One of the reasons I decided to resurrect my blog is, frankly, nostalgia. I never thought I’d feel nostalgic for the second half of grad school (or the first half, for that matter), but 2020 has made me nostalgic for almost everything before it. When I started Auxiliary Beauty in 2014, Obama was president, I… Read More An Old-Fashioned Lipstick Destash Post
(I started writing this as an Instagram post, but I can type only so much text with my thumbs on a tiny keyboard before I have to move to the laptop. I’m old.) The end of the year has awakened the destashing impulse in quite a few makeup people I follow online. It makes sense:… Read More Last Destash of 2018
Destashing makeup is emotionally hard for me year-round, but it becomes a little easier in the spring, as do most things. The lengthening days bring a new zest for self-improvement: I exercise more, I consume less sugar and alcohol, and I grow more decisive about streamlining my makeup collection. I recently decided to destash eight… Read More Spring Lipstick Destash
Since the beginning of 2017, I’ve maintained a lipstick inventory, noting how often I wear each of my lipsticks, which ones are new to me, which I’ve destashed or finished, etc. Some people use a spreadsheet, but I prefer the humble Word document. As you can see, I place an asterisk next to a lipstick… Read More Lipstick Megapost: Inventory, Pans, and Last Destash of 2017
Since my last post, I’ve crossed a few thresholds: the autumnal equinox, my 30th birthday, and my dissertation deadline. (For the record, 30 feels exactly like 29, and I was so busy in the weeks leading up to my birthday that I didn’t even have time to freak out over becoming an Old.) Now that… Read More Lipstick Project Pan Update #1
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… Read More First Lipstick Inventory and Destash of 2017
…oh, and two eyeshadows, but who cares about those? I took a lipstick inventory six months ago and got rid of six products. But that didn’t come close to eliminating all the lip colors I no longer wore, and I returned from my travels last month with a clearer sense of what I could trust… Read More I Destashed 15 Lipsticks
I’m told that it’s May, though you wouldn’t know it from the weather, which has been utterly miserable for over a week and promises to carry on being utterly miserable for another week to come. Every day is the same: between 45 and 60 degrees, completely overcast, raining on and off, humidity around 90%. After… Read More Low-Buy Progress Report #4: April
“A Journey Through Purge-atory” is my ongoing, if not exactly regular, destashing series; here are my first and second posts. Today, let’s get rid of some lipstick and polish! Lipsticks, left to right: YSL Glossy Stain in Rouge Gouache, Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Mauvy Night, Revlon Colorstay Ultimate Suede Lipstick in Supermodel, Maybelline Colorsensational… Read More A Journey Through Purge-atory, Part 3: Lipsticks and Nail Polishes
Greetings from a cramped hotel room on Manhattan’s Upper West Side! This endearingly unhip neighborhood is special to me because of the time I spent in a history program at Columbia in the summer before my junior year of college. It was my first experience of New York as an adult (if nineteen counts), and… Read More A Journey Through Purge-atory, Part 2: Eyeshadows and One More Lipstick
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