I don’t know about you, but I find it much easier to destash makeup when I’m in a foul mood. The angrier I feel at the world, the more readily I can accept that a certain lipstick will never work for me and doesn’t deserve a place on my shelf. In that spirit, I’m removing nine lipsticks from my collection today:
The three Topshop lipsticks and the mini Givenchy are fairly recent acquisitions, but the other five have been kicking around for years and are very well-loved. In fact, all five were favorites of mine at one point or another, but have outlived their usefulness in my collection. It’s hard to part with those lipsticks, but I know from experience that decluttering the makeup I no longer wear makes my collection less visually overwhelming. From left to right, we have MAC Pink Nouveau, Topshop Plastique, Topshop Boardroom, Maybelline Vivid Rose, Topshop Motel, Revlon Primrose, and MAC Creme Cup:
And two stragglers, Revlon Red Velvet and Givenchy Noir Révélateur:
Swatches, same order, minus Pink Nouveau:
And a quick word about each one. I don’t want to destash MAC Pink Nouveau, a perfect medium pink for my complexion, but it’s clearly gone off: the texture has changed and the scent isn’t quite vanilla anymore. Topshop Plastique is a lovely color that just doesn’t work on my face, and the formula is a bit patchy and chalky. Topshop Boardroom is the lipstick that won me over to greige, but its formula is even worse than Plastique’s: uneven and prone to sinking into lip lines. Maybelline Vivid Rose was my JAM in the summer of 2013, and I have many fond memories of wearing it on date nights with my boyfriend, but I haven’t reached for it since last January—I’m just not into non-matte bold lipsticks anymore. Though Topshop Motel was one of the lipsticks I resolved to use up this year, I wore it the other day and didn’t like anything about it. The formula is weirdly grainy and slippery and drying, and the shade washes me out and doesn’t fit into any one color category: it’s too dark and warm to be an MLBB, yet too light and nude to be a true brown. Revlon Primrose is a lilac-y nude that was another 2013 favorite, but I genuinely can’t remember the last time I wore it; same with MAC Creme Cup. There was a point early in my makeup-collecting life when I thought I needed a couple of pinky nude lipsticks, because everyone seemed to have a couple, but I discovered eventually that they weren’t to my taste. Revlon Red Velvet is too soft and smeary to be as opaque as it is. Givenchy Noir Révélateur has a horribly strong floral fragrance, and let’s be real, I’m never going to layer it over another lipstick. I do plan to keep the Pink Nouveau and Creme Cup tubes for the Back 2 MAC program, which gives you a new lipstick in exchange for six empty tubes. I should qualify for that free lipstick by, I don’t know, 2020?
Here’s my collection post-destash:
Finally, a quick inventory of that collection, because I’m desperate to distract myself from demoralizing academic bullshit. I’ve put an asterisk next to the shades that are no longer available.
Reds (10):
ColourPop Lippie Stix in Let’s Play
Marc Jacobs Le Marc Lip Creme in Rei of Light
Maybelline Colorsensational Bolds in Smoking Red
NARS Semi-Matte Lipstick in 413 BLKR
NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Cruella (mini)
NARS Sheer Lipstick in Flamenco
NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Mysterious Red
NYX Matte Lipstick in Alabama
Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Fire and Ice
Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick in 69
Pinks (7):
Bite Amuse Bouche Lipstick in Radish (mini)
MAC Matte Lipstick in Candy Yum-Yum
NARS Audacious Lipstick in Angela
Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Cherries in the Snow
Revlon Colorburst Lipstick in Fuchsia
Revlon Matte Balm in Sultry
Urban Decay Vice Lipstick in Backtalk
Oranges and Corals (5):
Maybelline Colorsensational Vivids in Vibrant Mandarin
Revlon Lip Butter in Candy Apple
Sephora Cream Lip Stain in Coral Sunset
Topshop Matte Lipstick in Rio Rio
Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick in Streak
Berries and Plums (9):
Glossier Generation G in Jam
Kat Von D Studded Kiss in Mercy (mini)
MAC Matte Lipstick in Eugenie
MAC Satin Lipstick in Rebel
Milani Moisture Matte in Matte Fearless
Milani Amore Matte Metallic in The Ultimatte
Revlon Balm Stain in Crush
Topshop Matte Lip Bullet in Get Me Bodied
Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick in Rapture
Purples (5):
& Other Stories Droguet Purple
Bite custom lipstick
Bite Amuse Bouche in Lavender Jam
NYX Liquid Suede in Amethyst
NYX Round Lipstick in Castle
Browns (4):
MAC Matte Lipstick in Antique Velvet
NYX Liquid Suede in Brooklyn Thorn
Revlon Matte Balm in Fierce
Urban Decay Vintage Vice Lipstick in Roach
Nudes and MLBBs (6):
Bourjois Rouge Edition in Beige Trench
ColourPop Ultra Matte in Trap
Glossier Generation G in Cake
Milani Moisture Matte Lipstick in Matte Naked
NARS Cinematic Lipstick in Last Tango
Revlon Sheer Lipstick in Pink Truffle
Unconventional Colors (2):
NYX Velvet Matte in Midnight Muse
NYX Liquid Suede in Stone Fox
Grand Total: 48
That’s not counting my six lip glosses (four full-sized, two minis), two lip tints, and four lip liners. That’s also not counting MAC Up the Amp, which is practically empty. My grand total has shrunk by three since last March, but it’s worth noting that 19 of the shades on my list are new. My tentative goal for this year is to bring the total between 40 and 45, either by using up some shades or by destashing. And I’m going to be a lot pickier about the lipsticks I let into my collection—or so I say now. Oh, well.
Auxiliary Beauty 
I had an angry summer destash, got rid of over half of my makeup. I'm happy it happened because I find myself holding onto useless or old makeup far too often. I love the look of Boardroom, sucks that the formulation isn't great.
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I have more lipsticks and I'm not even as much of a lipstick lover as you are. But I guess I counted tubes that I technically destashed, but that I haven't bothered to give away to anyone, and so I keep them around for comparisons etc. Sorry about the demoralizing academic bullshit! There's so much of it.
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Sending you my sympathies re: academic bullshit. It must be so hard going on the market right now. I'm writing my dissertation and am thinking of going on the market next year, if at all. Part of me just wants to get a private sector job and skip all the craziness. You are a brave scholar! For what it's worth, I usually go in the opposite direction – when I start to get demoralized, I buy more. It's a horrible habit that I'm trying to curb.
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NYX Brooklyn Thorn is more or less the same color as Boardroom with a better formula, so I'm not too sad to lose Boardroom. (That was yet another lipstick I ordered without trying it on first.)
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Yeah, I'm pretty sure I have a few old tubes in the attic, but I'm only counting the lipsticks in my regular rotation. SO MUCH BULLSHIT.
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Believe me, I ask myself every day whether academia is worth this much unhappiness. Best of luck whatever you decide to do!I think I'm unusual in buying less when I'm sad or angry. Anxiety does often make me buy more, though.
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I applaud your destashing initiative. It's terrible, but I've rarely gotten rid of anything. I've taken stuff back to mac, and forced myself to part with things that are well and truly empty (doesn't happen often with colour cosmetics). I keep telling myself that I should hold onto things for swatches on the blog, like there's any danger I'll run out of comparisons if I get rid of six or seven. In my defence, I am pretty scrupulous about using everything, but I know that I have to thin the herd. Sorry to hear about the academia woes. My mother worked at a university, as did many of my friends parents and seeing the sort of things they'd deal with was bad enough. Good luck!
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If I owned as many beautiful high-end lipsticks as you do, I'd find it hard to part with them too! It's much easier to destash drugstore makeup, in my experience. NARS Angela dries out my lips every time I wear it, but I can't bring myself to get rid of it because the color is so perfect.And thanks! I'm trying to focus on achieving short-term goals, but it's hard when the long term is so vague. I literally have no idea where I'll be living in eight months…
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Nice work! You have my sympathies re: academic bullshit. I'm glad you found a constructive way to channel the resulting anger. I do think that each field of endeavor has its share of ridiculous BS (I've seen some horrible cutthroat tactics among minimum wage workers in restaurant kitchens as well as among health care professionals with post-graduate degrees), and it's best to still follow your passion through the trouble. Then at least you get to do what you love part of the time.
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Aw. I hope the academic bullshit gets less bullshit-y soon. Anyway, lipstick is the makeup category I'm encountering the most difficulty with for many different reasons like \”I could use this as blush\” or \”I need this for reference purposes\”. I should face this one soon.
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I recently made a google form with all my lip products and have been tracking my lipstick usage for 2017 using it. It's also great for reminding myself of what I own.
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It's true, I've met a lot of awful people in academia, but I also met a lot of awful future lawyers and politicians on the college debate circuit. I think the difference is the almost total absence of tenure-track jobs these days. (My friend works on 20th-century American poetry, and there were no jobs for him to apply to this year. ZERO.) I could put up with a lot more bullshit if I were reasonably certain that my work and credentials would eventually bring me a secure livelihood. But I can't be sure of that.
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I have the same problem, but I remind myself that giving second and third and fourth chances to mediocre lipsticks means ignoring the ones I really love. I have only one pair of lips!
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I totally stole this idea yesterday! I just copied and pasted the inventory in this post into a Word document, but even that exercise has been helpful. I almost bought a red liquid lipstick yesterday, but I was able to remind myself that I own TEN red lipsticks and wear red lipstick once a week at most.
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Sorry to hear about demoralizing academic BS. Stay strong, and I hope you are cheered by your powers of organization and all the bright colors in your possession.I am planning to knit a sweater this year, which I haven't done before, and I'm currently in the dreaming-and-browsing-patterns stage. When I try to think of colors I might like, in the abstract, I usually come up with maroon and greenish blue; but since I already own plenty of clothes in those colors (and they don't even go with each other particularly well) I'm trying to branch out. So I've been spending a fair bit of time looking at yarn online and debating what color I want to spend months with.Now that I have typed this up, I see it doesn't relate to your post about lipstick destashing at all. Um–life is stressful, color is comforting? I think that's all I've got.
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You've done well! Topshop definitely suffered at your hands here, haha. I haven't tried the matte bullets but I have to say that the regular lipsticks are not my favourite. I ended up destashing both of the ones I had from them a long time ago. They just looked like a weird layer on top of my lips.Hope everything works itself out for you; sorry you're going through a stressful time.
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I wish I knew how to knit. One of my friends here is a fabulous knitter (she recently made me a pair of rainbow gloves!), and I think it would be nice to have some sort of crafty outlet. I used to do cross-stitch; I might get back to that someday.Color IS comforting. The more I think about my makeup addiction, the more I realize that it's about color more than anything else. There's so much satisfaction in finding the perfect iteration of a certain color.
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Poor Topshop, indeed. The first Topshop lipstick I tried was the Matte Lip Bullet in Get Me Bodied, and I loved it so much that I accumulated several other Topshop lipsticks, only to realize that GMB was the exception to the rule. Their regular lipsticks suck; the only one I have left is Rio Rio, and I may get rid of it this summer if I can't make it work. It's not quite as bad as Boardroom, but it suffers from the same slipperiness and odd non-matte-ness.And thanks. Sorry to complain here; I try to keep my blog about makeup, but makeup is one of my comforts in stressful times, so.
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[…] some away to internet/IRL friends), but damn, that’s a lot of post-consumer waste. I did a big destash at the beginning of the year, but instead of appreciating the benefits of a smaller collection, I […]
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[…] we’re done! In my next post, I’ll update my lipstick inventory from almost a year ago and talk about the lipsticks I’ve panned and destashed this year. […]
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[…] use spreadsheets, but I’m too lazy and low-tech for that shit. I just copied and pasted my lipstick inventory into a Word document, and whenever I wear a lipstick I put an asterisk next to it, like […]
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