Minimalism has become quite trendy over the last few years with more and more companies trying to market to consumers that are beginning to care about the carbon footprint that we the humans are leaving on the planet.
I don’t consider myself a minimalist, but I am open and am willing to shift my patterns of consumption to align more with minimalist values.
Minimalism broke into my world when I noticed that I was well and truly tired of the overwhelming amount of makeup and skincare that brands were launching throughout 2018 and 2019. It seems wild that I noticed that then when the sheer amount of brands, especially associated with / founded by celebrities have exploded exponentially throughout 2020 and 2021 and the market has become even more saturated. I’ve been into makeup ever since the days of Michelle Phan’s rise on YouTube, so that’s quite a long time. Falling into the YouTube beauty rabbit hole, I was exposed specifically to the constant onslaught of makeup, skincare, Sephora, Ulta, Target hauls and when some traumatizing things happened to me in 2017, I began to shop a lot to emotionally cope with my feelings.
Once the stuff didn’t feel the massive black hole of sadness inside of me, I saw the shift in my suggested videos turn to panning content, empties content, shopping your stash, especially during the end of 2018 into 2019. Now, I’m well and truly deeply immersed within the panning world of Instagram and that is the niche in which I make content. Since I had an abundance of makeup and skincare, it seemed so natural to turn it into a game to use up all of the things that I had.
Consuming minimalism videos has shifted my perspective on the effect that my makeup and skincare consumption has and a huge part of why companies produce so much and advertise to us is that they need to convince us to buy things. This is true of everything, clothes, shoes, tech gadgets, stationery tools, so it’s important to take a step back and assess what is truly bringing value to my life. At this point, I still have a massive collection, but I’m finding more joy in it rather than fixating on the acquisition of the newer things that I won’t have time to use up before it goes off or that I’ll get and realize that I won’t like and end up having to throw out. It’s been absolutely liberating to free myself from being so wrapped up in trying to catch up with everyone else that I see on the Internet. For me, the biggest reason that I don’t want to shop so much is just from how overwhelmed by the amount of items I have, whether that’s my closet, my vanity, my bookshelves, whatever other room and space. I treasure and value space and clearing out the clutter allows me to focus more wholeheartedly on appreciating the things that I own and it frees up mental space as well, so I can focus on projects and activities rather than spending hours chasing sales and scrolling mindlessly looking for more stuff I don’t need in exchange for the money that I don’t have.
The desire to purchase only what I need when I need it has been fantastic, because I don’t feel like I need to keep chasing that dopamine high of waiting for a package. I’m also investing in more high quality pieces that I’ll get the maximum amount of use for rather than valuing quantity over quality.
Keeping track of my own beauty consumption over the entire course of 2019 and 2020, I’m realizing exactly how much I do use and how much I don’t use out of my stash, what ends up getting decluttered, and how much I’m wasting of my own money, even if I am giving those items away to my friends and family. You don’t have to become a minimalist, but practicing and experimenting with these little changes has made me feel so much better and I recommend testing it out for yourself to see how it would feel for you.
I don’t feel guilty for not being perfect in every aspect of my life when it comes to trying to reduce my carbon footprint, but knowing that I’m trying and being conscious of how much I’ve changed and reduced has been gratifying.
Good luck on your dip into minimalism!
