Three months has passed; what a strange and knockabout time it was too. An emotional rollercoaster for reasons probably deserving of their own blog post. This one is specifically about the very trivial project I started earlier this year: attempting to use up as many skincare/cosmetic products in my overstuffed collection as possible.
Sadly this report has to begin with a completely avoidable tragedy - the accidental disposal of my main collection of empty products.
I’ve been placing all of these used containers in a small bin in my bathroom, ready for a full cataloguing at the end of the quarter.
I wasn’t sure this second quarter of 2022 would be as productive as the first, but wow, I really ploughed through a bunch of stuff. The bin was full to the brim by the time I headed up to Townsville on June 21 for a tour. I know I had a conditioner in there, a body lotion, several face serums, a toothbrush, deodorant, face cleanser and even a used tube of makeup primer.
But the whole bally lot got tossed by my mother, who was looking after my foster cats while I was away. Being an overly generous woman, she typically does bits of tidying while she is in my apartment, and she saw a bin full of empty products and quite rightly assumed they were garbage.
I mean, sure, maybe it is weird keeping empty stuff around the house like a hoarder, even if half the beauty YouTuber community does it for content. I have no anger at my Mum for performing some basic household maintenance while I was away. But I don’t really want to photograph each used item and log it on my phone
So unfortunately I don’t have accurate numbers for the months of April, May and June.
What I DO have is a picture of all the products I took with me to Townsville. I returned on 4 July, but I’m going to include those four days into this quarter.
I took a lot of sample size products with the express goal of using them up - and I did pretty well! We’ve got some body products snatched from previous hotel visits, mini-toothpastes from the dentist, a tiny perfume sampler, cleanser, serum - even a hydrating sheet mask purchased up in Townsville to use after catching a bit of sun.
In the top right of the pic you’ll also see a BB cream (a type of light foundation for the unitiated), two concealers and a mascara. These are not technically empty, but they’re at the end of their shelf life, and in the case of the BB cream, had turned bad. MCo Beauty do some great products but I don’t think I’d recommend this one. It had gone greasy and separated all over my face the few times I tried to use it.
I figured I gave them all a farewell turn in Townsville, and now it is time for them to go.
Speaking of doing a clear out, I also have a picture of other products I decluttered during a tidy-up about mid-way through the quarter.
Again, these products weren’t empty, but most had gone bad, particularly the liquids. The concealer also smelled terrible. The L’oreal Pro-Glow is a lovely foundation; I’d bought a few backups when L’oreal took it out of the Australian market, but I didn’t finish them, and I have many other base products I’m now trying to focus on using.
It was a shame about the glitter/shimmer eyeshadows pictured on the right; they’re so beautiful. But they had dried up and basically turned into powder, making them unusable. I still have others that are good; once they go I don’t plan to buy products like that more than one at a time. In this case, I got caught up when I found them on a heavy discount and bought a bunch. I can’t say I’ll never be distracted by shiny things again, but I’m getting more resolute at not going overboard.
So while overall I think I did use more products, I’ll never know for sure as I hadn’t done a full inventory before the big collection got chucked. Still, I’m glad I had a few empty things to show off!
My plan was to do another three months, but I may be away from home for much of September, so I may do a recap of July/August before I go, to ensure all rubbish is correctly disposed of before any cat-sitters come calling!
Thanks for following this strange 2022 project I’m doing!