Read My Lip Gloss: No New Makeup

I'm already squirming to break one of my many 2009 new year's resolutions. Just this morning I seriously contemplated taking a stroll to the nearest MAC store because I had convinced myself that I needed a new blending eye shadow. "Something light, no sparkles," I said to reflection in the mirror, eagerly trying convince myself that it wouldn't be a felony if I bought just one more piece of makeup. Eesh I'm sick. But I'm not going to wait for an A&E Intervention!  And since the first step is, as they say, admitting I have a problem, then here I am-- Girl Wednesday-- admitting I have a problem.  Below is a very pathetic photo essay that explains why one of my resolutions is to stop buying makeup....

In this pile o' hussie-face:  Essie nail polish in "Pink Glove Service" (sexy name!) and some Cargo makeup (comes in round silver tins)- I think the packaging made me feel like I was buying something industrial, minimalist, rough.  Rough, sparkly lip gloss.  I'm not blind to the irony.  I've got a pink Clinique lip gloss tube for when I get sick of the coral Clinique lip gloss tube that's sitting right next to it.  I use neither with any regularity.  There's even some Calvin Klein in there, even though his makeup history is rocky. He manufactured the goods in the 70's and then as far as I know, again in the early 2000's (see above picture shows his lucite-encased eye shadows). And after Calvin closed his makeup department a few years ago, looks like he's at it again.

My Martha Stewart toolbox (containing all the makeup I refuse to throw out) is put to good use:

How practical-- I keep some of the stuff that I don't use every day in a glass bowl on the side.  I'm like a makeup chef on the food network, setting aside the reduction for later basting!

The reserves:

This little, clear cosmetics bag I got at Duane Reade. In here are the regulars: Chanel foundation, Lancome spot cover, MAC fiber mascara, and a MAC blush.  The most unfortunate irony is that I really use only these four things daily.  So why do I keep indulging I ask you!?!

(In the background-- I keep my weekly-cleaned brushes in a flower pot.  Quaint!)

Not to point fingers here, but Girl Friday is kind of an enabler... Thanks Girl Friday! Best gift ever! GF gave me this multi-tiered set of everything a makeup addict could ever dream of. It's got two levels of eye shadows, two lippies, and one big fat layer of rouge (love that word, but you've got to say it in a bad French accent). I think I stopped breathing when I first opened this. I still kind of can't believe it.

One more thing I'd like to share-- this one's by MAC-- pure eye glitter. In a teeny pot. In my dreams I dive into this little tub and when I come up for air I've got purpley sparkles on the tips of my eyelashes and on my fingertips and everything is a spectacular white winter wonderland.

Look. I don't drink. I don't smoke. I'm a healthy eater and I gym, run, and yoga. Video games don't get in the way of me leading a normal, healthy life. I've never had any plastic surgery. I've never bought anything from the Home Shopping Network. ...What other kinds of things do people get addicted to?
Anyway, if makeup is my vice, then I'm OK with that I think. But it is a recession and it's a new year and I think it's time for me, at least temporarily, to come to terms with the fact that I probably have everything I need in my highly organized, makeup library. So until all my mascaras have dried to dust, and until I'm scraping lipstick out of the tube with a tooth pick, I'm closing my purse and sitting pretty.