If you’re a long-time reader here (and if you’re not, welcome!), you’ll know that I decided to go on a no-buy for most of 2022, until Black Friday. Because of that, I haven’t had as many new products to review and had a ton of trouble thinking about new content. The good news is we’ll be back to regularly scheduled programming soon! The even better news is I stumbled upon an awesome way to stop myself from buying things I don’t need during my no-buy, and I’d love to share with all of you.
Before you buy something, ask yourself: “Would I rather use this over what I already have”? I used to just imagine using the new thing, like how pretty a new blush or lipstick would look. Now, I think about if I’m willing to use that new blush or lipstick instead of the blushes or lipsticks I already own. There’s only 365 days in a year, and we each only have one face. If I own 20 blushes and wear them all evenly, I get to wear each of them about 18 times a year. One more, and now I only get to wear each 17 times. I know this sounds very obvious, but it’s saved me from being tempted so many times this year. Especially because it’s wild to me to to buy something that’s over $20 to wear it less than 20 times in an entire year.
To illustrate this, I really wanted to buy one of the Kaja Eye Bento Bouncy Eyeshadow Trios during the Sephora Sale. My no-buy is almost over anyway, and it’s 20% off what’s already a pretty inexpensive products. Then I thought about all the eyeshadow I already own that I wouldn’t be able to wear because I was wearing the new Kaja shadows. Would I really give up using my Divine Rose or Bronze Seduction Palette? My Roen quads? The Lisa Eldridge liquid shadows? I’d have to wear all of my other eyeshadows less because of getting the Kaja shadows. And this made the decision super easy – obviously, I don’t need new eyeshadow.
I’ve been doing this for every beauty purchase I might make recently, and it’s made my no-buy a breeze since I started thinking this way. I’ve even been able to avoid buying a ton of nail polish (a huge weakness of mine). Even though I had an exception for limited edition products, which many nail polish launches are, I’ve been able to pass them up because I’d rather get to enjoy what I already own. And this means I’ve missed out less on wearing my favorite shades just to wear the newest ones.
I hope this is helpful – it’s made a huge difference for me! I’ll be posting a ton of empties content coming up and some favorites content, but as always, please let me know if you have requests or suggestions for posts you want to see – I’d love to continue to make this a useful place for you to visit! As always, thank you so much for being here and supporting me.
LiftBakelove 
That’s a really good point actually! Plus, makeup does expire… better to use up what you have, or at least get as much money’s worth out of it as you can.
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Totally! I have a foundation I’m still getting through, and it turns out I got it in 2018?! Probably shouldn’t be putting that on my face!
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Eh. If it looks ok, smells ok, is not discoloured or visibly mouldy – it goes back on my face. 🫢
I keep my makeup in the dark depths of my wardrobe with a damp trap nearby. Never had any issues personally.
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True! I have an eyeshadow palette from 2016 I’m still using and it’s working great! I don’t know why I think I ever need more lol
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I love this tip! I think Hannah Louise Poston has mentioned something similar and it’s one of those tips that will stop me in my tracks before purchasing makeup. Especially cream eyeshadow, my #1 makeup weakness.
As for content I’d love to see more of, nail polish posts! I’m not necessarily into nail art, but I loveeeeee nail polish and lists (top 10 for winter, top 5 from Essie, etc) or collections posts (all your polishes from 1 brand, all your reds, etc.) so anything like that would be awesome!
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I am super inspired by HLP – I don’t even want to think about how big my collection would be without her videos! I will absolutely do some nail polish round ups 🥰 I can do sure do some top picks for different colors and formulas and categories like indies.
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Love that you did this! I keep track of my cost per wear for each item for over a year (actually a few years now). It helped me realize that buying those “deals” is really a bad use of my money, because I don’t usually end up using those products very much. I get something like 200+ uses out of a single lip balm at a cost of like $0.02 per use. If I splurge and get a lip balm I adore and use up all the way, the cost per use is only like a penny more.
Anyway, long story short is…buy what you love and that aligns with your values — and skip the rest! You’ll save way more money and be using something you adore. (and save money on needing to buy extra storage, organizers, etc as well!)
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Absolutely so true! I can’t believe how many times I bought a “dupe” of something to just end up getting the real version, and never using the dupe anyway.
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