Makeup Rehab and Recent Declutters

Looking at the above photo, which has the three palettes I recently decluttered from my collection, it honestly doesn't look like much. It's just three palettes. And that's funny because getting rid of these three palettes has felt like an immense feat, like I've cleaned out so much of my collection. 

When I started this blog, I had close to 30 large eyeshadow palettes. That wasn't counting smaller palettes or quads. I believe I successfully completed four months of my one week, one palette series, which means that I got through about 16 of those palettes. Several of my palettes were what I considered "companion" palettes, and I left them out of that project. 

Now, I am happy to say that, including custom palettes, I have 12 large eyeshadow palettes. Excluding custom palettes, I have 7 large eyeshadow palettes. I have 9 smaller palettes/quads/Melt Stacks. 

Of the large eyeshadow palettes that are not custom:

• 1 is the Urban Decay Electric palette, which I consider a "special" palette that isn't really in the daily rotation 
• 2 are companion palettes (Viseart Dark Matte and Kat Von D Pastel Goth)
• 1 is a travel palette (Tartelette in Bloom)
• 1 is a sentimental one (Tarte Rainforest of the Sea)

So, considering all of that, outside of the custom palettes, the large eyeshadow palettes that I own that are "regulars" are:

• Coloured Raine Queen of Hearts
• Viseart Bijoux Royale 

And so I guess that's why, even though the numbers are still high, it doesn't really feel all that high to me. 

Even in my smaller palette/quads:

• 1 is the Melt Lovesick Stack, which I may end up decluttering
• 2 are companion (Melt Rust Stack and Kat Von D Shade and Light Eye quad in Plum)
• 1 is only for inner corner highlighting 
• 1 is a travel palette 
• 1 is a custom palette with bight colors, which I also consider a "special" occasion palette

Which leaves:

• Milani Earthly Elements (slightly altered by me)
• 2 Tom Ford quads

I know that all of that sounds high maintenance, and sure, I'll take that. But this is what works for me. I like to have companion palettes, I like to have travel palettes, and I like to have those bright palettes that I don't use all the time. 

Now, I also have a large collection of single shadows, so I am by no means saying that I have a small makeup collection, but I feel I am actually getting close to an ideal collection for me. And that's what I think sometimes gets lost in the "makeup rehab" community. Sometimes I think people take the urge to buy and instead apply that to decluttering or panning. And then those practices can get obsessive as well. Now, I am certainly a fan of decluttering and using up products, but I do think that it's more important to work through why the impulse to buy is there and to evaluate your collection over a long period of time. 

Some people are happiest with an enormous collection with drawers and drawers of palettes. Some people are happy with a minimal collection or two eyeshadows. And some people, like me, are happy with an admittedly large collection that is incredibly curated. And as I say that, I still think there is room for improvement and downsizing in my collection. But several months ago, I thought I had gotten to a healthy place. And I have decluttered more than 10 palettes since then. I think decluttering is a process. But I really think it's worth the time to evaluate your collection and really figure out what you personally need and what works best for you. 

So, here are the three latest declutters in my collection. 

Viseart Boheme Dream:

I spoke about this in my Weekend Looks post this week, so I won't go on too much here. Essentially, this is a great palette that I just wasn't using. I don't need light, medium, and dark versions of green, pink, and blue, and I already have the Electric Palette and the custom smaller palette with colors. I also have all of these neutral colors elsewhere in my collection. So, this palette was just sitting in my collection making me feel guilty for not using it. I don't need it, so out it goes. 

MAC C'Est Chic:

I've really enjoyed this palette and found it challenging to declutter. This was actually a birthday gift to myself last year, and that kind of thing adds a sentiment that makes this hard to get rid of. Honestly, that entire bottom row will get no use from me. All of the lighter shadows lack pigmentation, and the main colors that I used I have elsewhere in my collection. So, out it goes. 

Kat Von D Shade and Light Eye:

This is admittedly cheating as I kept my favorite four shadows in this palette. I've mentioned often that the Melt Rust Stack is now my absolute favorite companion palette and that it has essentially replaced this palette. And that's true. Even still, there were still some warm (and cool) shadows that I wanted to keep. The white shadow that is in the cool (middle) quad is one of my favorite brow bone shadows of all time, so I knew I wanted to keep that. And the large cool and warm shadows and the orange shadow in the warm quad were the main reasons that I bought this palette. And because of that, I figured I might as well keep them. I don't need the rest of the palette, I just want what I like. And what's interesting is that when I look at the above palette, without these four shadows, this palette looks so boring to me! Not only that, it looks incredibly repetitive. 

I didn't have any room in any of my custom palettes, so I needed to declutter a bit more. Here was what this custom palette used to look like:

And this is what it looks like now:

(The round shadow that is no longer in this palette is Make Up For Ever Pearl. Don't worry, I didn't get rid of it. It has been moved into another palette.)

What I find amusing about this is that now I only have 8 shadows left from both Viseart Paris Nudes and Sultry Muse. And maybe all of these colors just came out of one of those palettes and I have unknowingly decluttering the other palette shadow by shadow. Either way, I find it funny that these palettes I once loved so much have been reduced to just 8 shadows. I'll also mention that this is my least favorite of all of my custom palettes, and I would not be surprised at all if I decluttered this entire thing in the future. But for now, it stays. 

So ultimately, while I am only getting rid of three palettes, this declutter has freed up a lot of physical space in my collection and has made me feel a bit freed up in my mental space as it relates to my collection as well.