Every once in a while, I get the urge to write a post that’s only indirectly connected to beauty and make-up. Today’s one of those days. I often get requests by my readers through different social media to show my make-up collection and my answer is always the same: thank you, but no thank you. Why?

Let’s take a look at the photo above for a moment. This is a photo from my latest blog post about new products I bought or received in the past month. Mostly, the ratio between the products I get in PR and products I buy stands at about 80 % – 20 %. When I started blogging, I bought most, if not all, products myself. I didn’t mind it – and I still don’t – since I love blogging because of my passion for everything pretty and not just to hoard products. I have enough to last me a lifetime.

If we stop to further observe the photo, I can tell you that I did my best to sum up the approximate value of the products above. Without special promotions, the products are worth about 570 €. Let’s say it together, slowly – 570 €, half of the average Slovenian monthly salary. If we multiply this by 12 months, we get the number of 6.800 € – so six average Slovenian monthly salaries. Do you think that purchasing this many products is something you should strive for?

I don’t either.

And let’s get things straight – there are many bloggers in Slovenia that receive so much PR they could come to a much, much higher figure. Personally, I’ve started being more rational recently. When I get the option to choose PR products myself, I only include those that I know I will more likely use. I think that one swatch of a black lipstick isn’t worth the fact that this lipstick will later die a lonely death somewhere in the bottom of my drawers since neither I nor my friends will want it anymore. It takes a lot of work to write a post about a single product – there is no way that I could write about all the products I get sent on a monthly basis.

As a beauty blogger, I’m very lucky to get the chance to work with different comapnies, try out new products and discover new trends. We get products sent without charge and sometimes even earn money from blogging. I’m happy when companies think of me and even happier for my beauty blogging colleagues who earn a living by blogging. That was never my goal and still isn’t  – but that’s a topic for another time and place. But let’s get to the point – the fact that some of us have 200 lipsticks, 30 foundations and 100 nail polishes absolutely doesn’t mean you need them too. Here are a few reasons why.

1) I’m sure that at least occasionally, you have a rushed morning and want to put on make-up as quickly as possible. Can you imagine wanting to put on that “perfect red” listick and then spend the next 10 minutes looking for it in your drawers? If I want to wear a certain listick, I need to prepare it a day in advance – like a school girl laying out clothes.

Trust me, you don’t need that stress.

2) In my posts, I often compare different shades. Sometimes I can find similar dupes for a certain lipstick with three other brands. This will help you choose the best formula and price range for yourself. But for me, that means that I have four practically identical lipsticks.

I have them for a reason – but you don’t need them.

3) Make-up has an expiration date. Yes, like yoghurt or cheese, make-up tends to go bad (dries up, starts crumbling, changes consistency) and can even become dangerous (you can most easily identify that if they change the color or the scent). On every product, you can find a small label at the bottom, telling you how long you have after opening the product to use it up. After that, it’s your gamble. The problem is that with a piece of cheese, you can clearly see when it’s gone bad and it has to be trashed – but what about with lipstick? Are you sure that the make-up you’re applying is safe? For that reason, I swatch most of the old make-up on hands only. I have old make-up in my collection that I really cannot use anymore and only takes up space so I can do comparisons.

You don’t need old and expired make-up.

This year, I set myself two very clear goals to see how much make-up and cosmetics in general I use up in a year. This will also be the topic of this years Blogmas (that’s stil faaar away at the moment). As a true geek, I set up some projects and hypothesis so I believe there will be more then enough topics to cover in December. In the mean time, you can read about my Project pan for 2018 *here*. I’m also starting a new project with a fellow blogger in a week or so.

To sum up – please, don’t make it your goal in life to have a large make-up collection. Don’t forget that the large collections you see on blogs and YouTube are mostly PR and that women wouldn’t spend their own money to build such collections. You don’t have to, either. Let bloggers test 30 different concealer shades and test 10 almost identical moisturizers for you. Then choose the ones you think will work for you and only buy those. Buy products that you fall in love with and not products you think you need just because everyone else has them already. Believe me that you’ll appreciate your decisions on the long run. Personally, I feel that by posting my own make-up collection, I’d contribute to the problem, so that’s why I’ll never do it.

Do you agree with me? I’ll be happy to read your opinion below. Until next time, stay beautiful!