112. Your Make-up Bag is Keeping You Unorganized

I know a lot of people are into the "Get Ready With Me (GRWM)" videos on social media, but ALL of those products, in a "real" household, are keeping people unorganized. Let's talk about how you can get your makeup bag organized NOW, so that you are better with other - larger - projects later.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Okay, today we're back in the conference room. We are back on YouTube, and the purpose for that is I'm going to show you something else today. This isn't a product that I want you to buy. This isn't any kind of promotion for any particular thing. It's just a basic concept that I think will help many of you. So a lot of you follow the get ready with me on Instagram, TikTok, all those platforms. And there's nothing wrong with what any of those influencers are doing. However, what a lot of them are conveying to you is that you have to have a number of products in order to look good, feel good. You have to do all of the highlighting, the low lights, the fake lashes, the eyeshadow, all of that. And like I said in the episode called Instagram organizing, when it comes to anything that's promoted online, a lot of these influencers get product for free. Even if they don't get it for free, even if they purchase it themselves, a lot of times it is just them exploring different options at a much lower rate than what you and I would. So let's say we get a coupon at Sephora and we want to go try a product. We're going to go get the product and probably pay, even if we've got $5 off or we have rewards, we're probably going to pay $15, $20, $30, where an influencer on a social media site is going to either get it for free or they are going to get paid to actually promote it. Again, there's nothing wrong with this. And I'm not trying to say that if you're watching someone do a get ready with me or a makeup tutorial, that they are trying to scam you in any way. And I'm also not saying that they don't like the product that they're promoting. What I'm saying is when you look at some of these videos and you're like, wow, it took them eight moisturizing products and five eye products and blush and highlight, concealer, foundation, primer. Even I fell into that trap about 10 years ago because I thought, well, maybe I need to use a primer before I put on my makeup. You know, I'm auditioning for acting roles. Maybe that's something that would be good for me so that I don't have as much shine. And then I went and spent $40 on a primer that I saw was being promoted. And, you know, I put the primer on the way I was supposed to, put my foundation on. And about an hour or two later, I felt everything just sliding off my face. And I'm like, I don't think that's what's supposed to happen. So I'm not saying these products aren't good. And I know some of you are looking at me right now on YouTube thinking, yeah, you need more products. I'm totally fine with that. This is not a makeup tutorial. I'm not trying to show you how to use makeup or even show you my makeup and say you need to have a minimal approach. The purpose of today's episode is I'm gonna show you what my makeup bag looks like. I'm not gonna show you any of the products. It is a clear bag, so you will see some of them. But what I want to show you is what I actually work with, not just every day, not just at home, but what my complete makeup bag is. And try to get people to understand that once you start jumping on the bandwagon with some of these makeup bags, makeup totes, makeup products, some of them have makeup bags on wheels, like you would luggage going on vacation. Now, if you're a makeup artist, that makes sense. If you're someone who is going to a photo shoot, that could make sense, especially if it's part makeup, part hair supplies. I actually like the organization of having little bags within a larger bag, um, especially if you're traveling or you're gonna go work with a client, or you know, maybe you're gonna be on a TV set. But what a lot of these influencers are doing, they're also trying to influence you to have just a lot, a lot of different products on a daily basis to make you feel like if you don't get up in the morning and spend two hours on quote unquote glam, that you're not gonna look good, feel good. Um, I mean, as you can see, and it's midday. Like I'm definitely shiny. I definitely need, you know, a blot for my foundation. But again, it's midday. Um, it's raining outside, it's Sunday, I'm 45 years old. I'm an organizer. I'm not a makeup person, but organizing your makeup is a category that would fall under my level of expertise, so to speak. So, what I wanted to show you guys today is my makeup bag, and the whole thing fits in the screenshot with me. It fits in the frame. So these are little bags that I got off of Amazon probably two years ago. And this is the smallest size. Now, a lot of people make these. So again, I'm not trying to promote any particular Amazon product. I am gonna get to a point. I just want to disclose this, I am gonna get to a point where I'm linking Amazon products, and I don't know if it's gonna be a week from now, I don't know if it's gonna be a year from now, because there are some products that promote themselves like some other good brands on Amazon and they're crap. They either arrive and everything is so vacuum sealed, like a plastic bag like this. If it's so vacuum sealed that when you go to open it, it's all crinkly and wrinkled. Sometimes, see the zipper right here. Sometimes if it's vacuum sealed too tight, or if it's really, really cheap, when you actually expand it and pull it out of its packaging, this zipper right here will be completely cracked. The zipper will be broke and all of this plastic will be cracked. So you end up having to send it back anyway. So eventually, eventually, because it's not my top priority to sell Amazon products or to promote Amazon links. Okay, I've said this in the past. I have no problem with promotion, especially if it saves you time and it saves you money. Especially if there are 10 different random brands selling the same thing and one of them sells them for $20 and the other one sells them for $8. Some people think I should probably spend more money on the more expensive option because that is probably gonna mean that the product is better. That's not always the case. So again, at some point I will do that. Now, if you're watching on YouTube and I do want to tell the people that if you are listening to this podcast and you have access to YouTube, you may want to switch to the YouTube version of this, even if it's just for today, and even if it's just for the videos where I show product, because obviously I'm showing something and it's gonna be easier to know what I'm talking about. One thing that I did do yesterday, and I'm gonna start doing with some of the just regular podcast episodes, is that they are gonna be on YouTube, but they're gonna be a static podcast episode. But what that's gonna do is if you want to clean, if you want to organize, if you want to cook and listen to organizing stuff, but sometimes you need a little bit louder of a system. Like sometimes I'll listen to a podcast on my phone in my kitchen and I can't hear it as well than if I actually turn on YouTube on the TV. And then I have that listening in the background, or I'm listening to that as that's playing in the background with better speakers. So this is the point where I want to say if you're listening to this and not watching this, you may want to switch over so that you can see what I'm talking about. If not, you can listen to the episode and you can go back and watch later. It's totally up to you. Okay. Again, these are just little clear bags. They're travel bags, they're storage bags. In Amazon, a lot of times you just search for clear makeup bag or a clear travel bag, and these are gonna pop up. I have the larger version of these. So this is almost like the smallest that they make in terms of this zipper. They have this size, they have a size that's just slightly bigger. So if I'm holding it like this, I would say it's probably this, this much wider and this much taller. So maybe another inch wider, another inch taller. And for those, I actually have three different supplements that are part of a um, like a, it's they're they're all three part of a kit that's part of a supplement brand. I'll just say that. And so those bottles work in that medium size bag because of how tall they are. So by the time I put all three bottles in that size bag, that's something travel-wise that I can take with me, or I can just keep it in my nightstand because all three things I take normally when I wake up or when I go to bed. They're kind of like, you know, enzyme, vitamin D, you know, they're it's a triple threat within the one bag. So I say that to say if you get on Amazon and you find a pack of three of something like this, don't feel like, oh, I just need to get one of this size because she told me not to get anything else. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is some people will get the pack of three and all three sizes are filled with makeup. Okay. So today's tutorial is not how to use makeup, it's how to organize your makeup. And the overall theme is you don't need that much makeup if you want to be truly organized. Okay. And today's episode is actually going to be titled How Your Makeup Bag is not helping your organizing efforts. It's weighing you down. Okay. So again, this is my makeup bag. If you look what's in here, see how I actually have a bigger compact right here. Like those tart compacts that are kind of like, see, there's this little bitty guy right here that's like a cheap drugstore brand. And then I've got this guy. Both of those fit in here. Okay. Look, it's almost smaller than my head. I got a big head, but that's okay. But see, look at that in comparison. This is all I use. And some of the stuff in here I don't use every day. Like I don't use an eyelash curler every day. I just don't. A lot of you who are moms, especially single moms, moms that have three jobs. I mean, I am always doing something unless I am actually going to have some kind of photo shoot. Sometimes I'll do this for an audition. If I've got to go to a nice dinner, I still don't necessarily curl my eyelashes. And then some people have fake eyelashes. So again, the reason I'm showing you this is because I'm able to fit my foundation in here. I'm able to fit in a large eyeshadow compact, a smaller one, a makeup sponge. I've got concealer, I've got pencils. Like I don't always use um mascara. For a minute, I forgot what it was called. I don't always use mascara. I don't always use a lip pencil, but they're all in here. So the point I'm trying to make is what I used to do when I personally was trying different products was I was trying to have one bag that was a little bit bigger than this for all of my daily makeup because I did have a couple of bigger things. Like I don't really wear blush. Um, I'm naturally pink. As you can see, I'm very pale. So I don't really wear blush. Um, at one point I had like a stick that was like a like a bronzing stick. And so sometimes I would use that as a blush. But again, that was probably no bigger than what this little mascara was or this concealer. So um, but at one point I had a bigger bag with tons of makeup in it. This little bag I would use for the stuff that wasn't daily. So I would use this for my mascara, my eyelash curler, the lip pencil. Um, when I did have blush, when I did have a bronzing stick, I would put all of that stuff in here because I would think to myself, okay, I'm not using that every single day. So I want to be able to get to my regular makeup a little bit quicker. I want to be able to find everything. And so um at some point, I got honest about my organizing. And that was our last episode. If you haven't listened to the new episode that came out yesterday, it's called The Art of Honest Organizing. And we talked about grocery shopping in that first one. It's gonna be an ongoing series, okay? So it's not gonna be like a part one, two, three, four, five. It's gonna be an ongoing series where we talk about different things. And it's about being honest with ourselves as far as what we use, how much we use, what we're really reaching for every day, what we really want. Um again, I can make a decision for my own life as far as how much makeup I want to use. Okay. I can watch the get readies with me on Instagram. I can see what other people do. But at the end of the day, I decide how much makeup I want to use. Okay. I'm not gonna let an influencer make me spend more money or have to get bigger organizing products to manage it all. Okay. Again, I'm not slamming everybody. What I'm saying is this is doable. This is really doable. And for those of you who are interested in minimalism, because I do consider myself a minimalist, there are probably, I don't know, two different categories that I could improve in to become like a true minimalist. And one of those is my kid's items. And I'm not willing to do that right now. He is a preteen, he still has some stuff from his childhood that he wants to hold on to. Plus, we have to get him things that are more like teenage appropriate. And so for me, I'm not willing to cut back on a lot of his stuff in order to live in 400 square feet or live in an RV or live in a tiny house. Okay. We live in a small apartment, but we each have our own space. And so when I say I'm a minimalist, I truly am, especially with my own stuff. I tend to sacrifice a lot more just because I went, I want him to have everything that he needs for this stage of life. And it's a very transitional stage. So, with that said, I am not acting as much. I'm not auditioning as much. That was something that, and this will be an episode, by the way. If you are an actor, a performer, an entertainer, you know, we live in Franklin, Tennessee, which is adjacent to Nashville. All of us who started out in Nashville end up normally in Franklin. Um, or, you know, some people end out east, north, west, whatever. Um, but the point I'm trying to make is we adjust to a new phase of life. And for me, I didn't want to do as much acting, I didn't want to do as much modeling, I didn't want to do as much traveling, especially for those things. This is part of the reason why. If I audition for something, and a lot of the TV and film stuff, at least for this part of the country, happens in Cincinnati, Columbus, Louisville. A lot of people think it's Atlanta. A lot of people think it's LA, New York. Um, and honestly, you know, a lot is still happening in those places. But for the Midwest and the South, there's a lot happening in Ohio. And so there are times that I will audition for something from Nashville and they'll say, okay, this is gonna shoot in Columbus. You have to try to work as a local, which means they're not gonna pay for travel, hotel room. Um, so it's already stressful thinking, okay, I'm gonna have to go up and try to time it to where I'm not there for a number of days, paying for a hotel room up front. And then I also may have to pack a bag last minute. And they may say, okay, we want you to bring a lot of options as far as clothes. Well, you know, there was one shoot that I went on where they're like, hey, we need you to bring a dress with a floral print and a red tank top and a yellow shirt. I'm just like, I don't even, I don't even own those things. And so there was a period of time where I had to really cut back because it was a lot to try to keep organized. Okay. So makeup is a part of that, clothes are a part of that, shoes are a part of that. And so being honest um about this stage of life, I don't want to keep a lot of stuff around just for auditioning or entertaining or traveling. And so this right here, if you can get this under control, okay, and if you're a male, it may be, you know, shaving products, it may be, you know, like right now, maybe you've got like a shaving cream, a razor, an aftershave, um, you know, and they're all these beard products now. Um, men have a lot of products too. And so I'm not trying to exclude them. All I'm trying to say is the goal is you want to try to keep your products in this size bag. Okay. What you can do right now, if you have a big makeup kit, okay, and I do have to say that I went to Target the other day and they have a really cute makeup kit with a handle that looks like the caboodles from when we were growing up in the 80s and 90s. And so, yes, they're very cute. If you have a younger child, a younger girl that you want to put some of their makeup in, doing something like that is fine because you can also put a lot of hair stuff in with that. And so you have options to keep a lot of that in one place. Because a lot of these young girls have hair ties, they have brushes, they have barettes, they have scrunchies again. Um, and so if they've got like little play makeup, if they have jewelry, a lot of those products will have like the different sections. And so I'm all for that. That's fine. Because you can keep a lot of that in their room and you can put other stuff with it. Okay. With that said, if you um, sorry, I got distracted because I said target. Um, so yes, if you were doing something like that, that's totally fine. If you have something like that now, if you've got the big rolling makeup cases, if you have just big totes, I've had some clients where they pull out like a Bright Room or a sterilite tote, like one of the big ones, and it has tons of free samples, old makeup, old beauty supplies. And I'm like, what's what's in there? Is anything expired? And they're like, I have no clue. They're like, I rarely get in here. I don't want to throw it away because I got it for free or I got a discount. Um, there are a lot of places that you can save money if you buy five. Okay. So people will fall into this trap of if I buy five of something, I'm gonna save $10. But maybe each item is $20. And so you're paying $100 to spend 10, but maybe you're only going to go through two of those five before they all expire. Okay. So this right here, this is the smallest bag that I can pack in order to fit in everything that's honest and realistic for my makeup routine. This does not mean that I can't go buy a new product next week that I want to try. It doesn't mean that I can't buy three new products. It just means that for this stage of life that I'm in right now, I'm still only using about 85% of this bag on a daily basis. So my challenge to you, and then we'll wrap up this episode, is if you have either multiple makeup bags or you have a big tote of makeup crap, or you have one big travel makeup something, I want you to at least, at least get a bag this size, or even double this size. Okay. Something, it doesn't have to be smaller than your head, but something that is small enough to where you can hold it in your hand like this, and it doesn't take up very much space in your luggage, okay? Your goal is to put every piece of makeup that you are going to use this week in that bag. Okay. So if you have makeup that you only use on the weekend, like maybe you're going out to dinner or out with your friends and you're not going to use that makeup for another week, I want you to keep that wherever it's at. In this smaller bag, I want you to put in everything that you're going to use Monday through Friday. And you may say, well, I like to switch it up from day to day. Sometimes I like to use two or three different makeup palettes or eyeshadow palettes. That's fine. My other challenge to you is try to get through the week without switching your routine every single day. Now, for the makeup people, I'm going to let you slide a little bit because makeup is your thing. Okay. This isn't going to apply to you as much, other than this is your reminder to go through all your products and make sure that you don't have something expired. Maybe you have two of something and one is almost empty. This is your sign to go ahead and try to use up that product so that you just have one and you don't have two taking up space. Okay. So for those of you who have a big makeup bag, your challenge is to try to split it into two at least. If you're not ready to get rid of stuff just yet, you want to at least have one bag like this that is more realistic of the things that you are actually going to use this week. If you're someone that switches up your routine every single day, do a favor for me. This is your challenge. Try to only have two looks this week that you alternate. So if one day you wear brown eyeshadow and the next day you wear pink, or you know, maybe you have a certain palette that you use, I would say try to just use two palettes and then the rest of them keep in the other bag or organizer. And then that way you can kind of see what it's like to get through your routine with less. Because once you do this, once you can get a hold of something that isn't going to take up a lot of space, and you can definitely find everything. Like, there is not a time where I'm like, oh, why can I not find my makeup brush? Like everything's right here. It's see-through. Okay. It's clear. I can see through it. If I'm looking for, you know, like my tweezers, I can just go like this, and they're usually on the bottom. You want to be able to find stuff. And you also want to be able to feel like your makeup is organized. And you want to feel like some of your other products you can get a handle on. Once you get a handle on this, it becomes really easy to organize your hair products, your hair tools. It becomes really easy to organize the products you have in your bathroom as far as soaps and shampoos and hair gels. And then from there, you start building on that organization and you start realizing that the shelves in your bathroom don't look as cluttered. When you go to travel, you've got travel bottles, you have things more put together. This is all I need, period. So whether I'm actually at home or I'm traveling, this is the only thing I have to look for. And I just throw it in my bag. So you save time, you save money. All those things are great. I know a lot of the feedback right now is I want to save time and I want to save money. So I hope that this is something that you can start on this week. And then by next weekend, if you want to swap out some of your makeup, you can. If you want to try something different, I just want you to get used to having things that you really need in one place. And then when you start to forget about the other bag or the other tote, that's when you're going to realize I'm not really sure if I actually need all of that. I'm not an influencer, I'm not a makeup artist. In fact, I hate having so many products cluttering up my bathroom drawers. And then that's when you're gonna get the light bulb aha moment and you're gonna start going through different sections of your house and doing the same thing in other areas. I hope this episode was helpful. Please make sure to subscribe to the bonus content. The minimum contribution is only $3 a month and you have access to all the prior bonus episodes. If you are listening on Spotify, iHeart, Apple Podcast, please make sure to find us on YouTube. Like, subscribe, follow, whatever you have to do so that you don't miss episodes where I show you stuff. And then lastly, if you are listening on Apple Podcasts, I would really appreciate if you went on there and gave me a five-star review. If you are liking what I'm doing, if you have any feedback that is less than a five-star review, I encourage you to just email me at labeledorganizing at gmail.com. Let me know what your feedback is, and maybe I can make some adjustments to the show, and you'll be happier with me, and you will come back and you will start listening again, and you will find some value in some of these other episodes, even if you don't wear makeup. All right, guys, I hope you have a great day, and I will see you in the next episode.