When it comes to beauty services, people tend to know their regular frequency of use. We have a rough idea about when we need to get our hair done, when our gel polish needs to be removed, or when eyelashes or brows need to be redone, because those are things we see every day. But do any of us really know how much product we use in a month or a year, and realistically, how long it would take for us to "use up" something on a regular basis? Until last month I had absolutely no idea.
While there are entire communities online dedicated to "empties" or "pan porn" full of people working through their beauty and skincare collections on Reddit and Instagram, I rarely ever see anyone else discuss how long it takes to finish said product. After my 2018/2019 No-Buy Project and subsequently collecting eight months of empties, one thing I've become VERY interested in is finding out how MUCH of certain skincare products I would go through if I normalized my routine and used a small number of products consistently every month. This could be hard to calculate if you have multiple products working at a time, but I feel like I should be able to average out my use if I make this test over a long enough period of time, say six months or more.
LUCKILY, because I just collected eight months of empties, I was able to go through my own trash and get some clues about my consumption habits. These calculations aren't perfect because I didn't account for how much use each of my products had when I started collecting my empties, but moving forward I'm going to mark on my daily products with what day I started using it, and try to stick more generally to a routine to finish them up. (Also my skin might like me better if I was more stable!)
Here's how much skincare I think I use in a year.
Face Wipes - This was one of the easier ones to track, it appears I use about 12-15 wipes a month. I tend to micellar water most days, and only use wipes when I'm wearing a LOT of makeup or need to crash before bed. I used to use a lot more but I've been actively trying to reduce single-use products in my life.
How many per year: 144-180 wipes or about one 30 pack every 2 months.
Micellar Water/Cleansing Balm- This was also an easier thing to esimate as empty bottles don't lie! Over the course of my eight months of empties, I went through approximately 75ml of micellar water a month. I also tend to have a cleansing balm rotating in and out but I use it MUCH less frequently than the micellar water, and have been known to just use coconut oil to get off stubborn lipstick (looking at YOU Maybelline Stay Matte) or eyemakup off.
How much per year: 900ml a year in micellar water, 100ml in balms/coconut oil.
Cleanser - This is really tricky because I feel like I can have a 120ml bottle of cleanser for six MONTHS at the very least, and I also tend to share facial cleansers with my partner as we have a shared one in the shower. It took us the better part of a year to finish a cleanser last month (while I also had another one on the go as well) so this may be a shot in the dark but I'm going to say about 200ml?
How much per year: 200ml a year? Who really knows.
Toner - I've been rocking the same IT Cosmetics Miracle Water Toner since mid-January and there's only about 20% left, so I feel like I can solidly say I use one entire large bottle a year. I don't use toner EVERY day, but probably 3-4 times a week, depending on my skin. (Watch this one be wildly wrong!)
How much per year? 250ml.
Actives - I'm still not the most regular when it comes to the actives in my routine as I alternate them and tend to use them more sparingly. I've recently started using a retinol every other day since July and I've been working through a Vitamin C dropper for the better part of about 4-6 months. From my research however, it seems the average person goes through a 30ml of actives every four months, but it doesn't say if they use multiple, so I'll say it takes me six months per 30ml to be safe.
How much per year: 60ml Retinol/ 60ml Vitamin C.
Serums - This is an easy one, I average one 30ml bottle of The Ordinary's Hyaluronic Acid every three months like clockwork, and did about the same when I used a different now-defunct hyaluronic acid as well. My skin is THIRSTY and I will FEED her.
How much per year? 120ml per year.
Eye Cream - This is another wild guess as I've been working through sample tubes of eye cream for literally a year and can't remember the last time I bought an eye cream. I definitely took at LEAST eight months to finish my current 25ml eye cream and it's still going. This could be way off so I'm just going to stay low.
How much per year? 30ml a year.
Moisturizer - This one one of the easier categories. I've been tracking my moisturizer use for years and I go through approximately 25-30ml of moisturizer a month. I use SLIGHTLY more in winter than summer, but honestly I average about 30ml.
How much per year? 360ml a year.
To make this fun, I'm going to try to replicate my routine with a high and low cost version of products I actually like to see where I need to scale back my routine, and where I could afford to spend a few bucks to get something nicer! I'm really curious to see how much I would be "spending" a month, THIS is the closest I've ever been to figuring it out! I'll be uploading that blog post soon, and I hope to be able to come back to this post in about six months to see how accurate my predictions were!
