Two years ago when I started this blog I had no idea the impact that it would make on my life.  My very first article was Creating A Minimalist Lifestyle written January 8, 2010.  I knew the freedom of traveling light for vacations, yet hadn’t really understood the true bliss of traveling light every day in life.  The process of lightening the load of unnecessary possessions, releasing addictive shopping behavior, fully understanding the toxicity of chemical cosmetics, and redefining my life with a new free spirited paradigm has been a lot of work, research, and dedication.

I’ve seen blogs where minimalists will list their every possession.  I am by no means an extreme minimalist with 100 things or less.  One major reason that isn’t exactly possible for my life is that I am in the entertainment industry.  The pressure of being “camera ready” doesn’t exactly fit in the only 100 possessions category, although I do plan to continue downsizing this year.

There are so many ways that you can live a more minimalist lifestyle, and still maintain a glamorous life.  You can downsize your wardrobe to chic basics so you will never worry about not having anything to wear as in My Wardrobe Checklist.  In Dressing For The New Chic You, I express the importance of not dressing sloppy, and how to take you wardrobe to the next level without spending a fortune on disposable clothing.

When I decided to pay off my debt, I also found a new way to care for my skin and hair to greatly decrease beauty costs.  I wrote A More Minimalist Approach to Beauty to share super simple ingredients that can be used in multiple ways.  You really can create a complete skin and hair care routine around 10 simple ingredients.  If I was going to rewrite this same article today, I would definitely add rhassoul clay and a DIY conditioner.  Rhassoul clay is one of my favorite multidimensional beauty ingredients.  You can use rhassoul clay as a facial cleanser with raw honey, as a shampoo with aloe vera juice, or with arrowroot powder for a translucent face powder.

Making many of my beauty products has saved me so much money and proved that expensive skin and hair care products really aren’t necessary.  The biggest benefit of DIY beauty is that it is completely chemical free, and that you can create in your kitchen for such a tiny percentage of what store bought products cost.  Read Cosmetic Ingredients To Avoid to learn more about what is in your beauty products, and learn the importance of reading labels here.

My minimalist journey continues every day.  There are a few new creative projects for this year that I am very excited about.  I have also been working on more items for spring and summer for Azuha, my Etsy store.  I will definitely keep you posted when those new items are up.  Balancing new projects along with a dance career can be a lot of juggling, yet is very rewarding.

Have you started a minimalist journey?  How has it affected your life?

(Image by Dawn Michelle)

Stay Connected with Minimalist Beauty & Subscribe with bloglovin’. Also Join the Community on Facebook & Twitter. For more about Dawn Michelle go here!