Comparing myself and my attitudes towards makeup from 2004 to 2009:

THEN, I would have only gone into Sephora if a friend wanted to go, and I would have stood around waiting for them to be ready to leave.
NOW, I am a Beauty Insider and have emptied my beauty-bank twice to get some of their 500-point gifts.

THEN, I wore makeup perhaps twice a month if at all - and usually just an eyecolor and a lipgloss. Maybe mascara, but just as frequently, no mascara.
NOW, I wear makeup nearly every day. I don't always do the full routine of concealer-foundation-shadow-blush-highlight-lipcolor, but always foundation and some eye shadow/mascara…and usually at least a buxom lip polish. The “lite” routine takes me just under five minutes. My “normal daily” routine takes closer to 10 - allowing for wait time for the layers of concealer and eyeshadow base to dry properly. If I take longer to put on my makeup, it's because I'm trying something new. Or because once again I've misplaced that color that I had planned to use today, and absolutely MUST find it IMMEDIATELY.

THEN, I had four eyeshadow palettes (L'oreal Wear Infinite quads - sixteen colors in all), two lip colors, one mascara, some pressed-powder foundation, and no blush.
NOW, I have over 600 pots of eye shadow (Aromaleigh, Bare Escentuals, Every Day Minerals, Make Up For Ever, Meow, Pure Luxe Cosmetics, TSS), 12 blushes (Bare Escentuals and a few TSS), several tubes of mascara (in colors, yet - yay Urban Decay!!), a dozen lipsticks and nearly 20 lip glosses (chiefly Bare Escentuals, for both categories), eyebrow color, and two slightly different shades of foundation (Meow Cosmetics - hurray for excellent colormatching and choices in coverage!!).

THEN, I would avoid loose-powder anything automatically. The one bit of advice I had remembered from my mom was that loose powder makeup was messier and took a bit more skill to apply, so she used pressed powder products whenever possible - for convenience.
NOW, I avoid pressed-powder anything. Even if it's an eye color that looks amazing (MAC, I'm looking at you) I won't buy pressed-powder shadows any more. I don't want to take the risk that the preservatives will cause the eyecolor to go bad after a few years; and I'd rather build up my collection and then not have to buy any more rather than open a prized color or quad…and smell dead eyeshadow. (Yuck.) While some loose-powder pigments can contain allergens, irritants, or even preservatives, it's a relatively easy matter to figure out which brands routinely avoid such things…and stick to them.

Quite the difference in half a decade's time…

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