This post is part of a series on Digital Minimalism and how to de-clutter your digital world to bring joy!
With this guide, we'll just focus on beauty content digital minimalism, which includes favorites and bookmarks of make-up, skin-care, and fragrances. While this may seem only applicable to a select group - everyone should get into a regular habit of moisturizer and sunscreen application to reduce sun cancer. Skincare is for everyone!
Goals of de-cluttering reading material:
Have fewer digital notes on what beauty products to try. Bookmarks and notes act like little flags of things-to-do, causing stress as an "undone" thing. By de-cluttering beauty notes, you will combine everything together at once, simplifying life!
Easily access beauty products for purchasing or reference. Ever get suggested a beauty product and it sounds interesting and can't quite remember if you've used it or want to make sure you use it? Are you interested in checking a new beauty item but don't know where to start? By having a collected database you can help yourself in the future.
Save money. Part of this de-cluttering process is to get into the habit of knowing what works and what doesn't!
How to de-cluttering beauty material:
In the reading material guideline I list a few apps and websites to help organize magazines, blogs, and more. Here for beauty products, I could not find any such organization tool. While Sephora, Ulta, Amazon, and other companies offer "wish list" and "favorite" tools, none of these companies are all encompassing of the beauty products on the market. Maybe there's a website or app out their to catalog make-up, but I couldn't find it.
The tools:
label maker
blog
Fragrantica.com
mobile application Daily Habit Tracker
Step 1: Set-Up your Accounts
Compiling all of your things together is always the first step for de-cluttering so you can see what you have to work with and see your bad habits. However, first set-up your accounts.
Make-Up and Skin-Care
Since I couldn't find any good website/blog, I use this blog as my beauty product diary. You can read the post here.
Fragrance
Fragrantica.com is the best fragrance aggregator I could find. They may not have an app but their website is the most complete in terms of organization, notes, and reviews.
Step 2: Compile
Make-Up and Skin-Care
Look at your past purchases on different online accounts like Sephora, Ulta, Amazon, Target, and more. Create a log in the blog posting on your memory of ratings.
Look at your current make-up and label with the dates of purchase. Anything beyond expiration, make note in your blog on the use and then throw away. This includes stashes and duplicates!
Important your favorites and wishlist to the blog list, in other word take all of your notes, bookmarks, and other hoarding of beauty information and put it into the blog post.
Take this time to purge and de-clutter your physical make-up collection.
Fragrance
Look at your current make-up and label with the dates of purchase. Anything beyond expiration, make note in Fragrantica.com use and then throw away.
Compile notes, wishlists, and other digital information on perfume to Fragrantica.com
Step 3: Reflect on Beauty Content
Now that you've figuratively piled all the beauty content together, how do you feel?
Personal Example - I had a lot of different fragrance notes but never had them compiled in one place. I was terrified of purchasing fragrances online because it was difficult to remember what I liked. At the same time, I had a lot of makeup across different sources and it's so nice having my ratings in one place that I can easily reference when looking to buy new products.
Do you have additional beauty content?
For beauty tools, I include this in my blog diary post.
For beauty diagrams, I printed them out on flashcards and put them near my makeup palettes.
For beauty Youtube videos, I cover that in a later guide under visual material.
Do you need to download an app like Habit Tracker to promote regular use of moisturizer or sunscreen?
Step 4: Change your Habits
Anytime someone suggests a new beauty product - add it to the wishlist portion of the beauty diary blog post, and use this to buy new products.
This allows you to sit with big purchases before immediately purchasing, leading to fewer impulse purchases and a more curated beauty bag.
Anytime finish a beauty product, add the review to the blog diary.
Anytime buy a new beauty product, add a label on the purchase date.
Anytime find a new beauty tip, add it to the diagram flashcards.
Anytime smell a new fragrance, even just a sample, add review and information to Fragrantica.com, and use website for purchasing new products.
End result of de-cluttering beauty material:
Easier access to fragrance likes and dislikes, making online purchases either.
No more hoarding of beauty tips and products.
Fewer impulse purchases and more conscientious curation of beauty products.
Use of a fragrance aggregating app/website, like Fragrantica.com
Reduction of expired makeup.
Use of blog to log beauty diary to track changes in beauty usage.'
Easy access to make-up inspiration.