How To Easily Curate A Makeup Collection That You Love In 4 Steps

The beauty industry contains lots of brands which means a wide variety of products for us to choose from.

Moreover, product releases are also way easier to access these days (hello, online shopping!), which means we only need to hit the ‘purchase’ button, and the products lay on our doormats days/weeks later.

Not only can this cause a makeup hoarding addiction and a huge makeup collection, but it also makes you spend money on products you first think are amazing, but you might end up not loving them as much as you initially thought.

That’s such a waste of money! How do we prevent this, though? I’ll help you with that!

Step 1: Create a Makeup Inventory

If you have a big makeup collection, this step is going to take a while. It’s a good idea to have a good overview of the current products in your collection will ensure that you’re using the products you have regularly. 

You might want to consider a makeup inventory to keep track, such as a spreadsheet or bullet journal. I personally like to use a digital version because you can easily sort by various parameters (like finding out how many or what eyeshadows you have).

If you’ve purchased products and returned or otherwise decluttered them from your stash, consider keeping an additional tab on a spreadsheet where you explain why you let go of that product.

You may not be able to remember all the products you’ve returned/decluttered while setting up your makeup inventory but take this as a starting point. Knowing what didn’t work for you can be very useful when making future purchases.

If you’re setting up your own spreadsheet or journal, make sure to include at least the following:

• Brand
• Product Category (e.g. Face, Lips, Eyes, Cheeks)
• Type of Product (e.g. Lipstick, Eyeshadow)
  • If you have a huge collection and a lot of certain products, you may want to include additional information like liquid vs bullet lipstick, cream vs powder blush, etc.
• Product Name (e.g. Matte Liquid Lipstick in the shade ‘…’)
• Color
• Price
  • You might want to sort this into ‘retail price’ and ‘actual price paid’ for the times that you purchase something during a sale or get something gifted.
  • If you’re an international customer and have to pay customs charges, you might want to include a section for this to keep track of these expenses as well.
• Status (e.g. Current, Panned, Decluttered)

It’s also possible to include freebies, samples, and minis in your makeup inventory as well, but it depends on your own preferences.

Moreover, if you want to, you can include all your beauty expenses in the spreadsheet to keep on track with skincare, haircare, and bodycare items as well.

As you can tell, there are different ways to fill in your makeup inventory, so make sure it fits you and your preferences!

Step 2: Declutter Your Makeup Collection

While creating your makeup inventory, you might already come across some items in your makeup collection you don’t really use or love anymore.

It’s time to say goodbye to these items during a makeup decluttering session. Besides getting rid of the products you don’t use or like anymore, you also want to look for expired products as well. Go by smell/texture/performance tests or the expiration date.

The products that worked terribly for you should be the next easiest to say goodbye to. These are the ones that you’ve tried, hated, and shoved in the back of the drawer and never reached for again. 

Time to throw these items out, gift them to friends & family or donate them if they’re almost new & opened recently. Here are a couple of questions to ask yourself when decluttering:

1. Does this product work well for me?
2. When was the last time I used this?
3. Did I like it the last time I used it?
4. Do I have other products that are similar to it that I use more often?
5. Do I see myself using it again?

Step 3: Organize your Makeup Collection

If your makeup collection looks like a complete mess, I bet you won’t see all the products in your collection and forget about them easily. So it’s very important to organize your makeup collection in a way that works well for you and your space.

You don’t have to have a huge room and expensive vanity in order to organize your makeup. I’ve written a post about 15 makeup storage hacks that will work for a lot of spaces!

• Organize based on how you use your makeup: This could be the order in which you apply your makeup (e.g., primer, foundation, concealer, blush, etc.), but this also be based on which products you use most to the products you use less. Make sure that the products you’re using daily/the most are the best accessible.
• Look for acrylic organizers: I love acrylic organizers the most because they’re see-through. This makes it easy to see the products before you even have to open a drawer or easily overview your products in a drawer. Acrylic organizers are available in lots of different sizes, they will fit in everyone’s cabinets, but there are also acrylic organizers towers when you don’t have space in a cabinet. There are lots of different options, and that’s why they’re so great!

Step 4: Mindfully Purchase New Products

This might even be the most important step of them all because it all starts with your purchases. It’s important to start making more mindful purchases or even buy less makeup if that would help with your overall goal of curating a makeup collection you love. Before you purchase a new beauty product, ask yourself questions like:

• Do I own something similar already?
• Do I really need this product?
• Why is it tempting me/Why do I want it?
• What need will it fill?

By asking these questions before you actually purchase products, it’ll help you spend your money on products that you truly want and are an addition to your collection.

How’s your makeup collection looking? Are you satisfied? Do you need to do some decluttering? Let me know in the comments!