Investigative Blogging: make up and other beauty crap

I have so much stuff. I periodically purge, but almost like magic I am promptly inundated with crap in record time (in this, I'm not unlike the garage of our flat. COINCIDENCE?) When I started thinking about my budget, I considered putting aside dollars for beauty bits (moisturiser, mascara et al) but I couldn't honestly think what on earth I would need to buy. To clarify: I'm not terribly high maintenance. I don't wear a hell of a lot of makeup, I've cut and dyed my own hair for the last two or three year, and I've spent years whittling any kind of beauty routine down to the bare essentials.

Apart from living my minimalist beauty routine I have also been:

Emptying the baskets. At the moment I am trying to work my way through two baskets of half-used up products, left over from the days when I fell in love with the concept of new products once a week or so. A lot of the using up is to do with repurposing the stuff that I have - I've been using some overly harsh facial exfoliants as body scrubs, and some cream cleansers as eye make up removers. Not perfect, but I swear I am not buying eye make up remover until I've got rid of it all.

Making my own body scrubs. Did you know you can make very effective body scrubs from household ingredients? Cheap! My favourite is made of brown sugar, oatmeal and sweet almond oil or honey. It's gentle and effective. Another one I want to try uses coffee grinds and almond oil. I have a big jar and I scoop out handfuls of the stuff as I go. I think the Boy is less than impressed with finding porridge on the floor of the shower though. 

Make up goes on the List of Want where I interrogate it. Thoroughly. Do I really need more primer? 

Reusable make up pads/wipes. I've blogged about these before, but now I truly see their beauty. I haven't bought cotton wool or make up pads for weeks, nay, months. J'ADORE.

Not a Product Princess. I like posh products, but not enough to bankrupt myself. Also, I've honed down the routine to include things that are long lasting and can be bought in bulk.

MMMMMMenstrual Cup. I love my menstrual cup. And I love it's one off investment-ness. I can't recommend this highly enough in general, and now I proudly put it on my list of money making ventures. Booyakasha.