(collage self-portrait from recycled beauty product packaging)

I have a curious relationship with beauty products. I’ve figured out in my late teens what looks good on me and I’ve stuck with it. My makeup bag has a liquid eyeliner, a mascara, 20 lipsticks: 19 of them in a pretty much the same shade of pink + one red for special occasions.

My bathroom, on the other hand, is filled with all kinds of beauty-related crap the majority of which I’ve never used.  Yep, I’m that girl! A girl that sees a commercial for some new incredible serum, lotion, body cream, (you name it!) that promises to make your pores smaller, to send your double chin packing, to evaporate your cellulite… you get the picture. I’ve known for quite a while my tendency to buy unnecessary beauty products, but I never saw it as a problem. Consequently, not seeing anything as a problem is another tendency I have. 

One day while cleaning my bathroom shelves I’ve noticed just how many products I’ve bought were still unopened. ‘Poor things,’ I thought to myself, ‘I should at least open them so they don’t feel so unwanted.’ Of course, in reality by then I couldn’t remember why I wanted them in the first place. While I was taking things out of their boxes another realization came to me. I realized how pretty all the packaging was! Perhaps it was the packaging that attracted me to all this stuff on the first place… So I decided to keep it for my future collage projects. 

Self-portrait is born!

As soon as I’ve decided to keep it I had an idea.  What if I create a collage self-portrait from the packaging of all the beauty-related things I buy. 

So for the next two years I diligently collected the boxes from every little thing I bought. I even kept the boxes my newest pink lipsticks came in. I threw everything in a specially designated black garbage bag I kept in the basement.

At the end of two years, when the bag looked big enough I took my ‘treasures’ to be revaluated. Boy was I surprised by the amount of packaging I’ve collected! I had enough recyclable stuff to create a 36”x48” collage self-portrait. 

P.S. While I’m fully aware that I’ve wasted a ton of money on something I didn’t particularly need or even used I know I’m in a good company and a lot of women can relate to me.  

P.P.S. I’m happy to report that since the completion of my self-portrait I’ve stopped buying beauty products like a crazy person and have switched to supplements. If beauty is on the inside it only makes sense to make my inside more beautiful.