Ever since we started our downsizing journey, I have been excited to pare down our bathroom items. I was especially excited about creating the perfect minimalist makeup bag. And I thought it would be a great idea to share everything that I ended up choosing to keep in my minimalist makeup bag.

Foundation

I love a good liquid foundation, preferably with good coverage. I’m currently using L’Oréal Infallible Pro Glow Foundation. I’ve tried quite a few kinds of foundation, from liquid to powder, to cream, but liquid foundation remains my favourite. Although I don’t like to switch it up, I’ve been purchasing a new kind of liquid foundation every time I run out, to see if there’s another kind I would like better. To date, the L’Oréal foundation is great because the one I have matches my skin tone, and it’s also very affordable.

Eyeshadow

My eyeshadow palette doesn’t always fit in my makeup bag, but I’m going to include it in this list anyway. I absolutely love eyeshadow. The different effects and styles you can create with it are just incredible. Having said that, I do typically stay without very neutral tones. My current eyeshadow palette is the Stila Eyes Are The Window Shadow Palette. I love that it has some variety, but that it is still somewhat small so that I don’t feel overwhelmed by the choices.

Eyeliner

I’ve had a love-hate relationship with eyeliner for as long as I can remember. I was not good at applying eyeliner – and by that, I mean I was really bad at it. I can hardly see without my glasses, which makes applying makeup such as eyeliner very difficult. Therefor it took me a really long time to find an eyeliner that I loved.

So far, I’ve tried pencil eyeliner, gel eyeliner and liquid eyeliner. And after forcing myself to use up each of these… I realized that I am still not very good at applying eyeliner. Hahaha! But I do love the look it creates, so I decided to stick with the one I struggle with the less. My current eyeliner is a liquid eyeliner with a felt tip.

Mascara

When I was younger, I used to hate mascara. I could not comprehend how to apply it without it looking like crap, and I had seen so many people wearing it who also did not know how to properly apply it. So for a long time, I didn’t buy mascara. Then I started supporting a friend of a friend who works in direct sales for a makeup company, and I decided to give it a try again. And I have to say, I am a lot better at applying mascara than I used to be.

I don’t have a favourite brand or type of mascara, but I do love the one I currently have which is the Marc Jacobs Velvet Noir Major Volume Mascara.

Lipstick

As most women know, purchasing lipstick can become an obsession. I think I’m not quite at that point, as I don’t have an enormous amount of lipstick, but I do love them and include a few colours in my minimalist makeup bag. The current five are, in no particular order:

• L’Oréal’s Blake’s Red
• Maybelline’s Mauve It
• L’Oréal’s Matte-itude
• Nars’ Liv
• Kat Von D’s Witches

And those are the essentials that I currently have in my minimalist makeup bag. To be sure not to have excess products, I always wait to finish one product before purchasing a new one. As difficult as that may sound, it’s made much easier by having a positive attitude towards the products you have kept – because you should absolutely love every single one of them.