How to revamp your cosmetic stash

Every year or so, it's smart to sort through your excessively stuffed bathroom drawers. We get suckered in to some ridiculous shade of blush, the newest berry lipstick, and some white powder because someone said pale is 'in' this season. So now we have tons of compacts, tubes and bottles clattering around--unused and unloved. Makeup is like clothes--if you have too many or too much, you'll forget what you have and resort to a tiny collection of your favorites. What's the point of having tons of options if you never exercise them? Think of it like a spring cleaning for your face!

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. First get every product in your house and dump it all into a huge pile in your room.
2. Separate products into heaps--cleansers, moisturizers, blushes, glosses, foundations, eyeliners, etc.
3. Now from those piles, cull those into a pile of your absolute faves--the products you use all the time without thinking.
4. So now that you have your little fave pile, start going through the other piles and compare with your favorites. For example, if you see that your eyeliner pile includes four black pencils, figure out if you love them all equally, or if there's one which you remember runs, turns your eyes red, or whatever, and toss those. If however you find that you just bought repeats, create a little "CVS under the bed"! I have plastic storage containers and keep my extras there. This way, when I have the urge to splurge, I simply go shopping in my own bedroom!
5. If you haven't used a product in three months (unless they're super fun and different like false eyelashes, glitter or red lipstick) you're obligated to throw them out. Obviously you hate them, feel ugly wearing them and will never use them again. Trash them.
6. I like to keep a system of my travelling makeup bag--the little stash I take with me in my purse, and then a bigger bag which includes sponges, foundation, a couple different gloss colors, one eyeshadow palette, etc--the products I use in the morning, but don't take with.
7. Do a skincare swap! I try every new product on the market, which inevitably means a huge collection of stuff I don't love. Your friends probably have done the same thing, so try a trade. Have them bring their abandoned stuff, and vice versa, and you'll no doubt have fun shopping their cast-offs!

Tips & Warnings

• Shop alone when buying cosmetics--shopping in a group can make you buy stuff you don't need or what. It's sort of like self-inflicted peer pressure.