Stretching time / stretching products...

Working in fashion and beauty journalism tends to mean you rarely need to go to the drug store to buy a new lip gloss or a new face cream. You tend to get to keep enough samples, even after generous distribution among collegues, family and friends, to not have to worry about upgrading your beauty routine on your own. Which is why, even now, I have a wonderful collection of perfumes, lipsticks, nail polishes (I'm becoming aware that this triumverate is my beauty weakness) and even body creams or foot scrubs. I've always been particular about face creams, so that I have often replaced on my own.

Still, over the last few months I have made a conscious effort to reduce the amount of stuff on my bathroom shelves by finishing off products. Many of these I need not replace. What is really curious is that, as with time stretching out when you are bored, I am discovering that products with as little as 5 ml to their name, can last ... close to forever!!!

Take my Matt Mousse make up from Maybelline for example. It has been my go to this year to protect my face physically from the polen that causes my skin to break out on contact. I've been putting it on every morning, religiously, since February and I still have enough product, I calculate, for atleast a whole other month - and its a tiny 18 ml pot!!

Similarly I have been using lipgloss like never before. Conscientiously reapplying it several times a day, not only to bump up my self esteem by showing a polished face to the world, but to try and finish off a few that have less than half left... have you ever attempted to finish off a lipgloss? Its like that stuff self regenerates at night - you just can't get rid of it! But, being the obstinate woman that I am, I have vowed I WILL manage to finish atleast a couple by the end of Spring. Can't let a humble lip gloss have the best of me.

Nailpolishes are similarly unweildy at just 7 ml on average, but somehow, I am not as obsessed about them - maybe because doing my own mani - pedi is a weekly "obligation" I actually find very relaxing and creative (try Rouge noire with a sparkly gold overcoat - it completely changes a look!)

The collection of pots of vaseline I have distributed among my hand bags, and in all the rooms of my home are an easier objective. Because they are so multifunctional I have managed to finish off a couple of them and can see myself implementing a "one pot only" policy in the near future. Same goes with the collection of travel size soaps I have accumulated as mementos of stay overs in some of the world's best hotels for work (a nod to the knowledge I'd never be able to return on my salary!) Those I am dealing with easily. So watch this space for I will be letting you know when I claim victory over my lipgloss collection!