Buying Practical Makeup

I was forced to do a bit of spring cleaning this past weekend and the bathroom was my most dreaded area of the apartment. My makeup, hair care, skin care, perfumes and lotions cover every square inch of the counters and cabinets. When asked to give up some of beauty products I thought, "this is impossible, everything is different, I use all of it..." I was wrong. If I have learned anything from this years' spring cleaning, I have learned that everything that I buy, everything that I must have is something that I undoubtedly have at least one comparable item of. My coveted lipstick collection consists of ten of my FAVORITE colors... the funniest thing is that no one would be able to tell the difference in shades except me, because every color is nearly identical. This prompted me to check the stock description, this is sickening, "pale muted peach beige" "beige pink with pearl" "pale muted peachy-beige" "light beige with rose" "light beigey-pink". How many tubes of black mascara does a girl need? SEVEN, I was disgusted. Black eyeliner? FIVE. Oh, and the light pink lip glosses? TEN.
I decided from now on, I will have a new way of looking at my makeup purchases. I will have one of each item in a makeup bag (rather than a Rubbermaid drawer large enough to be used as a dresser) and when I am tempted to buy a new item I will ask myself, "is this already in the bag?" No more nude lipstick, pink lip-gloss, black eyeliner, black mascara, or brown eye shadow. I think a large part of the reason we have so many products that are similar is because we are looking for something better, but I'm starting to realize "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". The products that I go back to again and again are ones that I've used for years, most of which can never be replaced. A lot of money has gone to waste in vain attempts to replace a product that works perfectly well.