Confessions of a makeup addict

I feel that I have been obsessed with makeup for my entire life. My mom tells me stories of how I enjoyed to use her makeup (with or without her knowledge) and have my brother help me apply it. When I think back to my childhood, I can vividly remember being fascinated by makeup. I loved having my mom apply lipstick and mascara on me for dance recitals; I also loved any toy that resembled makeup.

At one point in my life, I remember having this little toy/machine that came with different liquid colors, bottles, glitters, etc, that allowed the child to create her own nail polishes. I loved to experiment with all the different colors, making some colors of my own as well. Additionally, I had my own little vanity where I pretended to do my makeup.

My interest in makeup continued throughout high school, but it did not peak until college. In high school, I used mostly makeup that my mom had, rarely purchasing anything for myself. The brands I was mostly exposed to or at least knew of were Lancome and Clinique. Little did I know that a whole world of makeup was out there waiting to be explored. In my college years, when I came to the United States to study, I discovered MAC. I believed MAC to be my holy grail. However, I had still a lot to learn. Most of the products that I used at the beginning were eye liner, mascara, a few eye shadows, and lipstick.

Some of the things that I learned along the way was which foundations suited me best (I still have issues with drugstore brands, as they all seem to oxidize on my face making me look like an oompa loompa, or they give me allergies), which lipsticks suit me, and even the idea of an eye primer! For years I used makeup without any knowledge of “eye shadow creasing” and what a primer did.

Sophomore year in college I discovered the beauty of youtube and “beauty gurus”. I was hooked! I learned about all different brands, brushes and how they were used for different things, as well as blushes, and even bronzers! This all led me to attempt to make my own videos, but I was still inexperienced, and my camera lacked the quality needed to make good videos. However, I continued to experiment with my makeup, and on occasion was able to do my roommate's makeup. To this day, I still love answering questions from people about makeup; my mom calls me all the time when she needs to replenish her stash, or when she needs some advice on what product to try out.

All this obsession and love for beauty has led me to acquire so many products. It reached a point where I could not fit all my items under the sink. For years, I had some of my makeup and brushes in a little makeup bag, with the overflow in a big cup. It was driving me crazy as everything was overflowing; I had no space on the sink, or in the cupboard below. Once my husband and I got our own place, I started to feel bad; I felt that my makeup and beauty products were taking control of all the space, leaving none for him. I finally decided it was time for a change, I purchased a makeup storage from amazon. Now I am able to store all my makeup in one easily accessible place. Not only is it neater and a space saver, but now I can actually see everything that I own!

However, organizing is not the only way to keep my addiction at bay. With the start of a new year, and the tags and challenges on Youtube (Project Pan, use X by y) I have decided to tackle this obsession by setting some goals for the year in the hopes of not allowing an overflow, as well as to control my expenses. I hope that creating these goals and budgets will assist me in knowing what I actually go through during the year as well as allowing me to see how much money I actually spend on a yearly basis. The following are my goals that I plan to stick to in 2015.

1.       Use up my products before purchasing others.

2.       Use up 5 lip products (lipsticks or lip liners) by the end of the year. (Lipsticks have been a real obsession of mine and I have more than I can count!)

3.       Use up or at least make a big dent in 1 blush.

4.       Use up or at least make a big dent in 1 bronzer (be it full sized or sample sized).

5.       Hit pan on at least 1 eye shadow in each palette (I have three palettes, two of which are brand new).

6.       Limit eye liners to 2.

7.       Limit mascaras to 2.

8.       Use up 2 perfumes and keep only 1-2 at hand. (As of now I have 2 full sized perfumes, a teeny tiny bit in another bottle, and a full sample sized bottle).

 If you want to see what I'm using to organize my makeup, here it is! http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EKQLX6U/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thank you for reading!

~Naty