July 27, 2007 12:12 PM,  Audrey_H said...

Hi! Great stash! A lot of nice products here, I agree! Just curious - what do you do with previous grails/favorites when downsizing? Do you give them away, swap them away, or throw them out? (I miss some items on your list, things you've raved about earlier like Nars Babylon, MAC Powersurge, Cristobal Balenciaga etc. so I guess some action has been done here). I need to downsize my stash, so I would like to know what others do! :)

Thanks, and thanks also for inspiring me to do something with my collection! :)

Audrey

July 27, 2007 2:15 PM,  Dain said...

I usually give excess products to friends, and that accounts for the majority of my downsizing. I suppose swapping would be better for me, but I find it inconvenient... There wouldn't be any point except to swap for stuff I really like, and that's hard to set up and I dislike the hassle of finding a good swap and I err... hate the post office. So I just give it away. My friends don't question it. Lol. But things I've favored in the past, like the NARS Babylon, I keep around, perhaps waiting for a worthy recipient. They keep well, so it's not an issue. I don't really use them... but they're relatively few in number. I'm not sure... I'm just merciless about paring things down. There's sort of a "won't miss, give it away" pile, a "maybe" pile, and "keep" pile, and I try to make the "maybe" pile the smallest (if it's the biggest, there's no point in the exercise).

July 27, 2007 2:21 PM,  Audrey_H said...

Aha, that sounds reasonable. Thanks! :)

July 27, 2007 10:40 PM,  Colleen Shirazi said...

I don't swap either. I understand the point of swapping, but I think it's better to buy slowly, do a lot of planning...

And sometimes, something you bought and didn't use much, turns out to be good. I didn't use MAC Grey Utility eyepencil much at first. Then, I started using it...now it's one of the three eyepencils I use.

July 28, 2007 11:17 AM,  Jenny B said...

For most of my professional life, I've worked as a tester. That means I look for the errors in software: in functionality, design, usability; overall as well as in details. I think I've always had this exploratory and analytical mindset, because I remember how it influenced me in my makeup quest.

When I started out, my goal was to own makeup from every brand I could find, from high end to low end. (Owning = testing; swapping or returning things isn't for me.) That way I would find the brands with the best quality, and when I did, I would know where to go for all of my makeup needs.

For a long time, it seemed I would never reach the point where I would be satisfied I'd found the best of the brands. Sometimes I wished my interest would wane, because I already had so much, but since I enjoyed every new discovery, I didn't make any real effort to stop myself. Then surprisingly, I reached that point of saturation last winter. I think it was a combination of just having bought some makeup items I was very happy with, and chatting on MUA to the point of exhaustion.

The result is I have a fairly large makeup collection. This does not bother me at all. I have found my colours and so many good makeup looks during my experimental years, and I am happy to own so many good colours to choose from. To an outsider there may not be much difference between the 20+ red lipsticks I have, but I see the difference in colour, texture, shine, wearability. I can tailor my look to occasion, company, mood, lighting, season and time of day.

Now that I feel I've found the best quality brands, I'm not as protective of my large collection anymore. Cutting it down by using it up is the way to go for me. Although I really enjoy finding makeup I forgot I had, I think I'll be happy even if I cut my stash down to about half its present size. There was a time when I knew the shade of every lipstick I owned, and could compare them in my head with any new colour I found in the stores. That feels like a good size for my collection.