Ladies, here’s a little experiment that you can do with your lipstick collection that may help you save a little money later on.

First of all, put all your lipstick on a table. Now, let’s grab all that expired make-up and throw it away.  The rule of thumb for make-up is, if your make-up is more than 6 months to a year old, throw it out. Anything expired isn’t good for your skin and may cause skin problems with repeated applications.

After that’s done, let’s start organizing them by color category. Gather all the reddish hues and put them in one pile, all the pinks in another, all the browns in another pile and so on. Once you have all your piles, take off the covers of all the lipsticks of one color category. Can you tell the difference between the colors? If not, do a smear test, on a tissue or on the inside of one of your arms. Can you tell the difference between the colors now? It’s most likely that you have a few colors that are very much alike that you will not be able to tell the difference between them unless you scrutinize them carefully. Do the same with the other color categories.

Chances are, you’ve been spending extra money buying the same color over and over again. Most women regularly wear only 20% of the clothes in their closets. These are their favorite clothes. It is likely that the similar colored lipsticks you picked out are in your favorite hue and shade. These are the ones you wear and/or buy all the time.

Next time you are at the cosmetics counter eying a new tube of lipstick, remind yourself that you tend to buy similar colors each time out. This might make you think a little bit before spending another $11-$30 on something that you might already have in your dresser drawer.

For more organizing tips visit the Organizing section of this website.