Minimizing Your Make-up and Beauty Products

So, I have decided to give myself a deadline to get my stuff down to at least half of what I own. For any goal, even minimizing, having a plan and rules are important. Frankly, I am an extreme person, which is why I am trying to be a balanced minimalist. Extreme minimalism or materialism does not work for me as I have tried both. However, being that I am extreme by nature, I need to do something drastic to get myself moving. Whenever I don’t have some structure or require some structure from myself and my life, I never get things done completely. So, I have decided to get reduce my possessions down to half n 30 sessions. I cannot do 30 days because I have obligations to friends, family, work and studying on some days. I work best if I dedicate half a day or at lease a few hours to de-cluttering. It is important to have the energy to de-clutter, or else you will get overwhelmed. So, I have to psyche myself up in the beginning or middle of the day and work for a few hours.

Today, my goal is to de-clutter my makeup and toiletries.

Nail Polish is Too High Maintenance for Minimalism
I have decided that the nail polishes are the first to go, except for one red one, and a clear top coat and base coat for special occasions, like weddings. I love nail polish not for the fun of it, but because I like neat hands. However, it takes 20 minutes to do your nails, then they chip after 4-5 days maximum. I have tried many different brands and they just don’t stay on my hands neatly for more than that. I always wear cherry red nail polish because it is my favorite color and it is classic, but I also have brown, navy, tan and beige, which I rarely use. However, since I like nail polish for the neatness it gives to hands, any bit of chipping annoys me very much. So, instead, for neat looking hands, I will just take care of my nails and hands with lotion and buffing and wear clear nail polish (base and top coat) to strengthen my nails since they are very brittle. I use Sally Hansen Salon Manicure or OPI because they are the only ones that stay more than 3 days without chipping, but they are also quite expensive and may be bad for the environment. So, I will save myself $8/a bottle and 17 hours a year (20 minutes x 52 weeks) not doing wearing nail polish. Hmm, I could read a few more books that I have been wanting to read in that time!

Too much Makeup Makes You Look Fake or Ages You
Limit Yourself to 3 Make-Up Products at a Time.
Most guys, including my husband and every other guy I’ve dated dislikes a lot of makeup. My husband dislikes most makeup, and thinks that red lipsticks and bright shadows makes women look like clowns. Even my exs hated heavy eyeliner and deep or bright colored lipstick as I often sported the thick cat eyeliner look or retro red lips. I know most women would say they wear makeup for themselves, but the truth is that most women wear makeup because they are insecure about their looks. I have a friend that wears blush because she doesn’t like her round face and is trying to make her cheeks look more defined and another who wears heavy eye makeup to make her eyes look bigger. Neither is believable in person. Those effects may show in pictures, but in person, blush and smoky eye looks silly and as if one is trying too hard.

Usually, I don’t wear a lot of makeup side from concealer/powder for acne marks – I have a bad habit of touching my face, which causes marks, but I am working on it. I usually limit myself to wearing 3 makeup products at one time as more than that looks overdone or ages you. Along with powder, I usually wear eyeliner or eyeshadow and lip gloss/stain. I will add eyeshadow at night or lipstick for special occasions, like weddings when I am being photographed. Yet, I have several shadows and lipsticks. It seems silly to have so much when I wear them perhaps 5x a year. So, I’ll be bringing those down to a few only.