M A K E U P | S P E N D I N G B A N*

Four Month Spending Ban/Cap Outline

Considering I’ve only got one face and don’t even wear makeup everyday, I have far too much of the stuff. Through January I’ve set myself a no makeup spending ban and on day 10, that’s gone quite well despite wanting to go off and buy some new releases. After watching a video on YouTube (I forget who it was by), where a girl drastically cut down her makeup collection over the period of one year, I was inspired. While I don’t want to throw away any stuff, I do want to reduce the amount that I buy.

2014 was the year of ‘bandwagoning’ for me. Buying because it was what everyone was doing was the biggest ‘YouTube Made me do it! I bought so many things because in the community, it was the thing to do. In real life, I’m not one of those people that does things because others do it so I’d like to get out of the habit when it comes to makeup. Plus, I have so many new things that are getting no love. I’ve used them once or twice and they just sit in a drawer or on my vanity. I need to work through the stuff I have before I buy more.

This challenge I’m setting myself isn’t a daily one like the squat challenge, It’s a ‘priority’ challenge. If I need primer, I buy primer and that’s it. If a new eyeshadow palette is released then I can buy it, but I wont be able to buy a new lipstick. The price doesn’t matter. If I accidentally add a £1 eyeshadow to my basket when I’m buying tampons in Superdrug then tough luck, that’s all I’m allowed. I’m trying to make it so that I know what I need and I buy what I need and only treat myself when I deserve it. – This challenge doesn’t include foundation. Reason being that it’s the base and unlike lipstick and eyeshadow, I only use one foundation at a time and it needs to be the right colour, else I’ll look silly. My winter skin is disappearing so I’ll need a new one pretty soon. I’ll try to keep the cost of that down as much as possible.

I also include nail polish in this since I have around 100 as it is and I also include makeup brushes in the spending ban. I just received a lovely Christmas gift from my boyfriend of Zoeva brushes which has every brush I’ll ever need. Until May I wont be buying anymore. I simply don’t need them. – The Bold Metals powder brush from Real Techniques can just sit and wait for me. It isn’t going anywhere.

For now, this challenge will last for three months as it seems like a manageable amount of time. Not to mention my birthday is in May and I’m the only person that ever gets me gifts haha. – When I reach the end, hopefully I’ll stop buying unnecessarily, constantly searching for something better. Unless something stops working for my skin or just doesn’t give the same results, I wont be changing it. For example, I have around eight or nine mascaras open at the moment. Once those have finished I will only repurchase the two best, one for top lashes and one for bottom and that’s it.

So…. For February, I will only be allowed to buy one makeup product. In March, I can spend a cumulative maximum of £20. In April I can make one online order with a budget of £25 (including p&p – I already know this will be Makeup Revolution hahaha). Makeup that is sent to me for consideration or bought by friends and family does not count towards the challenge.

I breath a sigh of relief as I write this because I already know that when I complete it I’ll feel as though I really have conquered my impulses. Not to mention the fact that I’ll have saved so much money. It will also give me so much more time to review the stuff I already have and finally work on my Makeup Directory that I stopped doing since I bought too much to sit and catalogue every time I went shopping.

I know now that I’ve written this and it’s posted publicly, I’ll do my best to stick to it. I’ll keep you all posted 😉