Ashamed of my beauty product hoard!

[IPokeBadgers]

I have spent some time this morning trying to sort and tidy my beauty and toiletries cupboard and I am actually feeling very and at the sheer volume of stuff that I have, much of it lovely and expensive and unopened!

I reckon it could take me a couple of years to get through it all!

Buying make up as well as lovely bath and shower stuff seems to have become my go to/default pick me up when I want to impulse buy...... but seeing the hoard has brought me down.

anyone else like this and are there any threads that would encourage me to stop buying stuff and use all the lovely products that I have?

please tell me I am not the only person like this?

Chanel Lift Lumiere liquid foundation in shade 0.5 Faience is finally gone!!!

Chanel foundations are way too dark and yellow for me, this was the right intensity but far too yellow, made me look jaundiced. I used it up as an undereye coverup because this full size bottle was an expensive mistake. What a relief that it is finally gone! For me, this was the best of Chanel foundations, but I found their stuff very average, generally they went patchy in the midafternoon. Have given up on them, my Korean BB cushion and Dr Jart and Missha BB creams are far better.

Also used up another hotel mini moisturizer and one hyaluronic acid sheet mask.

I really like Chanel foundations but I agree their shades are v. yellow toned and there's only a pitifully small range of colours available. If you're lucky (like me) and there's a shade that matches you - great, if not then they're just a waste of money.

I used a sample of Verso Retinol cream last night on my neck and chest - my skin looks and feels really good today. I'm currently using retinoids on my face for acne so wouldn't invest in a retinol product until I've finished with the retinoids, but it is definitely something I'll investigate further down the line.

I also used up a Colgate MaxiWhite toothpaste - bit underwhelmed and wouldn't pay the extra couple of quid for it.

ps I've just seen the Cult Beauty goody bag is out - stay strong people!!

I'm impressed that anyone can finish off lipsticks. I find they last forever and I only finish one off about every 6 - 12 months, which probably explains why my collection is getting slowly bigger. Lip gloss lasts forever too. I've been trying to use up an old tube of clinique lipgloss for about four months now.

lego mark the level on the gloss with a permanent marker. It helps massively with keeping up your enthusiasm. You can really see you're getting somewhere!

I'm on a lip product ban. Not even any lip balms. Its very hard, tbh. Every day I see something that makes me dazzle-eyed. But I'm absolutely resolute!

I had a serious wobble this week when I saw that Bioderma is now available locally. I had to have a stern chat with myself. Do I need anything? NO! I think the crisis has passed.

I've not stuck to a complete ban. I did buy an exfoliator, shampoo, lip balm and moisturiser from the body shop back in February. With the exception of the moisturiser though I have used all the other products. The lip balm is the only one that I own that has spf in it.

Love this thread! Thank you!!

I have consulted Marie Kondo and put all my items together. I have enough hand cream to last me forever!

Two empties today. Neutrogena hand repair - used to be my favourite, but Aveeno is better. I have to wade through some horrible Crabtree & Evelyn ones before I buy any more Aveeno though.

Soap & Glory Heel Genius foot cream. Cannot tell you how much I hated this - totally useless and a really overpowering smell. So glad it's gone! Only Flexitol for me now - once I have finished a small Clarins freebie.

Annarose I have a total lip product ban too. I am almost done with a lipstick but have about twenty others plus glosses and balms and one lip palette. Resisting new stuff is hard but I have to do something about my stash.

Love this thread, I'm going to do some Decluttering this weekend. I don't mind throwing some things away, but using up is better.

My Dermalogica 500ml cleanser smells a bit funny. Could it be off? There's less than 1/4 left and I've just started to reuse it after not using it much for two years or so.

I almost never wear make up. But I have loads. Many years ago I worked for Boots, left in 1999, and I still have stuff I got when I was working there, lots I got v cheap or free so I don't even have the problem of it being a waste of money!

I shall try putting all the same things together and see how it looks. Currently I have at least one hand cream in every room, the car, every handbag, my laptop bag, at work....... and I never use it

I took all my sachets on holiday with me and used them up. I am now sachet-less!!

Other than that I don't have any full size empties but I am going to slap on body moisturiser to prolong my tan.

Sachers....yes, I keep those for ages and for 'just in case' but then never end up using them.

I shall gather those into one place as well and see what can be done.

Finished a big bottle of Bioderma Sensibio micellar water. My favorite cleanser, I think this was my third bottle, will repurchase next week when we go to an Ipercoop supermarket that stocks it. Will use a travel bottle of Dr Jart Micro Water in the meantime, feels very similar.

Today I have finished one of my xmas market French soaps: lovely chunky long lasting bars, bit like the loccitane ones. It was a seaweed one,: won't buy again as the exfoliating seaweed bits got everywhere! still have several to work through, will try the Shea butter one next

Also finished a Liz Earle Skin Repair Moisturiser. Bought as part of a qvc tsv. Liked it will enough, would buy again but only as part of set... I like LE products but too tight to pay full whack for them

Will have to check out the stash to see what my next day Moisturiser is going to be....

ArganOilPlus finished. Expensive this, from my hairdresser. Won't replace. Will use up a John Frieda Serum next. Still the best, I think!

I finished a 500ml Wella shampoo. Great for my hair, discontinued but I have one backup. I think my shampoo hoard is down to two bottles now. When I started this thread, stuff fell out of our bathroom cupboard. Now it's half empty! And there is one empty shelf in my toiletries cupboard!

I also finished a travel size Lumene cleanser. Each used up item is a small victory against the entropy of clutter!

I'm going through cupboards, preparing for our move. Haven't tackled my room yet but found another souffle moisturizer - will try to use it up on my legs before our move.

Oh, and DDs (5 and 7) are cleaning up their room - they told me they wanted to help us to get ready for their move so now they are shelving books and hanging up their clothes!

It's a great idea to use unwanted face stuff on the body, I used Una Brennan face wash on my chest and shoulders today and her face scrub on my elbows.

This week's empties:

Oskia renaissance cleanser: really really overrated. This gets raved about online by beauty bloggers and magazine editors. To me it was just a bog standard cleansing balm (in a pump dispenser rather than a pot) that smelt so much (and looked a lot like) Elizabeth Arden 8 hour cream. Not an offensive smell but I don't especially like it either. Given this was c. £35 I will not repurchase, and would recommend anyone considering buying this to get the Emma Hardie balm instead.

The only plus about it is that it came in a dispenser and is therefore a lot more hygienic than most other balm cleansers. It took ages to use up which again might be because the pump means you never end up accidentally using too much. Dream cleanser: Emma Hardie in a pump bottle like this one!

Omorovicza Plumping Cream: herbal scented, rich moisturiser basically. I got a sample sized pot but would definitely not repurchase the full sized. This brand is massively overpriced and the products are really underwhelming. I've now tried 5 or 6 different thinks from the range - all of which were massively disappointing (the only exception being the thermal balm cleaner which was good but not exceptional). This cream was basically no different to a Nivea £3 moisturiser - the only difference being luxury packaging and expensive-smelling herbal scent. It didn't sink in quickly and certainly didn't make my skin look 'plumper' as the name would suggest.

Clinique Take the day off makeup remover solution - so underwhelmed by this. I've heard people rave about the balm version, but the liquid solution that I used was really rubbish and certainly didn't make me want to try the balm. Yes it did remove makeup (although not any better than any similar product), but my eyelids got really dry and sensitive after using this for a week. Will not repurchase and this just confirms by generally negative attitude towards most Clinique skincare stuff (bar the moisture surge spray which I did like, and the dramatically different mascara which is a staple in my makeup bag!)

Crabtree & Evelyn Verbena and Lavender hand cream finished!

I cannot tell you all how happy I am. I've had toilet cleaners that smelled better than this - and were probably more moisturising

Jj thanks again for the honest reviews. Sometimes I feel I am totally missing out by not sampling everything but this confirms that not every hyped product out there is superb.

We have two more weeks left until our move so I am doing clearouts and using up every half-empty thing I can find. DH took out a bin liner bag of stuff from my bedroom, and I've only tackled the shelves and two corners of the room. The empty space is massively satisfying. I am also designing all of our meals around what needs to be used up in the kitchen. Today we are having pasta alle vongole (angel hair pasta, butter and cognac used up) and almond muffins as a dessert (a shriveled apple and most of our almonds gone). I also made flapjacks for our trip to the beach (condensed milk, coconut milk, chia seeds, the rest of almonds gone). Sorry if this sounds obesessive

Frugal

Off topic in relation to using up cosmetics but I did the same as you when we moved last year. I refused to move house with half used packets of pasta! I even went through the freezer and made a list of what was buried deep in the drawers and meal planned to make sure I used most of it...we ate a few random dinners.

Another thing that I found helped me was a challenge I spotted on a website (can't remember which one) but for the month before we moved I filled a black bin liner full of junk/rubbish/clutter etc. If it was worthy of a charity shop that's where it went but I went through everything and got rid of so much - it was quite surprising as I tend not to hoard.

Makes moving a tiny bit less stressful when you're not carting tatty tea-towels from one house to another!

Yep Paperblank I so hear you. I've been using up cosmetics for quite a while now but this vibe has definitely influenced other parts of my life too

Finished a very old jar of Noxzema salicylic pads. I loved these in the 1990s and asked a friend who worked there as an au pair to bring me some from the US. These are probably from the mid-2000s when I started travelling there regularly. Would never have guessed that these and acid wash jeans will experience a comeback.

I think the food idea is genius Frugal