Let’s first start with my addiction to cosmetics. 

It all started when I had to tag along when my mom drove my sister Cristi and her friend Sarah to high school in the mornings. I was in elementary school so I wasn’t old enough to stay home alone. Sarah sat in the back with me and I would watch her in awe as she applied her makeup. 

She held her little compact mirror and delicately traced her big round eyes with brown eyeliner and brushed through her dark lashes with mascara and moisturized her plump lips with watermelon scented SoftLips lip balm. For a ten-year-old, that shit was magical. As soon as my mom deemed me old enough, I started collecting makeup and never stopped. 

I did the makeup for my high school’s theatre productions, I did my friend’s homecoming makeup, prom makeup, I did my cousin’s wedding makeup. I was the only person in my high school that filled in my eyebrows. I reached the VIB (very important buyer) level at Sephora and earned the silver membership card and the go-to gift for me was always a Sephora gift card. For almost two years I got five makeup samples every month from my Birchbox subscription. 

This love extended to hair care and nails too. I was even a receptionist at a salon and I taught myself how to do acrylic nails so I could save the $60 trip to the nail salon.

At this point, I’m one step from becoming a full-blown beauty guru on YouTube. I own more cosmetic products than I could ever use in my lifetime. But unless the product is expired (or rather, looks or smells expired), I always have such a hard time parting with it (I don’t part with it).

Let me be honest about the totals.

50 lip glosses and lipsticks

39 makeup brushes

18 highlighters

and 8 eyeshadow palettes.

…I have no excuse. The worst part is: I wear the same makeup every day. And it’s only five products. And three of those products are mascaras. I don’t know.

But, with the power of Tati Westbrook and fellow YouTube beauty gurus on my side and on my screen, I managed to get rid of more than I’d ever gotten rid of before.

Getting rid of 20 lip products, 14 makeup brushes, 6 highlighters, and 3 makeup palettes is about a third of my collection.

The final tallies are 30 lip products, 25 brushes, 12 highlighters, and 5 makeup palettes. I’d say that’s the average collection for a makeup lover like me and not a makeup addict like my former self.

The real test will be making sure I don’t fill the extra space with new makeup products.

Next week, we’re heading to the closet.