Packing my stash

In preparation for my move to New York, I've been trying to figure out how to cart my massive makeup collection back to Singapore and then to the US. This is the part that I hate most about moving across continents. Especially since I'll be a student again, which means no shipment allowance from the company. After toying briefly with the idea of splurging on the Shu Uemura Birthday Boutique limited edition white traincase with the red flower print, I decided that it was just too expensive for something that would would not even be able hold my whole MAC collection. And I almost wanted to laugh out loud when the SA told me earnestly that it's not even as expensive as their most pricey traincase which is 39,900yen. That's like three months worth of groceries expenses!

So I came to my senses and went to Muji where I got their large nylon makeup box (for a mere 2100yen) which is much lighter, easier to clean and more spacious than the Shu traincase. It would have been totally perfect if it came with a shoulder strap. Alas, when I got home and tried packing it with eyeshadow palettes, I was only able to fit in my MAC, Lunasol, Jill Stuart and half my Stila (dang those cutesy round cardboard trios) palettes. That's not even 1/5 of my collection which also includes a lot of Tarte, Stephane Marais, Inoui ID, Testimo, Pout, Milani and Cargo. Looks like everything else has to go into my check-in luggage. And packing all of it is not even the hardest part. That will come later when I need to choose what to bring with me to NY while the rest will have to sit idle in Singapore for a year... What a waste, right?

Moral of the story: I need more makeup like I need a hole in the head. And I really need to start using up more stuff. The good news is that I've fallen out of love with MAC which used to account for most of my makeup hauls. I got suckered into the endless LE collections madness but no more as I've come to realise that MAC's quality is just too uneven compared to other brands. For example, I've been collecting MAC's eyeshadow palettes but recently, I keep finding that I usually like only one or two shades out of the four in the palette unlike my palettes from Japanese brands where usually all four shades work beautifully with one another. Sad to say this but MAC just hasn't wowed me in a long time.