Before I came up with a system of organization, I didn’t appreciate it as much, I think, but that’s because I wasn’t as clear on what I had, what all my options were. Now, I’m pretty happy with it, and excited to still be able to fill in the gaps.