#MicroblogMondays: Oodles and Caboodles

Our master bathroom sink has never drained very well for the entire eight years we've now lived here.  A dose of baking soda & vinegar, followed by a hot water rinse a few minutes later, has usually done the trick and cleared things up for a month or two -- but not this time around. It soon became obvious that we needed to call a plumber. (All I can say is, thank goodness for second bathrooms...!)

I removed everything that was sitting underneath the sink -- and after the plumber came and left this morning (yay!!), I wiped out the empty cupboard with Lysol. But before I started putting everything back again, I decided I needed to go through all my makeup & skin care products and cull the outdated and long-unused stuff.  

Some background:  I've been a huge makeup & skincare junkie for... well, since I started using the stuff as a teenager -- Maybelline, Cover Girl, Revlon. Along with books, it's been one of my biggest indulgences.  My sister introduced me to Clinique makeup back in the early 1980s -- I wore Clinique on my wedding day in 1985 -- and I really got into it in my late 20s/early 30s, when I started working and wearing makeup to the office every day. I didn't do much to take care of my skin until I was probably about 30, but a Clinique consultant got me to try their classic three-step regime, and that still forms the basis of my skincare routine today. I've dabbled in other brands over the years, and I've used a lot of Estee Lauder stuff too -- but I've stayed pretty loyal to Clinique all these years. 

These days, quality cosmetic and skincare brands are available in lots of different places -- drugstores, at Sephora, direct from the companies themselves online -- but back then, department stores were pretty much the only place you could buy it. Fortunately, my office tower was a short walk from the Toronto Eaton Centre, with two department stores (Hudson Bay and Eatons -- later Sears) and their rows and rows of makeup counters full of goodies. Occasionally, I would also slip up to Holt Renfrew on the subway during my lunch hour, whenever they had an enticing "gift with purchase (GWP)" offer (and theirs were always the best!). (Cosmetics were the only thing I could afford to buy there...!) Holts also had a couple of brands that were exclusive to their store at the time, including Prescriptives, which offered customized foundation blends that they made up for you while you waited. (I had mine done, and I LOVED it!)  

I was a sucker for those GWP offers -- those little miniatures were so handy for travelling! (And sometimes they were refillable too.)  Let's just say that, after a while, they really start to accumulate...!  I don't think I've actually bought a tube of mascara in more than 30 years;  almost every GWP comes with one. I tried to delay any makeup or skincare purchases until the next GWP rolled around.  I kept my eyes open for the ads in the newspapers, and eventually, I got my name on file at some of the department store counters, and the staff would call whenever the next one was coming up to ask me if I wanted to reserve a bonus and pick it up that week.

I became especially friendly with D. at the Clinique counter at the Bay, where she eventually became the counter manager. She was just a few years older than me, and worked there for almost as long as I worked for my company.  She had a lovely manner -- friendly, without being pushy. I always felt that she really was trying to point me to the products she felt would work best for me, not (just) just pushing products to meet a sales quota. When I lost my job in 2014, I made a special trip to see her and ask her to take my name off her call list, because I knew I wouldn't be coming downtown very often any more.  By coincidence, she told me SHE was retiring too!  She had a new little granddaughter and wanted to spend more time with her.  I'd been her client for more than 20 years (!) -- I had an old card where she'd written her name and the date of my next appointment -- from 1991 (!). I brought that along to show her and we had a good laugh about it. We hugged each other before I left.

Since leaving work 10 years ago, my makeup consumption has dropped like a stone. (Of course, even when I was using makeup every day, I always had more stuff than I could ever use.)  These days, I can't really be bothered to put on makeup for anything other than big parties, weddings or other special occasions. I can count the number of times I put on makeup during the year on the fingers of one hand (maybe two, depending on what's going on). I still do a basic skincare routine every morning -- but if I'm not wearing makeup, I'm not taking it off and cleaning my skin again at night -- so I'm not using as much skincare stuff as I used to either. 

So I don't use, or buy, as much of the stuff as I used to -- but somehow, I still had a LOT of it! I did a huge skincare and makeup cull after I lost my job in 2014, and again before we moved in April 2016, and I think I did another one a few years back. And I STILL had -- I blush to admit -- a big pink Caboodles case (remember those??), plus two shoebox-sized Rubbermaid plastic bins full of makeup underneath the master bathroom sink -- plus three similar containers full of skincare minis under the sink in the other bathroom.  (Erk.) 

For a few years now, I've tried to remember to label any products I buy or receive as a GWP with the date (year), so I'd have an idea of how old they were. I recently read an article reminding people they should toss makeup and skincare after a certain period of time -- and I knew I had stuff that was a LOT older than the suggested timeframes!  

So, yeah -- time to toss! (Again!)  

I was fairly ruthless. Anything with no date on it, or dated older than 2020, generally got tossed.  I probably still hung onto a few things I should have thrown out. But I emptied three shoebox-sized Rubbermaid plastic bins entirely, filled a small (kitchen-sized) garbage bag with discards, and consolidated what was left. 

I made notes of a few things I tossed (or should toss) that I will want/need to replace -- my foundation & concealer is pretty old, and my eyeshadow & blusher collection is down to just about nothing now -- but I'm in no hurry to go shopping. Like I said, I don't wear the stuff very often these days.  

Plus, I'm waiting for the next gift with purchase offer. ;)   

Are you a skincare & makeup junkie like I am (or was -- I'm TRYING to be better these days...!)? 

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.