Confessions of a Product Junkie

Ever since the fourth grade, I’ve worn some kind of makeup. First, it was the Bonne Bell Lipsmackers; I had countless flavors. By sixth grade I was applying Cover Girl tinted lipgloss, and using my allowance money to buy all the colors available, regardless of how they looked with my skin tone. Fueled by my obsession with everything written and advertised in teen magazines (remember YM?), my products started to pile up.

Around eighth grade my grandma decided I was ready to graduate to Clinique to control and hide my pre-teen acne, and I discovered the joy of Clinique Bonus Time. Mom, Nanny, and I would head to Filene’s and each buy enough that we were able to get three bonus kits and swap the products. Nanny gave me the bright lipsticks and eye shadows, she got the powders and wrinkle creams, and Mom got the moisturizers and cleansers.

The problem? I never throw out my makeup. Well, okay – I do throw out mascara, but definitely not after the recommended three months. It’s probably more like five months. I mean, if there’s still some in the tube, why waste it? Eye infections, that’s why. Perhaps I need to use my label maker to make an “expiration date” label each time I buy a new tube.

My most frequently used makeup lives in my bathroom vanity drawer while the “special occasion” stuff is in a caddy and basket on my dresser. Trouble is, I don’t have nearly as many special occasions as I do colors of lipstick, flavors of lip gloss, bottles of nail polish, and shades of eye shadow. The other night I threw away a barely used compact of Touch Base for Eyes because I distinctly remember buying it when I was a senior in college. My 10-year reunion is coming up this summer, so I figured it was high time that product went into the bin.

There are seven bottles of perfume on a lovely antique mirror on my dresser. I haven’t used any of them since I moved in with my husband more than four years ago. Letting myself go? Maybe, but I was never a daily perfume wearer, anyway. The first bottle I bought is Crabtree & Evelyn’s Freesia eau de toilette. I purchased it in eighth grade, and over time the liquid in the bottle has turned from clear to yellow. I suspect that it doesn’t smell like freesia anymore.
 

My beauty product consumption isn’t limited to makeup. There are loads of lotions, gels, shampoos, soaps and scrubs hidden away in our bathrooms (all 2.5 of them). I’m not the only one to blame for this outrageous collection: these things are so easy to give as gifts (who doesn’t need hand cream?), and I receive and give them frequently. The result is a build-up of more than I can ever use.
I used to be a sucker for the latest color, hottest product, and anything else the makeup counter lady could fit into my well-moisturized hands. Now that I have a house and a baby to buy for, my lust for these things has significantly waned.
Here’s what I need to do to clear out and update my product stash:

Review this guide to makeup shelf life and viciously toss stuff out. That pretty lipstick in a shade that Clinique hasn’t offered since 1999 has got to go.
Check my bathroom vanity for stuff I will actually use, and put it in a place where I will actually use it. Then, toss the rest.
Make a trip to Sephora to test perfumes to find a light scent that would be appropriate to wear every day. Not wanted: a strong scent that my colleagues can sniff out from down the hall (ahem, male colleague down the hall).
Try to not be a sucker.

If you could only have five beauty products on your vanity what would they be?

• February 24, 2011
• organize, shop
• 4 comments