So, I used to beauty-blog a lot more actively, and as such, when you need to stay current on what's new and on offer, your makeup stash tends to grow to epic proportions.
I was going through some of my old posts on my beauty-blog-no-longer (which I recently renamed because Google Domains wasn't letting me access the blog with the old URL any longer), and I came across this post where I give you a tour of my makeup station and stash. Go look at that post, I'll wait.
It's pretty wild to think that this is what my entire makeup collection consists of now:
Same table. Gone is the 9-drawer Alex chest. (Well, it's not GONE, but I have repurposed it for art supplies.) The actual table drawers hold makeup bags, all the brushes/tools I don't use, hair ties, skincare stuff I don't reach for often (like face masks), and makeup samples I've received with orders. Maybe an extra mascara or whatever that I haven't started using yet.
YUP, my entire active makeup collection is now small enough to actually just fit ON my table.
And yeah, granted, it's still a bigger makeup collection than what many other people might have, but it's quite small compared to what I used to have, and I'm finding that I LIKE that. I used to love HAVING a ton of products, just to have them, and in the past couple of years, I have started to feel more like, I only want to have what I will use. That doesn't mean that I don't have some extra things, of course, but I no longer feel the need to buy every shade of every product of every company anymore. I no longer have the space or the funds for it, and the sheer amount of it all started to feel more like a burden than a delight.
Here's a quick tour of my current collection, just to show you how much things have changed. It's not even very well organized! And I'm considering downsizing even further! (Note: this does not include my skincare, which I keep in my bathroom.)
I'm basically keeping all of this in two large acrylic drawer sets from Sephora (multiple small drawers in one, large drawer in the other), an acrylic organizer from Groovi Beauty that I got at Ulta, and then some cleaned out candle jars to hold my brushes.
In my Groovi organizer, I keep my most reached-for products overall. In the back row, from left to right, base products, eye products, and lip products (although, let's be honest--it's mainly just Fitglow Lip Serums). In the front section are my Fenty bronzers and Killawatts, and then all my cream brushes/multi-sticks.
In the extra space next to the caddy are just some things that I want to be able to quickly access, but they didn't fit in the caddy, and of course, the only perfume I've ever loved IN MY LIFE, the bookstore-inspired Powell's fragrance. So these are on top of one of those Sephora drawer things.
On top of the other Sephora drawer thing are my brush cups, which are old candle jars that I repurposed. I have a lot more brushes than this, but these are the ones I actually use. I have them separated into base brushes, color complexion brushes, and eye brushes. The bottle in the back is Sephora Daily Brush Spray.
The single large Sephora drawer contains my larger complexion products, like my Alima Pure loose products, setting powders, and Fenty stuff. I don't really reach for these, but I'm not ready to declutter them yet.
In the Sephora multi-drawer unit, on one side, I took out the larger drawer (it functions as a tray inside my makeup table drawer, holding extra makeup sponges), and in its place, I put all my Aether Beauty eye and cheek palettes.
On the other side, I kept the two small drawers:
The bottom one contains lip products. I always want to declutter these first off, because I'm finding that, especially with all the mask wearing, I just don't need that much lip color.
And that's it! Compared to what I had when I first moved here, it's really significantly smaller, and I think I'm liking it that way.