April was promising to be such a good month, until everything went off the rails. I managed to not spend a single dime on beauty until after the 20th of the month. I don’t think that ever happened before. However, with the holidays and my OCD acting up…I ended up getting a few things. Find out more below about how April went in terms of limiting my spending. I did mange to dodge the super enticing Liberty of London beauty gift with purchase so that should count for something, right?
Anyway, here is my summary for the month of April.
Beauty Purchases
- Centacassol SOS Hand Sanitiser 250ml x 2 – these were each £18 so a total of £36
- Banila Co Dear Hydration Face Toner – £14.5
- It’s Skin Power 10 PO Effector Face Serum for Pore Tightening and Sebum Control – £11.50
- It’s Skin Hyaluronic Acid Moisture Toner – £9.75
- It’s Skin Collagen Nutrition Serum – £11.50
- Revox Niacinamide Serum – £5
- Revox Hyaluronic Acid Serum -£5
Total amount spent: £93.25
Allowance from empties
- Boots Tea Tree and Witch Hazel Cleansing and Toning Lotion – £4 for 150 ml so I get an allowance of £2
- Origins Fusion Sheet Mask – £5.50 so I get an allowance of £2.25
- Nivea Smooth Hand Cream with Shea Butter – £2.99 for 100 ml, mine was 30 ml so worth £0.89 and since I get half that amount, my allowance is £0.44
- Merci Handy Cleansing Gel – worth £1.60 so I get an allowance of £0.80
Allowance from empties: £5.49
Allowance from posts
Reviews
Armani Ecstasy Shine Lipstick – £5
Origins Flower Fusion Nourishing Sheet Mask – £5
Deciem Hylamide Pore Control Serum – £5
Reviews allowance: £15
Armani Ecstasy Shine Lipstick – £1
Instagram allowance: £1
Total beauty allowance: £21.49
I finished last month on a positive notice, with an allowance of £62.43 which is pretty amazing. March was my best month to date. It was the first month I finished with a positive balance. April on the other hand does not look all that great. I know that! However, most of the items I used are nearly empty so that could mean an increase for the month of May, but we will see in 30 days or so. Until then, I know I did my best and I am sort of proud of my results. The fact that I managed to stick with this program for so long is a feat in itself given just how big of a shopaholic I am. Being bored, tired and super stressed usually leads to even more purchases, but this time I managed to reign it in quite a bit so it means more than what it might seem to you here on a screen.
So let’s do the math now.
£62.44 (from March) + £21.49 (from April) – £93.25 (April purchases) = -£9.33
So my total for the month of April is negative (-9.33). That is not amazing, but it is not that bad, It actually falls within the delimitations I “imposed” on myself when I started this journey of spending less.
So for May I will carry forward a negative balance of -9.33 GBP. However, like I said, it is not that bad so I am happy with the results. I should have tried harder to stay away from getting so many Korean beauty products, but since I was already on the website… You know how these things go. I have used more minis though as I said I would and I am trying to finish them off during May. I am trying really hard not to open up new products and finish the ones I already have opened and get rid of some stuff from my beauty collection. I am also focusing on some full sized products that have been open for a fews months now are their time is almost up. I think it is really important to do this so that we can start spending less and littering the Earth even more than we already are. These are small steps, but they are still a lot better than nothing at all.
How did you do?
*This article is not sponsored. This article contains affiliate links which means that Blush Suede might receive a small commission at no extra cost to you if you make any purchases by clicking the links included in this article. Thank you for your support. It is you that keep us going.
Well done! Not buying the Liberty gift definitely counts 🙂
I’m on a spending ban as well. Last year I made an inventory list to understand what I have, turned out I had around 10 hand creams, the situation was no better with other type of items. This year I counted everything and am monitoring how much I use up different products in a given timeframe. This list helped me refrain from shopping more than once. Sadly I had to throw away some stuff as it was expired, and it was closer to 50 than 5 items, so it really was an eye opener. I also gave away a lot, especially the stuff I wouldn’t use but got in boxes, sets, gifts and advent calendars.
Now I’m waiting for gifts with purchase (still!) but since this year they haven’t got me interested and didn’t make me feel like I wanted to spend money (except for the Cult Beauty one and I have now 3 items from the gift left, including a lip gloss I won’t use and give away after the lockdown) it was easy.
Finishing makeup is the hardest for me. Things like blushes or powder highlighters have no end and I can’t imagine myself hitting the pan there. Not in like 10 years unless I was a MUA.
Kinda the same thing here. I hit pan maybe once in my life 😂. Not sure if it will happen again. Maybe with the ColourPop items… we will see. In my case is more about the fact the items I love are usually the ones they discontinue or are always sold out so I am worried about using the whole product.
One of the reasons I started this project is because I have to throw away lots of items every month. Usually I try to stay away from those that I know I won’t use and marry them off before getting into them, but something they do end up being thrown away after 1.5 years or so which is not okay. We need to be accountable. 🙂
Keep me posted on your progress! Also are you giving yourself an allowance or chose a different system to follow your progress?
I use quantitative targets, each month I want to slim down the amount of stuff I have. I have a pipeline for some of the products which helps me refrain from buying because if I see that a product would have to wait for another 5 months before I use it, I can be fairly certain that by that time there will have been a number of other special offers and new releases, equally tempting, so I can skip this one. So no allowance, trying to only buy stuff I need, so far shower gel and a hand cream. Used all the hand creams I had, one from The Body Shop, 75 ml, lasted not even two weeks, it was so liquidy and would sink in in a matter of seconds! My face moisturiser stash should last until October… 😉
I like Colourpop! Haven’t had luck with Supershock shadows, the ones I’ve opened so far are glitter bombs. One was labelled as “ultra glitter”, I didn’t notice that. The other is “satin” but it’s so full of glitter. The Lux lipsticks last super long and have an amazing payoff. When I see a Colourpop collection I want to buy, buy, buy and then I look at my inventory list, think of plastic and carbon footprint of having stuff shipped from the US to Europe and then I just enjoy pretty pictures 🙂
One problem with overbuying and trying to hit the pan I have is that I like to try new stuff and change colours, that’s why I have so many colour cosmetics, but then to use it up I need to really frequently re-apply, and then I get bored with the same colourover and over again.
This is quite the system. Thanks for sharing. I love hearing what others are doing. I know that my system is not that rigorous which is why I named it the shopaholic version of beauty ban. I decided to start slow as I knew that otherwise I would find it difficult to keep up such a project. However it does work for me, I spent around 80% less I believe on beauty this year to date than I have the previous year until May
I previously mentioned I got the Cult Beauty gift 2 months ago, and since my goal is to limit the amount of products I have at any given time, a purchase with over 20 products does not necessarily help. Here first and foremost I reaaaally wanted some of the things and the vast majority of products I could easily incorporate in my routine. Since it’s mainly skincare I share it with my husband, so it’s finished at a faster pace too.
My way of assessing if I want a gift with purchase is checking the ratio of stuff I want and can use in a close foreseable future and the total amount of products. If over 75% then it’s good, but only if the base purchase fits the same criteria.
This is basically what I do too when it comes to GwP to which I add whether I actually have enough products I need/(really really really want) to make up the amount I need to spend in order to qualify 🙂