The Makeup Swap

Me and one of my equally makeup obsessed friends (Kelly) decided to shop our product stashes, extreme style, by organising a makeup swap to give those poor dusty unloved products a new home. The benefits of swapping old makeup are that 1) you get to see something that maybe didn't work for you, help someone else look gorgeous!, and 2) you can always ask for it back if you really miss it, so it is much less final than the rubbish bin!
Some things to bear in mind before doing a makeup swap...

• Don't swap anything which cannot be easily cleaned or can pass on eye infections, ie. don't swap old mascaras, make sure eye liners are sharpened and dipped in alcohol to get rid of those pesky germs, and generally try not to give your friends your old, 90% used, dirty makeup.
• Have lots of cotton buds, makeup wipes and mirrors handy for trying and testing things out!
• If you do the swap with more than 2 people and more than one person wants an item, judge who gets it by seeing who the product suits best! Or compromise and half and half products such as loose pigments which can easily be decanted into smaller pots.

Kelly actually chucked out some pretty fabulous products so I lucked out and received a lot of lovely higher end, hardly used products such as Rimmel Apocalips in Big Bang, Two Faced Natural Eye Palette, Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadow in R.S.V.P. and  MAC Sheen Supreme Lipstick in Full Speed. I was a very happy girl!

Working on a  No7 counter in Boots, I do seem to accumulate a lot of No7 makeup and samples so Kelly was given a lot of mostly brand new No7 products, one of my old and unloved Benefit boxed powers and a Clinique Chubby Stick in Richer Raisin which I just cannot get to work for me unfortunately!

There was much ohh-ing, ahh-ing and lipstick remove, reapply and repeat as we discovered multiple new shades! I tested out Sleek's Smother (which Kelly assures me is an almost exact dupe of MAC's Rebel!) and Rimmel Apocalips in Big Bang, and I gave Kelly an eye makeover with some of her new (old!)  eye shadows as she never wears any colour on her eyes.

And what to do with any leftovers? Easy. Either donate to less makeup obsessed, but equally grateful friends and/or family, donate to an organisation such as Give and Makeup which help women in need (only lightly used/brand new items!) or just bite the bullet and chuck away the the really old useless products which no-one will ever want.
Happy swapping and let me know if you give this a go!
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