Name: Sharon
Age: 27
Location: Mumbai
Occupation: Senior Lifestyle & Beauty Writer, POPxo
I’ve been working at POPxo since its inception and to tell you the truth, it’s been a lovely journey. I’ve written over 1500 articles across lifestyle, Bollywood and travel. But my first love will always be beauty! I’m a hoarder for all things cute (That’s what lead me to pursue writing on beauty as a career) Pretty, colourful and aesthetic-looking packaging has my heart. Most of the stuff I own today is because of adorable packaging #Guilty
Of late though, I’m running out of space to store them. What once sparked joy, is now starting to look like clutter. I reached a point where I had products in every corner of my home. The bathroom, my dresser, shelves, and the washbasin – they’ve even made their way to my parents’ room! More than joy in having this stash of makeup and skincare, the clutter started causing anxiety. The bulk of products would get me stressed and I would always end up running late because I wouldn’t know what to pick and use. No matter how attached I was to these beauty products, something needed to be done about the mess. Last weekend, I found myself binge-watching all the episodes of Marie Kondo on Netflix. This inspired me to try the KonMari method myself at home. From having 5 giant cartons of skincare products, I’ve downsized to just ONE. These are my cult beauty products at the moment. Here, take a look!
My skin type is acne-prone which means that my pores tend to get clogged easily. Clay masks have my heart for their ability to deep cleanse the skin and keep acne at bay. That’s why masking is a beauty ritual I look forward to every weekend. My current favourite is this Glow Baby Glow Aloe Vera face pack. It’s got just the right consistency and texture. It doesn’t feel too heavy on my skin and the ingredients in the formula are minimal and herbal. And that’s what I’m looking for in skincare – gentle, effective and clean. As soon as I wash the pack off, my skin feels hydrated, fresh and baby soft.
If you’re as particular about a regular deep face cleanse as I am, you would love the Glow Baby Glow Aloe Vera face pack. The Aloe cools your skin down, and the pack leaves your skin feeling really fresh and bright.
Coming back to how I Marie Kondo’ed my beauty space, this is how it went down!
Visualising Is The First Step
The very first thing you need to do is visualise what kind of space you want to live in. It’s all about describing your ideal lifestyle in your mind and bringing that to life. Be mindful about your belongings and honest with yourself. Visualising helps to bring clarity. When decisions are made with a clear mind, they can bring a turning point in your life. I applied the same logic to my beauty products. I decided to stick with the basics. The ones I keep coming back to. I realised that if I wasn’t returning to a product, it meant there wasn’t any emotional connection between me and the product, to begin with.
Pick A Category
One thing I’ve learned from Marie Kondo is to never clean every thing at once. If you’re cleaning your wardrobe, allow a whole day for that. Clean your bookshelf another day and your beauty cabinet the day after. Trust me, don’t do it all together, it gets hectic, stressful and tiring. In my case, I chose to sort out my skincare stash first and chose another day to clean my makeup drawer. (God bless this weekend!)
Discard With No Emotional Attachment
Start with discarding first. If you start focusing on the things you love, then honey, you’re never going to get ANY cleaning done! Grab a bin liner or a big cardboard box and just discard anything that makes you feel unhappy or heavy. The same rule applies to sentimental or nostalgic items. Once I got rid of all the products I did not want, the trapped energy was gone and the products looked neat, happy and organised.
Keep The Ones That Spark Joy
I put the ones I feel meh about in the box. I’ll be distributing them to my family and close friends. Only the ones that work for my skin type and bring a smile to my face are the ones I’ve kept with me (like these) I don’t know about you, but of late, I’ve also started to feel conscious about the beauty products I use. I choose cruelty-free products with natural ingredients in them. Also, I’m not a fan of bulky products. Sleek, lightweight and eco-friendly ones, are the kind of beauty products I wish to invest in. As far as the products which come in plastic dabbas, I’m going to recycle and reuse them! Probably use them to store my jewellery or dry fruits.
Now, every time, I open my shelf to use a product, I know where’s what and the product’s functionality. Things have gotten a lot simpler for me and I can finally get better sleep at night. All credit goes to Marie Kondo for this!
Images: Writer’s own
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