The Beauty Spring Clean

Cleaning is probably my least favorite thing to do in the entire world, besides having knee surgery, of course. Boy am I bored during the day, unable to do anything. I was so bored that I actually decided to clean out my crazy makeup stash, call it a spring clean if you will. The new season is just around the corner and our dark makeup and statement lippies are making room for a new fresh look.

When cleaning out my stash I applied a few simple rules to follow and drastically cut down the size of my makeup collection. Because what’s the point of owning so many things when you don’t even use them? Here’s what I did for my beauty spring clean.

Going through my storage I carefully assessed each drawer separating the items into different categories. First of all chuck away anything that has changed color, smells bad or the formula has changed. Especially cream and liquid items are prone to do this. Keep in mind that mascaras tend to go off after about three months and foundations generally last from a year and a half to two years. But honestly, if you’re using a foundation so little that you still have product left after a year it’s probably not worth keeping.

After chucking away the things that are no longer useable asses the products you have left in your storage. I apply the regular closet cleanout rule to the remaining items. Which is asking yourself if you would buy it again. Doing this I managed to get a good amount of stuff that I haven’t used in forever, and probably will never use again. I separated these items in a separate bag for my mum and friends to go through and see if they want anything.

You’ve now sorted through your makeup and decided what you want to keep, now it’s time for a good wipe down of your storage. I use a five drawer set from Muji and an IKEA Helmer for my overflow, and while both are extremely pretty, they’re dust and fingerprint magnets. I take some simple wipes and completely clean out all the drawers.

I deep clean all of my makeup brushes, even the ones that haven’t been used since their last cleaning as they do gather dust and germs flying around the room. But that isn’t enough, I also cleaned all of my makeup. Wiping down the packaging with some wipes, making sure there aren’t any more fingerprints or makeup stains on them, and I also clean the makeup itself. I added some alcohol to a little spray bottle and spritzed it over all my powder products like eye shadows, blushes and well… powders. I also cleaned the edges off any cream products, as the product sometimes migrates onto the packaging when you swirl your fingers or brushes in there.

When you’ve done all of this you can put all of the makeup back in its rightful place. I prefer keeping all of my everyday makeup in the top drawer of my Muji unit, with things like base products, blushes, lip products and stuff for eyes in the other drawers. And that’s it, a few simple steps to cleaning out your collection and starting the season with a new streamlined and perfect set of products.

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