Does Eye Shadow Expire?

It seems every time I start to clean up my makeup stash, I get distracted. 30 minutes later, I catch a glimpse in the mirror and my face resembles a 12 year-old who has experimented with all of her mother’s makeup. It’s like I’m living out the storyline from the children’s book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. After I finish trying on all my makeup, I will have to put on a new outfit. After I have my new outfit on, I have to try a different hair-do…. It is a very dangerous and time consuming process.

So today, in an effort to avoid becoming lost in the sea of makeup  possibilities; I am giving myself a 10 minute time-limit to declutter my makeup drawer.  And to help keep me focused, I found a handy dandy checklist Real Simple and I love a good checklist!

For a little more motivation I found this tidbit from Roopika Malhotra also in an article from Real Simple ~

Toss Your Tired Products

Even ruthless purgers tend to hold on to lotions and potions for too long. But all items become less effective over time. Throw out anything that smells or looks funny or that you know is well past its prime. Many products have a “period after opening” label, a number followed by the letter M (shown). It indicates how many months the item is effective after opening. In general eye makeup is good for six months, foundation a year, and lipsticks two (but pay attention to preservative-free products, which typically degrade more quickly than others).

Here is a picture of that little symbol that I really never paid attention to before.

With the checklist in hand and my new found knowledge, it was time to break out the checklist and let the de-cluttering begin! First step:

• Empty makeup bag.

Dump contents on a flat color-safe surface, such as a bathroom counter.

• Toss old products.

  Discard any old, expired, or broken items.

   

• Reasses your makeup stash.

Keep only what you are really going to use.

• Place products in organizing trays.

Keep items together: all eye shadows, all lip liners, all blushes, and so on. Consider a pencil organizer to keepbrushes upright and easy to access or a vanity tote if you’d like to move cosmetics from room to room.

• Store lipsticks upright.

  Since you can see their names, you’ll choose the one you want at a glance. (I don’t have a lot of lipsticks that fall into this category so I ignored this piece of advice).

I did, however, find another piece of advice while procrastinating browsing Real Simple.  Make a tray for your daily use items, which I read as your weekday look as oppose to your weekend evening look.

Instead of rummaging through a dopp kit for your daily makeup, arrange everything on a small tray atop a counter. This way, you’ll have all your trusty implements at hand, just like a doctor. (And when you’re not using those items, stow the tray in a drawer.)

I was inspired to try this idea in my own makeup drawer and was pleased to find I already had a container that fit on top of the others perfectly.

I plan to remove the top “tray” daily as I do the quick ‘make myself presentable look’.  At other times, when I need send in the full troops, all my make-up is right underneath the everyday tray.

My lower drawer of makeup is also less cluttered.  If you look closely in the back of drawer you can spy some room in the back.

But my goal is to pair that drawer down even more.  I would love to be a woman who knows the 6 or so products that work for her and sticks with those; you know like a signature scent. But when it comes to makeup I’m still pretty fickle.

I plan to revisit  my makeup in 6 months and assess what I have and haven’t used during that time.  My goal is to use only the top bathroom drawer for makeup. And why is so hard to throw away fancy Mac eye shadow that I bought in college but never used.  Does eye shadow expire? Why do I have two drawers of makeup when I hardly wear it?

Do you have makeup clutter?…..  Do you use everything you have?  What is the one product you can’t live without?