Trash Stash 2017 Summary

~ stashy

Gosh, you guys! I never expected to have the kind of feedback in my previous post. Thank you. Truly.  ❤  To give you a time frame, I still have posts planned that will take us into February.  So I’m still here.  Let’s set all that aside for now, ok? 🙂

Nerd alert: I’ve been looking forward to doing this summary for the past few months. This is the third (and final) year that I’ll be doing this tally:

All of my empties for the year.

My goal this year was to achieve one empty product per day for a minimum of 365 empty products. Let’s see how I fared.

Stats of my 2017 Trash Stash:

• I used up 319 full sized items and 130 travel / sample sized item for a total of 449 empties! 😀  I achieved my goal!

• This means I used up 1.23 products per day, or 37.42 products per month

I did combined posts for June + July, August through October, and November + December so I averaged those monthly totals.

• In 2017, the amount of empties was 61% higher than 2016, which kept a similar pace of growth year over year (in 2016, I increased by 62% over 2015).

• Skincare remained the largest category third year running, with 50% of the total, followed by 31% for body / hair products, and lastly by 19% for makeup.  The breakdown of these categories shifted from the past 2 years, with skincare taking a larger share and makeup decreasing.  Makeup is difficult to finish!  Case in point: my Urban Decay eye shadow single in Naked:

I finally hit pan on this in April and have been tracking it ever since. Save for a few days here and there, I’ve been using this one colour as my transition shade the whole year.  I am bummed out that I couldn’t pan it entirely, but I will keep trying!

• The average rating I gave to the products was 7.55 out of 10, which is lower than my scoring in the 2 previous years (both previous years I gave 7.8 out of 10).  Either I tried more crappy products or I was more critical. 😛

• Of all the products I used up, I stated that I would repurchase 50% of them, and 37% I would not.  12% of them I said “maybe”.  So, despite giving a lower overall rating, I would repurchase more of the products, compared to last year. 😛  But in reviewing the trend over the 3 years, it’s remarkable how consistent I was with my preferences.

• I rated 40 products the perfect score of 10 out 10 – when I review the list of products that achieve this, most are from my Holy Grail products list!

• I did not rate any product a 0 out of 10, and I rated only 2 products 1 out of 10; they were: Arezia Q10 Eye Mask and L’Action Cosmetique Wrinkle Reducer Hydrogel Patches. Avoid them!

• Sheet masks made up a significant portion of my Trash Stash especially after I did the 30 Day Masking Challenge in June.  In total, for all of 2017, I used up 77 masks which is 17% of the total empties. This helped to skew the skincare percentage for the year – by contract, in 2016, I only used 14 masks.

• The Curl Keeper Original had the distinction of being the most used up product – I used it up 6 times over the 12 months (and a score of 10 out of 10!)

• I used up 27 mascaras in 2017 and my favourites included: CoverGirl LashBlast Volume, CoverGirl Clump Crusher, Buxom Lash, Max Factor MasterPiece Max, and L’Oreal Lash Paradise.  The constant in all of this was the Etude House Dr. Mascara Fixer Volume Up Curl Fix which I used as a mascara base and finished 4 tubes during the year (also another 10 out of 10 product).

Here are all of my Trash Stash posts from 2017:

January 2017

February 2017

March 2017

April 2017

May 2017

June & July 2017: Part 1

June & July 2017: Part 2

August to October 2017: Part 1

August to October 2017: Part 2

November to December 2017

If you want to nerd out even further, here are the summaries of my Trash Stash from previous years:
• Trash Stash 2016 Summary
• Trash Stash 2015 Summary

Thank you to all of you for coming along with me on the Trash Stash journey – they have been a lot of work, but ultimately so satisfying! 😀

63 thoughts on “Trash Stash 2017 Summary”

  3. Yay! I love these posts – the spreadsheet loving nerd in me is impressed. I’ve decided I’m going to keep a better track of my empties at the end of the year as something to go alongside my new empties format.
    I did end up doing some quick maths on my stash – I used up 343 products total. 225 were full size, 118 sample size.
    112 Skincare – again skewed high cause of face masks too (although not quite 70 of them!), then I was surprised makeup was my second highest at 79, with haircare not far behind at 71!
    One you’ll love – 15 fragrances – 8 of which were full size!

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    1. 343 empties – you did well! 😀
      That’s impressive that makeup was your 2nd category – I wish! And OMG how do you finish up so much perfume?!! I sprayed a body mist this morning – 7 spritzes, I counted – in hopes of making a dent in my collection… 😆

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      1. You need to spray so much I can smell you from here haha! I really depleted my collection this year and have got myself to the stage where I’m starting afresh with fragrances I love, I don’t envisage this year will be as successful on the fragrance front. Body Mists I do go nuts with though, they’re so cheap and they don’t have much longevity so just drown me in it!

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        1. Haha, I would offend my coworkers, I think! 😛 Today I wore a much stronger perfume and I could only bring myself to spritz it twice. I never want anyone to be offended by my perfume. See, I think that’s the key difference between you and me – I never reapply my scent through the day.

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  4. Haha, I love all the stats! It’s crazy how you’ve increased your empties by ~61% year over year, haha.
    Good job on making such a big dent in UD Naked! It’s too bad you didn’t finish it up entirely, but to have used up so much is already a big achievement. It wasn’t in my Project Pan, but I’m low-key trying to hit pan on that shade in my Naked palette this year!

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    1. I was really surprised how consistent I remained year over year! Stats don’t lie!
      In real life, that UD Naked looks more empty than the picture… ah well, I persevered, that’s something, right? Good luck with panning that shade this year – I’m rooting for you! 😀

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  5. Your great analytical post is putting me to shame! I used to like making spreadsheets about what I am spending on but after I had children,I am just happy I can finally go to bed 🙈

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  8. This is so meticulous that you have the inner geek in me screaming. ❤ 😂
    Seeing as I just finished my first full successful year of empties, it gives me hope to do better this year! Makeup is extremely hard to finish so you did well with the UD Naked shade. 27 mascaras in 2017? 😮 I didn't know that it was possible lol.

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    1. Your first year of empties will establish your baseline for subsequent years! I was glad that I started a spreadsheet sooner than later – it helped with all the tallying and graphs later on. 🙂
      I have this thing with mascaras where I have 2-3 always open and I rotate them and I only like to keep them for 1-2 months. I find the formula to reach peak performance after a month and then it’s all downhill from there. This is the reason why I do not like to spend much on mascaras. Plus, I honestly do not feel that high end mascaras outperform drugstore ones.

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  15. Very impressive that you smashed your goal for # of empties! I am just excited that I’m so close to finishing up one of the large Body Shop Body Butter containers and thinking of repurchasing in Mango. I also have another one in Coconut but not as big of a fan of that scent.
    Do you use makeup daily? I feel like I definitely use it at a glacial pace since it’s only on the weekends when I have more time to just enjoy the process. Also those graphs are amazing and so color coordinated.

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    1. Thank you! 🙂
      How long did it take you to use up that Body Shop Body Butter? The large tubs are massive! I think it would take me about a month to truck through one of those…
      Yes I do use makeup daily! But I now realize that I don’t apply heavy layers so I can use things for a long time – I just prefer a more natural look even though I do apply a lot of different products, I like more sheer application.

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      1. Oh MONTHS but I wouldn’t even use it every day as it’s such a laborious task after showering to reapply moisturizer in the winter. That’s true! Haha I only use it maybe a few times a week for a special occasion or the weekend when I know I won’t be rushed. Yeah that definitely helps makeup last longer! I think in general I also just have way more makeup than skincare.

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        1. I cannot go without a day not applying moisturizer! I think I would tear my skin off… 😅
          My SO mentioned the other day that he thinks I have enough makeup to last a lifetime… he’s wrong, I have enough makeup to last SEVERAL lifetimes! 😂

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  16. This post must have taken so long to document, I can’t even imagine how much time you must have put into these posts! I wish I was able to finish that many products in a year, I still have products from the end of 2016 that aren’t even close and that I should probably throw away at this point xD. Way to go!! xx

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    1. Thanks! It took a while to compile but I was fairly diligent in keeping track all throughout the year so it wasn’t a large commitment in one go. I made a pact with myself to use up more of my open products so that I can justify buying more stuff! I have a huge makeup declutter coming up…

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  17. I don’t keep track of my empties that meticulously. I also don’t count every single pack of something that I use up consistently. Maybe I should and keep year long of empties and then do the round up at the end of the year. Problem is that would be a 2019 project as I already tossed a few products since the start of this year and I have no idea how much that is.

    I still do empty videos though. I have this thing for consistently using a product in haircare/ bodycare/ skincare until it’s gone. I don’t rotate anything out before I use it up as my skin tends to react badly if I interchange too much.

    And 27 mascaras! Wow! I used up 4, but then again I use just one mascara at the time and use it consistently for 2 – 3 months.

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    1. It takes effort but I think that it can be satisfying mentally to see a total number at the end of the year. I think it counter balances all the purchasing that we do through the year… 😛

      I’m the same with skincare, hair and body care – I don’t have multiple ones open at a time. I used to but I made the conscious decision to only have one open at a time. That really helps me to actually FINISH stuff rather than have half empty containers laying around. It’s tough when you’re a beauty blogger though!

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    1. I’ve always wanted to calculate how many uses are in an eye shadow. I’ve seen some ballpark figures online like 6 months for a 1.5g eye shadow but I feel like that’s much faster than my rate of consumption!

      I finished a few things in January already (shampoo, sheet mask, lip balm) and it felt weird to just toss the empty packages rather than save them for a Trash Stash post!

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      1. I wonder if my eyeshadows replenish themselves? Some of my fragrances and moisturisers seem to…

        I’ll have a small eye palette in my empties this month. It’s tiny. But I’m insanely proud of myself for finishing it – even though I used one of the eyeshadows to make my own stamping polish.

        I can’t imagine what it would feel like to throw things out without taking photos… I mean it! In the beginning I didn’t understand why everyone was crazy about monthly empties posts – after a few weeks I was crazy too!

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        1. Conspiracy theory… 🤔

          Hey, a finished eye palette is a finished eye palette – nothing to scoff at!

          I guess it’s just forming new habit – I mean, before I started this blog, I threw away my empties like a normal person! 😛

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  24. I’m so impressed by this post. Love the graph & excel. What precision! You’ve been keying this all year long when you do your empties posts? Looks really cool. 1.23 empties a day is a crazy achievement! Well done, Stashy!

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    1. Yes I’ve been maintaining a spreadsheet all year long as I’m writing my empties posts. Usually I update it once a week so it isn’t as daunting task. 😛 Thank you!

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