Hoarding your empties is in, actually

Shopping has rapidly evolved into quite an ever-constant theme in everyone's daily lives. We essentially live to shop, especially in the case of consumable products. "Oh, my lip gloss is running out soon, so I might as well splurge on two or three new shades that I've always wanted to try." "This scent is not in-season; I need a new signature scent" and "The new collection just dropped, and I need it!"

These are common thoughts that my brain has clung to once or twice — okay, on several occasions. Rather than contemplating if I seriously need another shade of the same lip gloss, I immediately hit the checkout button. If not, the thought of buying a new cosmetic consumes my brain until I have no other choice but to buy it to satisfy the greedy overlord.

And in the end, half of these products go missing, or worse — I stop liking it a quarter-way through, and they sit out to expire, leaving both odd scents and goopy formulas behind.

This shopping addiction stems from influence. If you're anything like me, you spend way too much time on social media rather than doing homework. Social media pushes disguised advertisements onto you, and within these two mindless hours, all you can think about is another product in your pile of to-buy items. But hey, they're all consumables, right? If you buy them, you'll use them, right?

I definitely have an excess of products in my life; in fact, I can count on both of my hands the amount of non-essential cosmetics that I have finished in its entirety. One of them I consider my reigning achievement in beating consumerism: a 5.1 oz of L'Occitane Hand Cream.

The amount of joy I felt from squeezing the absolute last drop of the cream out beats buying any new tube of hand cream. I have grown quite attached to it, as you could probably tell from holding onto it for dear life.

It has small cracks at the seams, and physically hurts to push out any remaining lotion in it; I consider it “empty.” It took me approximately one year and one month to finish.

On TikTok, there has been a surge of Project Pan, which is essentially emptying your consumable cosmetics. This community is both uplifting and romanticizing using products until their end, or its "empty" status. It's quite satisfying. I consider myself sentimental towards my "empties."

Lip glosses are amongst the most common empties, and the item you most likely have a lot of considering their fun variety in colors and scents. I believe skincare products such as face creams come in second.

I hoard all of the packaging I have bought, and it has grown to quite a collection. Somehow, it evokes both a simultaneous sense of pride and bashfulness. My empties will soon be joining this pile.

This is just a gentle reminder to never buy more than you can consume.

Strike Out,

Jasmine Lam

Editor: Cira Thigpen

Athens

Hoarding your empties is in, actually

girlfailure.