Resolution LOW-BUY 2020

shellygrrl

Moderator
Staff member
  • Kosas Tinted Face Oil - 02
  • Kosas Revealer Concealer - 01
  • Hourglass Veil Translucent Loose Setting Powder
  • Laura Mercier Secret Brightening Powder
  • Bobbi Brown Downtown Cool Palette - Brunette (brows)
  • MAC Prep and Prime 24-Hour Extend Eye Base
  • Ilia Limitless Lash Mascara
  • Fenty Beauty Sun Stalk'r Instant Warmth Bronzer - Inda Sun (also used on the lids)
  • NARS Afterglow Lip Balm - Dolce Vita
 

shellygrrl

Moderator
Staff member
  • Kosas Tinted Face Oil - 02
  • Kosas Revealer Concealer - 02 (to correct) and 01
  • Laura Mercier Secret Brightening Powder
  • Bobbi Brown Downtown Cool Palette - Brunette (brows)
  • MAC Prep and Prime 24-Hour Extend Eye Base
  • mix of Makeup Geek Eyeshadow - Hipster + ABH Eyeshadow - Birkin
  • Ilia Limitless Lash Mascara
  • Fenty Beauty Sun Stalk'r Instant Warmth Bronzer - Inda Sun
  • Makeup Geek Blush - Main Squeeze
  • MAC Lipstick - Blankety
 

LadyBug13

Well-known member
Face of the day (which has been my go-to for most of the year)
  • MAC prep+prime peach lustre highlighter (as undereye corrector)
  • MAC studio fix 24-hour smooth wear concealer (mixed NC42 + NC45 undereye)
  • MAC MSFN in dark
  • NYX lip liner in espreso
  • MAC lipglass in spite
 

LadyBug13

Well-known member
Check-in (since my last check-in)!

In 2019 I spent $2,271.74 on makeup, skin+body care, and haircare. My 2020 spending goal was $1,930.97 (15% of my 2019 total). As of 11/25, I met my goal of not going this amount. I don’t plan to make any purchases this month to close out the year, but if I run out of something that is a staple, I’ll ask for it as a Christmas gift.

There were 3 months (not including December yet) where I didn’t make any purchases.

I’ve used up 71 products (45 skin+body, 20 haircare, 3 makeup, 3 scents) and decluttered 24 products (15 skin+body, 1 haircare, 8 makeup, 0 scents).

Also, for 2021 I’ll maintain my tier status with MAC (Devoted), but I won’t be VIB Rouge with Sephora.

Observations

I’ve enjoyed giving myself a yearly budget and sticking to it and I’m happy that I didn’t go over.

The bulk of my purchases were skin+body care, followed by haircare. This is due to my discovering three new (to me) skincare and body care brands (Dermalogica, Herb’N Eden, and Naturium). When I discover a new brand, I have a habit of buying and testing multiple products before settling down on the items I like.

I did get suckered into buying during sales. Which is great because most of my purchases were on sale, but I disregarded my “one in, one out” goal, and now I have a lot of backup/stashed purchases. I like that this now sets me up to not make any purchases for a while but I also don’t like having tons of products around, if that makes sense.

With makeup, I’ve gotten to a point where I now focus on buying staples and am less interested in trying new products unless it’s a product that I’m either really interested in trying or something that can be a staple to my collection.

Also, I wasn’t really into playing with my makeup compared to previous years and have enjoyed doing the bare minimum. I felt more adventurous with my brows and discovering my ideal shape and in testing out different mascaras as my face masks covers everything else. I don’t remember the last time I wore eyeshadow. But I’m thinking that I can play with more lip products as no one will see, and also get back into shadows.

I haven’t decided what my 2021 goals will be, outside of making my spending budget $1641.32 (15% of $1930.97) and staying under that amount as much as possible. I've thought about $1500 as a spending max, but $1641.32 gives me some wiggle room just in case.
 

shellygrrl

Moderator
Staff member
  • Kosas Revealer Concealer - 01
  • Bobbi Brown Downtown Cool Palette - Brunette and Cool Brown (brows)
  • surratt beauty Expressioniste Brow Pomade
  • MAC Prep and Prime 24-Hour Extend Eye Base
  • mix of ABH Eyeshadows - Birkin + Stone (+ Warm Taupe)
  • MAC Eyeshadow - Sumptuous Olive
  • Ilia Limitless Lash Mascara
 

shellygrrl

Moderator
Staff member
  • Kosas Revealer Concealer - 01
  • Bobbi Brown Downtown Cool Palette - Brunette (brows)
  • surratt beauty Expressioniste Brow Pomade
  • MAC Prep and Prime 24-Hour Extend Eye Base
  • MAC Eyeshadow - Indian Ink
  • Makeup Geek Eyeshadows - Unexpected, Fairytale, Sand Dollar
  • Ilia Limitless Lash Mascara
 

r0mini0n

Well-known member
Hi everyone! Long post ahead.

Signing up for the 2020 low buy. I signed up for the 2019 one as well but I feel like I did worse then 2018. I totaled up my spending in beauty stores and online some weeks ago and I came out to about €6000. I was not expecting this much at all. I gave up writing everything down after April but still did not expect it to be this much. Not everything was for me but tbh most of it was and it was NOT worth it!
Plan: I am going to give myself a monthly budget of around €150, which will include haircare and I will try to include skincare, or make skincare a 50/50 item once per season as I need to repurchase. I am not sure if I'm giving myself too big a budget but I'm hoping to stick to it. It will come around to around €2000 which is still a lot but miles better where I came from last year.

Here is to a better budget and more resistance for me in 2020!

As I won't be buying any more things beauty this year, I'm putting my recap here. The post above are some excerpts from first post in this thread.

Recap 2020: I totaled up all my beauty, hair (except hairdresser visits) and skin expenses, and I came up to spending about €272 more than last year. While my goal was to use a budget and spend about €2000 a year total...

I am dumbfounded that I spent so much on beauty in a year where I in total didn't even work 5 months at work, most of it was spent working from home.. I know that my budget was out the window once Rona came round, but while I was keeping to it pretty well in Jan/Feb, and it was better March/April, starting my Birthday month (May) I really felt a need to buy myself happy as it were. Combining that with buying a lot of other things this year for me, presents for others and some no fun but necessary expenses, I can't believe I spent so much in a year you're supposed to save every penny you can.

For 2021 I think I'm going to go just straightforward: only replenishes for things that I finished, with an exception of buying things I really want from the Chanel seasonal collections (in the means possible for that month - but am still a collector). I'm not calling it anything except trying to diminish my beauty spending by 50% (or less). I am motivated!
 

shellygrrl

Moderator
Staff member
  • Kosas Revealer Concealer - 01
  • Bobbi Brown Downtown Cool Palette - Brunette (brows)
  • surratt beauty Expressioniste Brow Pomade
  • MAC Prep and Prime 24-Hour Extend Eye Base
  • ABH Eyeshadow - Buon Fresco
  • Ilia Limitless Lash Mascara
 

shellygrrl

Moderator
Staff member
My End-of-Year Check-In

I have only one December makeup-related purchase, and it was a metal lash comb I got on clearance at Walgreens for only 89 cents! I've used it a couple of times and I really like it.

This year I spent $255.29 on makeup and tools -- much more than I spent in 2019, but I'm okay with that, because I got a lot of things I was happy with.

Let's take a look at what I wanted to focus on this year...
  • Neutral-leaning-warm brown eyeshadows (powder and cream), generally matte or satin finish
ABH Warm Taupe ended up leaning a little cooler on me than I anticipated. Birkin is much warmer, but I'm not mad at that? I'd still like to expand on this category a little bit in 2021.
  • A new powder bronzer
In October I finally replaced my very old and much used Body Shop bronzer with the Fenty powder bronzer in Inda Sun, which I'm fairly happy with. (My one critique is the powder is pretty hard-pressed.)
  • A cream bronzer
I received the Tower 28 cream bronzer in West Coast over the summer, which I was pleasantly surprised by! I think it works best for me as a summer bronzer, though.
  • A lighter coverage foundation/tinted moisturizer/CC cream
While I got the Kosas Tinted Face Oil, I think I'd still like at least one other option, and I have something in mind.
  • A new loose setting powder
I still have my sample of the Hourglass setting powder.
  • A silicone-free face primer
A mini Milk Hydro Grip.
  • A lighter-coverage concealer
I ended up with two shades of the Kosas Revealer Concealer, which I would not consider light coverage at all -- more like full coverage. Shade 1 is closest to my skintone but not quite right; Shade 2 is good if I want to colour-correct under the eyes. Mixing both together is okay for my face if I want to spot conceal. Hrm.
  • Another shade of NARS RCC?
Didn't happen as I went with Kosas instead. Originally I wanted to get a slightly deeper shade to mix in with Chantilly, which is a bit too light (!) for me. (That said, I used up my tube of Chantilly this year, and given that I don't finish very many products, that's huge!)
  • A brow pen?
Didn't happen, but I would like to revamp my brow routine a bit in 2021.
 

Naynadine

Veteran Moderator
Staff member
Hey everyone, checking in after quite a long time. I haven't been spending a lot on makeup, I had been buying less and less the last few years already and this crazy year made makeup even less necessary for me. I never set a budget for myself and I don't really keep track of purchases, because I don't buy a lot anyway.
I think I only bought one MAC product this year which is kinda crazy when I remember how much I used to buy from them years ago. It was a Glow Play Blush which is lovely. I did backup Hug Me lipstick too now that I think about it, but not sure if that was early this year or late last year.

My one splurge this year was the La Mer powder brush and I also placed two Bobbi Brown orders (a blush and brush cleanser), but only because I got a full size brush as a GWP each time, which was a great deal.
The only two other makeup items I remember buying are the Manasi7 cream blush thingie, which I think is totally overpriced but I couldn't get it out of my head after reading the shade description. And then my fave purchase - a drugstore product, shocker! - the NYX skin tint (that pink tube). I completely ran out of concealer options since all the ones I liked were discontinued or the formula changed. And I still haven't found a foundation that works for me either. So I randomly ordered this because I saw a swatch that looked super fair and pinktoned, and it's probably the best match I ever had in a complexion product. It's also not cakey and just great. I had bought a NARS foundation (Sheer Glow I think) not too long ago, I think it was last year tho, but that is still too pigmented and cakey looking for my dry skin and for the natural look I'm going for. So I'm really glad I found the NYX stuff, I use it under my eyes instead of concealer too, not always all over my face.
Wait, I also repurchased my mascara. I finally found a brown waterproof one that's also a natural brand and is very affordable.

I spent the most on skincare, most of that being repurchases, I didn't try a lot of new stuff. Just treated myself to a new retinol product today, because it's my birthday and I feel like I need to up my 'anti-aging' game, lol.
I didn't buy a single perfume or scented candle this year. Pretty proud of myself. I also spent next to nothing on hair and body care, just repurchased my natural drugstore stuff I've been using for years (kinda like Dr. Bronners just cheaper).

There are some things about my skincare regimen I want to improve and there are also some skincare tools I'm tempted to buy, but other than that I don't have much on my wishlist for next year. Thankfully most makeup releases don't interest me much anymore, the shades & finishes just aren't my cup of tea. If I do wear makeup it's a very minimal 'no makeup' look. And with everything that's been going on and going through a dental procedure plus complications that lasted a while, I lost interest in wearing makeup recently. I'm sure I'll get back into it in the future tho.
 

lenchen

Well-known member
DECEMBER 2020

Purchases:

For myself, I purchased the Sonia brush cleansing towels, brush holder for my eye Brushes, and the travel brush set, and the new Chanel foundation. I purchased make-up items from various make-up brands for friends and family over the holidays.


Gave Away /Disposed Of/Used UP/chopping block:

Gave away:
I culled 1 of the original 6 pan eyeshadow palette from Pat Mcgrath, while I loved it, I rarely used it. I also de-cluttered some older single eyeshadows.

Chopping block:

nothing as of now!

Used Up: Clinique make-up remover cleansing balm. I have a lot

On the Horizon:
the remaining 4 eye brushes and 2 face brushes on my wishlist.



2020 year Makeup/beauty reflection- This year has been a challenge for sure. While I didn’t stay within my budget, I decided to tackle my brush wishlist. I’m content with my brush arsenal, and at this point I will only pick up eye brushes as I needed My beauty/make-up spend was significantly down this year, I bought very few items and was way under budget.


monthly favourites/ reflections- base: MUFE face and body NARS Blushes-Orgasm X, Taos, and outlaw. Eyeshadows, Viseart mattes, Pat McGrath mothership 4 and 6 palettes, and my tom ford spice cream eyeshadow.
 

fur4elise

Well-known member
Goodbye 2020! I finally eeked out a minute of personal fun time and thought I should start catching up on the board. Truth be told, I just do not have the heart or energy to attempt to rehash what 2020 was...I would rather look up, look forward...

To have some closure - The last few months of the year I spent very little on beauty and replenished my skincare and haircare products. I stayed under budget for the year. I had very little desire to acquire new stuff...rather I turned to the pleasure of what I already had.

A big thank you and hug to a beauty fairy here on the board. She sent me two gift packets in the later part of the year. There were super lovely beauty items in each...and as I told her many times, I love everything this generous soul sent me. That kind of thoughtfulness sparked me to give where I could as well...to a college scholarship, to my student workers, to my work colleague...a little love goes a long way. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

And with that, I am done with 2020. We are already well into February but you will see in my first 2021, February was the beginning of the new year for me.
x0x0x
 
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