New Year Resolution: Start by Cleaning the Clutter — Your Makeup Bag First

Don't know where to start on the "clean the clutter" resolution? Skip the garage for now. Your cosmetics case or medicine cabinet is the fastest win — you can finish it in minutes, and the payoff is immediate.

Linda Wells, then editor-in-chief of Allure, described opening her own medicine cabinet as an avalanche event. Her triage advice was ruthlessly simple: clumpy mascara goes, foundation showing separation goes, perfume that has turned cloudy goes. And the fuchsia lipstick that never looked good on you? Her verdict: it never will — give it up.

A few things worth knowing before you purge:

The bathroom is the worst place for beauty products. Heat and humidity shorten shelf life. A cool, dry drawer beats the medicine cabinet every time.

The clock starts when you open it, not when you buy it. Exposure to air is what starts the clock ticking, as Wells pointed out at the time. That barely-used cream you opened two years ago has been aging in the drawer ever since.

Buy small. Smaller jars and bottles look uneconomical but save you from tossing half-used products that expired before you could finish them — or worse, from using mascara that's become a bacteria farm.

Efficacy fades before safety becomes the issue. Most products carry a use-by period (six months, a year), and as New York dermatologist Dr. Neil Sadick has explained, it is the active ingredients that usually quit first — your expensive serum gradually becomes an expensive moisturizer.

Some products get stronger, not weaker. Glycolic peels are the classic example: the other ingredients evaporate over time but the acid doesn't, leaving a higher concentration than the label intended.

Fresh-ingredient brands like Lush take the opposite approach — formulate with botanicals, keep batches small, and in some cases (like their fresh face masks) recommend refrigeration, accepting a weeks-long shelf life as the price of freshness.

Start with the makeup bag. The garage can wait until February.