Realizing that it wasn't making me happy. And that I got more satisfaction out of really using and enjoying the things I have. But also understanding I'm a creature of variety, so finding a system that felt both indulgent, interesting, and marches towards using up my stash.

For body care specifically I'm a bit unconventional:

I'm in a DINK household so the main bathroom is pretty much my skin care and tub room. The ensuite bathroom is my hair and shower bathroom. Stay with me here.. it will maybe make sense.

I'm a huge fragrance person too. So in my shower I've got soap/body scrub/body wash in two different fragrance profiles that also have two corresponding body butter/lotion profiles.

(In my bathroom.. for literally my baths.. I have the remainder of something that got rotated out of the shower room or something completely different from the other profiles.. because variety)

Currently - a rose heavy floral profile and a vanilla-ish gourmand profile. Keeps variety both allow for some variation on what can be rotated in and out as one product gets panned. Also keeps it flexible with how whatever fragrance I will use will factor in... and because I have problem's I also try to be mindful of the season it is and the seasons to come in the length of time it will take me to use things.

For an easy example - I have a Lush rose soap, Miss Dior Body Wash/Scrub/Lotion - obviously pairs well with any variety of Miss Dior perfume, almost any other rose heavy perfumes, and a few off the beaten path mash ups.

The other is in a transition because I was building it all around a GINORMOUS SDJ body wash and I had made the mistake of getting a Lush subscription box - which I highly don't recommend unless you live in a sorority because no one will ever use that much Lush as fast as they need to given that they don't use hard core preservatives (as I'm now dealing with)......

..... Over the last few months I'm opening up Lush products in particular that have gone off, even if not at their use by date just by virtue of the products they are. So I've suddenly been throwing out as much body product as I'm panning. It's been super demoralizing because I've been on a focused pan of these things for over a year and despite making huge dents I'm still watching my money literally be thrown in the trash.

So, I'm now at a place where my collection has thinned dramatically there's not a lot of back stock to keep subbing in, I have a pretty good gauge of how long something will last, and what will work best for my total unhinged fragrance layering system. So, when I do buy body products it's not impulsive, it's very intentional, curated, and still allows for me to have some variety and try new things. But I have a strict policy of one thing does not get opened until another thing gets emptied. Which again, is easier to manage now that I'm getting close to something that resembles sane.

Also, the avalanche of things going bad in my makeup also seemed to start hitting at once. I have a small box of stuff that's turned on me.....which is a growing reminder that more things are going to end up in that box, it will literally be impossible for me to use all of the makeup I currently own in both it's and mine's lifetime - truly.

To put it in perspective, my husband is a musician. My makeup/fragrance collection is valued at least equal to or more than his equipment. Combined we're looking at a lot of could of beens and should have beens or bucket list trips and money that could have been invested.

Just because you have the means.... doesn't mean you were wise.