Refresh, Reboot, Refurbish

So your vanity case is packed with your favourite cosmetics? And you love those make-up products so much that you don’t even remember for how long they’ve been lying on your dressing table, leaving
no space for the newer stuff? Well, it’s time to reboot the vanity kit, insists Anusha Iyengar.

Melissa Rodriguez, 21, is a total make-up junkie and loves to try every new product in the market. She kept stuffing her vanity case with her favourite lips colours, eyeliners, kajals, eyeshadows, blushers, foundations, highlighters… the list was endless. Until, one day, she glanced at it and realised that there was no room for any more products. She knew she had to devote a few hours to reboot and organise her vanity case. In short, de-clutter and re-organise her make-up box to update it thoroughly. She segregated the make-up items, disposed the ones that had expired, kept the ones she hardly used aside and placed the frequently used ones in one section. It was a super way of cleaning and organising her make-up set. You can do it too with the following tips and tricks.

Check the expiry date

Using expired products is a complete no-no for your skin. It can give you rashes, infections and breakouts. Before adding any new item to your kit, check its expiry date on the outer box. Then remove the box and stick a tiny note on the product with the month and year of its expiry. “You shouldn’t keep your mascaras for more than four months. It starts to change colour and smells bad. As far as lipstick goes, it can last you for years, but don’t take the risk. Throw the lipstick colours that you won’t use in the future or the ones that are pretty old. Instead, stock your make-up bag with lovely dark shades for the winter and festive season,” advises Meenakshi Khanna, a make-up artist based in Delhi. This way, cleaning can get much easier for you. Khanna suggests a sniff test is the best way to know if something is past its prime. She says, “If you find a funny smell in your lipstick or any creamy product, throw it out. Likewise, nail polishes and foundations that remain separated after you’ve shaken them should be dumped.”

Invest in a storage unit

The second most important step is to look for a perfect storage unit for your make-up stock. Ideally, you should have a unit which lets you store everything you have and doesn’t occupy much space in your room. You can then organise your products according to their expiry date, type, size or colours – whichever seems easier and appealing to you. Twenty-two-year-old media executive Mariya Paul affirms, “I knew exactly what I needed to store and how – so I got a customised unit made at the furniture store.
I referred to myriad videos available on social networking sites to organise the items.” One needs to store
the items in an organised and functional manner so that you can find them easily and use them frequently.

The key lies in disinfecting

Disinfection is a vital step to maintain your beauty items. Unhygienic make-up tools can result in breakouts and unwanted skin infections. Therefore, it’s important to regularly cleanse all your beauty instruments – tweezers, mascara curlers, razors and make-up brushes. Use alcohol or an effective disinfectant/sanitiser to clean the tools on a weekly basis. If the hair on your make-up brushes is shedding, do not use it further. Invest in a new set of brushes. You also need to clean your make-up sponges and the sharpener that you use for eye and lip pencils. Clean the sharpener with a cotton swab and sanitiser. Do this regularly as a lot of dirt gets accumulated on it. If there’s a lot of gunk on it, you even might have to do away with it.

One product, more uses

Whilst de-cluttering, make a note of all the products that can be used in multiple ways and the ones that can be thrown out. For instance, you can use your lipstick as a blush. So you can bid farewell to a few of your blushes. Archana Pendkar, a make-up enthusiast, agrees, “If you have major space issues, it would be advisable to dispose the items that can be used in a certain way and instead replace them with those that are more versatile. It’s a tough task to choose which ones to keep and which ones to throw away since you love everything that you have bought. Keep only those items that have a longer shelf life than
the others.”

Wipe out

If you are used to stuffing your make-up products in make-up pouches or bags, then this might be a painful process as they can spill and spoil the other products in the bag. Always keep some wet tissues and sanitisers handy to clean your make-up products as well as pouches. Yes, you must clean your make-up pouches and bags too. All make-up artists and enthusiasts swear by this rule. Any lipstick stain, mascara or kajal stains must be cleaned thoroughly. And this especially helps if you are storing new products in the bags. After all, no one wants an unclean bag of all their favourite items.
With these important suggestions to revamp your vanity kit, we’re sure you will experiment a lot more with make-up.