Intro post!

Hey guys! I'm Rachel and this is Coco, welcome to the blog! I've come a long way since the days when I would hoard makeup and buy tons of backups, and while we're still on a journey of minimalism and decluttering, I want to share a little bit about where we started and where we're going.

When I first got into makeup, I had no idea what worked on me, what I liked, or how to use makeup really. The problem was, the more Youtube I watched, the more things I needed to try out because they were "holy grails," even if they worked on someone who had a different skin tone or eye shape. So I would buy more and more makeup that I didn't like on me, but I've always had a hard time throwing out makeup due to a fear of wasting it if I didn't use it up, I felt horrible about how much makeup I had in my collection. 

If this situation sounds familiar to you, the feeling of failure that you couldn't make something work on you that looks amazing on someone else, if you dislike returning makeup or you're saving that lipstick for that special occasion that may come one day, you'll know what I felt like all the way up until 3 years ago.

It was a feeling of chaos, guilt and more than anything, it did not stop me from watching Youtube videos or buying more makeup. Here's a picture of my old collection full of perfumes, lipsticks, and makeup I didn't like all mixed together with the things that I did love.

So what changed? I stumbled onto minimalism many years ago, right around the KonMari Method became all the rage, but the idea of only keeping things that sparked joy seemed way too high stakes for me. I can't do that all in one go, I thought to myself. And looking back, I was right. What helped me instead was this book, goodbye, things, which I highly recommend, and self compassion.

I just started slowly. I began to give away makeup to friends, and each day I pushed myself a little bit more to do things I hadn't done before like throwing away an eyeshadow that I didn't like or selling unused makeup. It was a journey of fits and stalls, of progress and doubt, until I got my collection down to where it is now. I'll do a post about that someday. 
Another big turning point in my decluttering journey was moving into my own apartment after having lived with roommates for 5 years, right around the start of the pandemic. I had a smaller space and moving really puts into perspective all of the makeup you own. 

In terms of my relationship with makeup, one thing I didn't expect would help me rehabilitate my habit of holding onto things that didn't serve me, ended up being therapy, but that's a story for another time. As I accepted that what I really wanted was a smaller collection, I learned how to let go of the guilt and shame of the purchasing mistakes I had made in the past. 

I realized that using makeup I didn't like wasn't the answer, because it didn't make up for the past money I had spent nor would it undo the waste, also known as the sunk cost fallacy. I had always thought that the way to get my money's worth was just to brute force myself to pan my makeup, but I hated doing it and often found myself turning to the things I liked using anyway. 

From time to time I would keep makeup diaries along my decluttering journey but I've finally decided to blog about it as well. Hope you'll come join me for the ride! More next week. Later days!