No Beauty Buy Year... 3 months in!

So, I’m officially three months in and to be very honest, I’m really surprised I’ve managed to make it this far. I definitely thought I’d have given in and bought something by now but I haven’t!! I have managed to get through three months and not buy any makeup, tan or skincare. This may seem like an easy task to some but I’m a makeup/beauty addict and this is probably the longest I’ve gone without buying makeup in literally about 10 years.

So here I am three months in, what have I learned? will I continue? how’s it going so far?

January

Well it’s certainly more difficult than I thought. The first month was probably the worst because all the new year sales came out and I found it hard to watch Instagram stories and YouTube videos of bloggers/influencers reviewing products. Towards the end of the month, my personal life got very busy and distracted me a lot so it started to get a bit easier. My housemates moved out and I took over the lease. This was super exciting because it meant I could throw myself into the world of interiors and redecorate the house a little bit. Beauty and makeup were the last thing on my mind to be honest.

February

I was still distracted by the house for the first week or so but then some fabulous launches came out and I was straight back to wanting to buy all the makeup! I decided to remind myself why I was doing the no beauty buy year, which was to mainly stop adding to my overwhelming beauty collection, used up what I have and appreciate all the beautiful products that I currently own. I saw LJ from @anythingbutmarizpan doing a #shopmystash challenge over on her Instagram and decided to jump on the bandwagon. Basically, shop my stash is where I pick out products at the beginning of the week and then I can only use those products for the entirety of that week. It has really REALLY helped me enjoy my own makeup collection again.

March

I spent most of the month on holiday which was amazing! I thought that this would be my biggest test of the year. I usually buy loads of stuff just before holiday, the first reason is because I like to give myself some pre-holiday treats like a new face mask or tan lol. The second reason is because I like to buy small travel sized bits and pieces and may “need” something. This time though I was well prepped, I did my #shopmystash holiday edition and realised that actually I have loads of makeup and definitely don’t “need” anything new. I’d about 10 tans to use up, loads of skincare that I could depot into travel bottles and plenty of makeup to see me through the holiday. I was also expecting the holiday itself to throw me off course because I was stopping in America and we all know how much I love a trip to Sephora. But I managed to ignore the cravings and keep my blinkers on. The rest of the month was actually easy as I threw myself into my #shopmystash challenge!

So that’s how’s it been thus far, a quarter way through the year. I’m actually thrilled with myself that I’ve managed to stick with it. I’ve learned that I had become the type of consumer to just buy everything and anything, I was literally like a magpie anything shiny and it HAD to be mine.

One interesting thing that I did notice is that my trips to Penneys/Primark are very different now. I hadn’t really noticed but every time I went in, I went immediately to the beauty section. I’m a big fan of the P.S beauty range (Penneys own brand of makeup) and they have new releases and products all the time. My local Penneys also stocks Essence (one of my favourite brands of all time) Catrice and a few other big brands. So, it was strange going in and trying to ignore the beauty section altogether. Now though I don’t mind too much going over and having a look but I think that’s also because I’m three months in know that I can definitely go a bit longer so I feel a bit stronger (I sound like a proper addict 😂). This all sounds so stupid because its only makeup at the end of the day but any fellow beauty addicts will understand me (I hope).

I’m definitely going to stick with the #nobeautybuy for as long as I possibly can and I’m excited to see how far I can get with it. If you’re interested in my rules for the challenge and how it all began you can read this post HERE. 

I’ll check in again in about 3 months’ time, until then you can follow me on Instagram for daily/weekly updates!

Erin x

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Labels: Beauty