Buying fewer beauty products means less to review and more time to brainstorm new post ideas. That's how I came up with "Companion Piece," a new series that will combine a blogpost and a video on a related topic. I figure this is the best way to please a variety of my readership, since some of them prefer to read and others prefer to watch or listen to a video. Fair warning: the video cuts off very suddenly because the last piece of the file was corrupted, but I'd love to hear about how your 2019 goals are going!
What did I want?
There have been a ton of great new releases these past few months, like the YSL Touche Eclat High Cover Radiant Concealer I've been eyeing, but I've also found myself looking in to more "established" products, like the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Powder Duo, the Jillian Dempsey Lid Tints, and the Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood Contour Wand. I talked myself out of the contouring product because, quite frankly, I will never be the sort of person who contours, and I just have to admit that to myself. I have a thin face; contouring isn't going to do me too many favors. I'm also pretty sure I won't buy a Lid Tint anytime soon, just because they're super pretty on other people, but not the sort of makeup I'd fuss with on the daily.
That said, I do plan on buying the Anastasia Brow Duo and a brush to go with it. Don't worry, I won't be breaking my no buy! I returned the Laura Mercier foundation I tested earlier this month (it's beautiful, but I don't have a shade match), and that plus my leftover gift cards will more than cover the cost of the brow products. April is my birthday month, so I'll use the opportunity to get the yearly birthday gift and whatnot on the same order.
What did I buy?
As is usual for a 2-3 month period, I had to replace some staples; in this case, it was my favorite Paula's Choice BHA. I've used their 2% BHA liquid for years and have never been disappointed.
Also, Glossier decided to launch their new sub-brand, Glossier Play, and I used my store credit to order (and review) quite the haul. That slew of products and Kirby's bout of shingles kept me preoccupied for most of the tail end of winter.
How am I feeling?
To be totally honest, I'm feeling better than I ever expected re: No Buy 2019. I've been wearing makeup a little less than usual due to my odd work schedule, some exhausting traveling and conference-attending I've had to do, Kirby's illness, etc. So every time I've found myself wanting to jump online and buy something "for fun," I've opened the drawers of my card catalogue and said to myself, "Well, here are these 20-some lipsticks I'm barely wearing right now. Do I really need another one?"
As for how I'm feeling in general? That's...a bit different. I've struggled with depression a lot this month, especially at the beginning of March. There have been far too many days when I've felt useless and unhappy with myself and my choices. A large part of the problem is that there are several huge life changes looming on the horizon, but they're not guaranteed, ie, I won't know if my life is changing in these massive ways any time soon. I hate uncertainty. The realization that it's not safe to fly my cat across the country has also affected me. She's my cat and I want her with me, but I also want her to be happy and healthy, and a long-haul flight just isn't in her best interests.
Anything else?
Something that people always mention is how quickly a no buy can lead to overspending in another hobby, and I really experienced that this past month. Living in a rural, relatively isolated area means there are limited shopping choices in-town, so traveling for work becomes an opportunity to shop. Last week, I walked in to a Joann Fabric for the first time in months, and...well, let's just say it's a miracle I only spent $40 on planner supplies versus $100. My planner supplies drawer is full now, so even though I want some new pens and more washi tape, I'm telling myself, "No no no, use what you have."
To keep myself on track, I'm limiting my allowance to $10 for April. That sounds crazy, but really, what do I need? Nothing. $10 will buy me a Steam game or a nice new pen, and that's more than enough combined with what I already own.
I don't think the first month or two of a year-long challenge is all that interesting, since so little time has passed and you've likely faced few challenges. However, I've gotten a lot of questions about how my No Buy 2019 challenge is going. And since this seems to be the Year of the No Buy for many beauty bloggers and YouTubers, it's as good a time as any to update you all.
What did I want?
I jotted down three wants in my bullet journal: the new Fenty concealer, the new Laura Mercier foundation, and the Rituel de Fille range. Helpful comments from Instagram followers and fellow Redditors knocked the purportedly drying Fenty concealer off of my list. I'm still very interested in the Laura Mercier foundation, especially with all of the positive reviews coming out, so I might use a gift card to purchase it. This being me, though, I might wait until there's a sale on it to sweeten the deal. I always prefer to buy things on sale! And while most of Ritual de Fille's cream products purportedly dry out and become unusable quickly, I've been sent tons of comments that state the highlighters are an exception, especially the Alchemist Highlighter Intensifier. I'm still waffling on this highlighter, so I'll wait a while longer and see if it's worth a gift card.
By not purchasing these products I wanted, I saved $106 this month. I'm hoping that "total saved" number will grow as the year goes on!
What did I buy?
The Milk Makeup Face Gloss has been on my Sephora "loves" list for quite a while, but I just couldn't bring myself to pay $20 for such a tiny tube. When they put it on sale for $10, however, I snatched it up. After taxes, it was $10.80; I used a $25 gift card I received for Christmas to cover the charges. (I pay for a yearly Flash Shipping subscription, so there were no shipping fees.) I plan on using the rest of the gift card to buy a mini size of the Benefit Gimme Brow, but I'm holding off until Sephora puts up some point perks and samples that interest me.
As for staples, I repurchased my day cream, the Skin Laundry Daily Moisturizer SPF35. There's still a bit left in my current bottle, but it's only a few uses and it goes out of stock too frequently for me to risk it in the dead of winter.
How am I feeling?
Honestly, thus far, this hasn't been a struggle. I have a lot of willpower (aka, I'm stubborn as a mule), and when I tell myself I'm not going to do something, there's a good chance I'm going to stick to that. Life has also played its part: I'm often too busy with work to pay attention to product launches, and the water in our building randomly shuts off at least once a month, which makes me hesitant to wear makeup sometimes. Furthermore, I've been putting the money toward my other goals. I'm one payment away from killing a student loan, and holy shit, the YES YES YES! feeling I'm getting is more powerful than the need for lipstick.
That said, I'm not getting cocky. I know it's only the first month in what is shaping up to be a stressful quarter. The desire to stress shop could hit me like a truck. Also, I'm turning 31 in April, and my birthday has traditionally given me an excuse to buy a lot of stuff I don't need. I'm trying to focus on experiences for my birthday this year, especially since, by some strange stroke of luck, I'll be off work on the Friday before and Monday after my birthday.
Anything else?
Something that keeps popping up on Reddit and Instagram is that many people have already caved and broken their year-long no buy. There's a lot of guilt and shame on both sides, with the people who messed up self-flagellating themselves for making a mistake and their readers/viewers questioning how they could be so weak as to fail in less than a month. Instead of doing that, I want to stress that, while year-long no buys are very popular this year, not everybody is ready for a no buy this long.
Trust me, I know; there was a time when I spent entire paychecks on makeup I barely used. Willpower or no, telling myself I couldn't buy anything for a year wouldn't have worked back then. Instead, I started with easier challenges, like a beauty budget. Change doesn't happen overnight, my friends, and most of us need to break bad habits carefully and mindfully.
If you're struggling with a year-long no buy, I have a few less intense options that might work better for you:
Try a monthly or seasonal no buy. See Auxiliary Beauty for an example of this strategy.
Instead of challenging yourself to stop spending money, challenge yourself to recreate certain looks or make a dent in a few of the products you already own. I've written more about suggestions like this here.
Create a budget. Budgeting videos are huge on YouTube right now if you need some inspiration! The best thing about budgeting, honestly, is that it helps you figure out your priorities, e.g., "Wow, I spend 10% of my income on makeup and only 1% on travel, but I always say I want to travel more."
If you struggle with wanting to spend your disposable income the moment it hits your account, set up an automatic transfer: every paycheck, X amount goes in to your savings, a retirement fund, etc. instead of sitting in your checking. (This works best if you have consistent paychecks.)
A no buy tip I repeat often, in part because it works so well for me, is "focus on the look, not the products." This tip saved me from a $100+ purchase of Perricone MD products, which always tempted me because I love that "no makeup makeup" look and easy-to-apply makeup. By looking at the promotional images for the range, I reminded myself that the actual look they create is easily duped with stuff I already own.
Noticing the laughably tiny shade range for Perricone MD's No Foundation Foundation and No Concealer Concealer was already a turn-off, but it's also easy to see that these are not especially unique products. A tinted moisturizer with SPF and a serum-textured concealer? If you have a decent amount of makeup, you probably already own those. I replaced Perricone's foundation with my Philosophy Renewed Hope in a Jar Skin Tint, a favorite of mine, and lightened up by undereye circles with the Sephora Bright Future Gel Serum Concealer. I think that Sephora concealer is "meh," to be honest, because it creases constantly and fades after a few hours. Still, it gets the job done.
If you dislike tinted moisturizers, you could probably get the same effect by applying a similar sheer, skin-like concealer to blemishes and discoloration, then topping it with a bit of powder. You could also try sheering out your favorite medium coverage liquid foundation with a bit of moisturizer.
The easiest products to dupe were definitely the cheek products. The blush was at the top of my "wants" list until I realized that I already own a product that's the same damn color, the Becca Beach Tint in Watermelon. As for the highlighter, my original inclination was to use some MAC Strobe Cream. I decided to go with something even more natural and barely-there, so I applied a few dots of YSL Touche Eclat to my cheekbones. Normally, I wouldn't use this as a highlighter on its own, but I wanted to look like I wasn't wearing makeup, so...there you go.
Here's where things get a bit hairy: Perricone MD doesn't have a "No Brow Pencil Brow Pencil," or what the fuck ever they'd call it, available. And while a lot of makeup artists have created amazing natural looks that I'd love to duplicate, I've noticed that they pretty much always choose models with fantastic eyebrows. I, however, have terrible eyebrows. I tried to lighten them up just barely using a bit of Anastasia Brow Wiz in the back half of my brows, avoiding fuller front portions, but it still looks a little drawn on. Hey, I never claimed to be a makeup artist. At least I have eyebrows now!
As for they eye makeup, the replacement for the Perricone MD mascara was clear: Glossier Lash Slick. Used sparingly and applied with a light hand, it gives you that separated "I just got a lash tint" look I often love. To mimic the look of the No Eyeshadow Eyeshadow, I used some Catrice Prime and Fine, since it's a translucent beige color that camouflages the discoloration on my eyelids. I had no interest in the Perricone eyeshadow, to be honest, but a dupe is a dupe.
Finally, it was time to replicate the lipstick. The Perricone MD lipstick is a glossy, sheer, slightly warm pink--pretty, but easy to dupe. I decided to replicate it by dabbing a small amount of Kosås Rosewater lipstick on to my lips, then topping that with some Glossier Balm Dot Com. Kosås says Rosewater is a "cooler" pink, but I find that it reads like more of a watermelon color on my lips.
So there we have it: my attempt to dupe the Perricone MD "No Makeup Makeup" look. I don't think I was entirely successful, thanks to those eyebrows, but it did save me some money. Hurrah! No Buy 2019 is still on track.
Some people genuinely enjoy every piece of their makeup's packaging, including the cardboard box it arrives in. I used to be one of them, especially with special boxes for limited edition products. I'd keep every tube and compact inside its beautiful sleeve, even though it took up a ton of space in my organizers. Initially, forcing myself to recycle these pretty boxes to free up space in my suitcases post-grad-school-move was a challenge. Now, though, tossing the packaging is just something I do reflexively. The card catalogue is the true beauty. Why clog it up?
So after doing some major damage during Black Friday 2018, I decided I'd curb that impulse and hold on to my boxes for a while. Every time I received a new product from December to today, I stashed its box, planning to create a helpful No Buy 2019 visual by arranging everything Tetris-style as above. But even before I pulled out the boxes and lined them up, the trick was working: the envelope I was keeping all of the boxes in kept overflowing and spilling all over my office floor. It was frustrating, and that frustration reminded me that I don't need more stuff. Hell, between the start of the year insanity at my jobs and several personal crises, I haven't even had a chance to test everything you see in this photo!
Hence, if you're like me and you're attempting a No Buy, or you want to curb your spending and you benefit from visual arguments, keeping the boxes for a while might be helpful. If nothing else, they make for an interesting photograph.
Have you ever paused a movie mid-dramatic moment because HOLY HELL, you MUST know what that lipstick is? I've done it more times than I can count, and until recently, there was a website I could visit that might tell me exactly what the makeup artist used: Makeup411.com. These days, it redirects you to the website for Makeup Magazine, but there was a time when it posted official product breakdowns and expert advice. I know I'm not the only one who misses it.
Well, with the wonderful Internet Wayback Machine, you can still access most of the site's content! (You can also access plenty of other websites and see the stupid shit you wrote when you were 13 years old, but based on personal experience, I can't recommend putting on that digital hair-shirt.) Just type in the URL and hit enter.
Here's a screenshot of the website as I remember it: there'd be a large photo of a featured breakdown, a list of the most recent breakdowns, and some easy-to-navigate tabs at the top. Unfortunately, a lot of the links on main page are broken in the Wayback Machine, but you can still get around with some creative clicking. If clicking on the actor's name under "Latest Breakdowns" nets you a broken link, for instance, you can usually get around it by clicking the makeup artist's name. That's how I got to this breakdown for Beyonce:
I TOTALLY USED TO OWN LYCHEE LUXE! I was a freshman in college and still used Aveeno lotion as a facial moisturizer, then wondered why my skin stayed so dry and unhappy, BUT STILL! I remember owning that gloss.
Interestingly, the links for the older version of the site are almost all active and easy to reach. I don't remember the site looking like this--I was introduced to it circa 2010--but holy shit, did seeing that early 2000s design take me back:
A layout made from pictures that were probably sliced in Dream Weaver, the default fonts, the hit counter...my God, the memories. Now I'm thinking back to the time before search engines. How did we find what we wanted back then?!
Actually, I've changed my mind: this takes me back. Man oh man, I remember when every girl in my high school went for this look! You plucked your eyebrows as thin as you could handle, you wore so much liner and mascara that your eyes looked slightly crusty, and you keep the rest of your face pale as could be with a super matte face powder and some borderline white lipgloss. You all know I love clean, dewy skin, thick brows, and a bold lip these days, and I think it's because I tried this out when I was younger and never wanted to admit that it looked horrific on me.
Speaking of the older website: these advice sections were stellar, and I'm sad that I missed them in their heyday. A list of drugstore alternatives for pricey products? If that wasn't prophetic for YouTube dupe videos! I don't know how accurate it is--I remember the NARS Sheer Lipsticks and the CoverGirl Lip Slicks, and they looked very different to me--but if a makeup artist said they could use those products interchangeably for the same effect, I'm not going to argue too much.
You can still find some beauty breakdowns and plenty of makeup artist tips by using Google, I know, but it's just not the same. I really miss having a full list of products straight from a makeup artist and readily accessible on one site, and I miss reading about the ten extra skincare steps completed to prep an actor's skin. Maybe we'll find another site that can fill the gap. Until then, here's one of my all-time favorite breakdowns, which had a product list so long, I had to cut and paste together two screenshots...
...in MS Paint. You know, like you did during those Y2K years.
I will never forget moving back to Pennsylvania with this collection. It took up an entire checked bag and several post office boxes, and some of it still arrived damaged. Now, this was partially my own fault: wrapping hundreds of items quickly wore on my patience, and as a result, I didn't pad everything as much as I should have. But it's also just a simple fact of life that, if you're packing a boatload of makeup and putting it in the hands of people who have to move very heavy things as quickly as possible, you're going to experience some casualties.
I've downsized all of my possessions gradually over the last few years, but things really kicked in to overdrive at the start of 2018 because I knew I was moving across the country. As compared to my post-grad school move, which cost me thousands, I was able to fit almost everything I wanted and considered irreplaceable in three checked bags, two large USPS flat rate boxes, one medium flat rate box, and a bookbag. True minimalists could obviously move with much less, I'm sure, but a computer and a camera set up take a lot of room (the computer had its own checked bag, actually), and I'm not willing to give up the tools I need for my hobbies and career for the sake of space saving.
In fairness, I was not moving any furniture: nothing in my bedroom was especially precious to me, and my fiance and I knew we could furnish our apartment with rummage sale findings and leftovers from friends and family. (One of our goals for this coming week is to move and scrub an old loveseat and armchair set his parents had packed away in a trailer for the last five years.) This will obviously not be the case if you have, say, a very expensive couch or a family heirloom of a coffee table, or if you're moving to a place with no friends or family present. There are also things that just made zero sense to pack, i.e., I now work from home and therefore do not need dozens of dress clothing items. And most importantly, my cat has a safe place with my parents until I can figure out the safest way to move her. I know not everybody has those luxuries.
That said, makeup is a very different beast from pets and loveseats; in theory, it should be easy to move. And being able to fit all of my makeup in to one 12" x 12" x 5.5" box and ship it for less than $20 felt like such a coup. There are several thoughts and realities that guided me as I downsized, e.g., "It's okay to get rid of products I like if they're not being used enough. It does not mean I like the product any less." But the big question I asked myself--and the one that really worked for me--was, "Do I really want to go through the hassle of moving this a thousand miles?" If I asked myself this question and my response was anything less than, "Duh, I love this thing," I realized it likely wasn't worth keeping.
I kept saying this to my mother, actually, because she would ask me if I was packing $20 pans or every single $5 thrift store shirt I owned: it's not worth paying for more post office boxes or checked bags. She eventually caught on to what I was doing and didn't even bat an eye at the 4+ trash bags full of donation items I gathered. I mean, can you imagine if I'd tried packing all of that stuff? What a mess.
I suggested that my fiance try asking himself this question, and he said, "Yeah, my imagination isn't that strong; I know I'm not moving a thousand miles right now and I can't pretend I am." (We moved to his home state, so all of his possessions are a short drive away.) So I suggested he try a variation: "Do I really want to go through the trouble of packing this for my new apartment? Am I going to make sure it has a place, that it's stored properly? And when I move out of this apartment, will I want to pack it?" Remembering that we dream of settling down in several other states has helped him much more.
If you're a visual person, try getting a small-ish box or plastic tote and pretend it's the only space you have to pack your makeup. If you hesitate to put something in the box--if you start thinking, "Well, but that will take up space, and then..."--put it off to the side. When you're done, look at the products you've set aside and ask yourself if you really love and regularly use those products. You can also put those set-aside products in a box and hide them somewhere, like under your bed or in your closet, and see if you miss them over the next few weeks. Context is important, of course; if you only wear burgundy lipstick in the colder months and you live in Texas, well, that's likely why you aren't reaching for that lipstick right now. But I think most people have the critical thinking skills to keep that in the back of their mind.
I am far from an Excel wizard. Rather, I'm the person who constantly opens Excel by accident when she's really trying to update a PowerPoint for class, leading to much wailing and gnashing of teeth as I wait for the program to load so I can immediately close it again. To be fair, I've only met a couple of people I would call actual Excel wizards, and they had a lot of classes on the program so they could use it for business or accounting purposes. I've only ever used it for gradebooks and other basic record keeping, so...not as much column calculating there.
That said, Excel can create really easy to read makeup inventories for you, even if you're not that tech savvy. Heck, I've even used it to track spending. You just have to know how to fiddle with the templates a little.
To find this template, I started a new Excel file, then searched for "inventory." While there are lots of lovely options, this "Home Inventory" with green accents really appealed to me and looked like it would the easiest thing to modify. After all, normal people document what's in their house for insurance purposes. Weirdos like me document the exorbitant number of lipsticks they've collected over the past few years.
Now we have to remove the stuff we don't need. This is pretty easy, actually: you just left click at the top left corner of the columns/rows you want to remove, hold down shift, then click on the bottom right corner. You should see it highlight the area you've selected. Let go of shift, then press delete to erase the text. If you don't want that actual space taken up, you can right click on the highlighted area and choose "Delete..."; you just might have to fiddle with four "Shift" and "Move" options it gives you.
Learn to love the undo button (the arrow at the top of the Excel toolbar) and the save button, by the way, because if you're new to this, you'll do what I do and mess up frequently.
I did the same thing with any columns I didn't want, like "Purchase Price"--I thought the value bars on the "Estimated Current Value" column were cooler and more helpful. (Mostly cooler.) Just select the column, right click, choose "Delete," "Table Columns."
Quick reminder: columns are vertical, rows are horizontal. I'm not trying to be insulting by writing that. It's something I actually have to pause and think about for a second every damn time, and maybe you're the same way.
Now let's talk about inserting rows. There's apparently a super easy keyboard way to do this, but I suck at doing it, sooooo we're gonna right click. Go to the far left side of the spreadsheet and click on one of the gray number boxes; any one will do as long as it is next to a row in your inventory. Right click and select "Insert." This should create a new row above the one you had selected.
From here on out, it's just a matter of renaming things and filling out the spreadsheet. The nice thing about this template is it will create a new, easily selectable, yellow category box you put in that "Room/Area" drop down box. I ended up with just four categories because that's what works for me, but you could create as many as you wanted.
This template also calculates a "total value" if you plug everything in to that column. Mine made me die a little inside, since I can imagine what else I would get for $1500+. That said, it's also less than I thought I'd own, so...progress?
If you don't like this template, fiddle with the others! I actually tried two others before I settled on this one. And if you're one of those fantastic Excel wizards, we'd love any of your tips and tricks for optimizing our inventory-making experiences.
Even if you're one of those normal people who inventories their house instead of their beauty products. It's okay. We still like you.
I know super huge, macro lip shots freak some people out, but I think it's worth it if it can save us some money. Obviously, lipstick is my weakness, and when I see a blogger wearing an incredible new shade or a makeup artist showcasing a formula with a unique finish, I want to rush out and buy another tube pronto. But the truth of the matter is that I don't have a ton of money to buy new products, and I don't really need them, anyway. When I look at my collection of over a dozen lipsticks, assorted balms, and various pencils, I realize I can make most colors with a bit of mixing.
Take this first lip as an example. Lisa Eldridge did a video showcasing a variety of bright-but-not-stark lip looks, and I was weirdly attracted to this sort of "popsicle"variation. (I say "weirdly" not because it's an odd look, but because glossy isn't usually my style.) I stopped myself from buying a new Korean lipstick and tried mixing shades instead. I used Portrait Peach for the overall color and some Fenty Freckle Fiesta for a bit more depth, and I layered Fresh Sugar Caramel Lip Balm under and over to create that more sheer, shiny finish. Boom: no new lipstick required!
Pencils are also an excellent mixing tool. Using them just around the edges of your mouth is a great way to get a clean shape, create depth, and prevent feathering, but it can also alter the shade of the lipstick on top. Rodin So Mod is a bit too milky and pastel for me to wear on its own, so I always use a dash of NYX Nude Pink around the edges to keep my mouth from disappearing. If you cover your entire lips in the darker, more peach liner, then So Mod becomes a less pastel, but still milky and mod-ish shade. I love this look so much, I've finally decided to let go of MAC Faux lipstick. (It's in the same color family, just more purple and muted, which isn't as flattering on my skintone.)
Granted, this only works if you have a small collection of lip products to begin with. If you only own a couple of lipsticks or a single pencil, your options might be more limited. Yet with one gloss, six pencils, and sixteen lipsticks, my collection is not huge by blogger standards, and I can still come up with a range of new colors. Even if you only have two lip products, it's worth smearing them together to see what you can get.
Also, a word of advice on matte liquid lipsticks: you can still blend most of them. You'll just have to move quicker. Some people do one color on their top lip and another on their bottom, then rub their lips together, but I find that a lot of modern liqui-mattes dry too quickly for this, and it can mess up the lip line. You can try dabbing a bit of each shade on the back of your hand, then blending them together and applying them with a lip brush for precision.
You guys seem to love watching me make a complete ass out of myself, and now that I'm an adult who has made peace with most of the very stupid shit she did as a teenager, I'm right there with you. So I've gathered four more interesting tips from makeup artists across the YouTubes to test out. Oddly enough, these ended up being very eye makeup-centric, which wasn't planned. Maybe I'm subconsciously scarred from rubbing a metric ton of MAC Face & Body in to my skin the last time. That felt suuuuper weird.
Jordan Liberty: use a peach corrector on dark circles and a balm on your lids
Truthfully, the tip I wanted to steal the most from this tutorial was the "highlighting pencil" trick. I don't have a shiny pencil that's light enough to highlight my paper white face, though, so I had to take a pass for now. Instead, I decided to go with the peach corrector, which Jordan says will cut down on how much concealer you need, and some balm for a glossy lid look.
Samantha Chapman: put soap in your brows
Samantha Chapman is one of the Pixiwoo sisters, whom I've been watching since they started on YouTube a decade ago. She's one of the makeup artists responsible for repopularizing this old school makeup trick and bringing it to the masses. You wet a spoolie with some clear soap and run it through your brows for a thicker, more textured look. It may sound silly, but guys, if I think it'll make me half as attractive as the Chapman sisters, I'm gonna try it.
Valli O'Reilly: brush over your lashes with a spoolie and a tissue
I love it when Lisa Eldridge has guest artists on her channel! This artist, Valli O'Reilly, often worked with the late Amy Winehouse. But I'm not stealing that trademark blunt eyeliner, I'm going for the lash look, which Valli says is achieved by putting a tissue under the lashes and running a spoolie/wand over top of them.
The Results
I didn't have quite the same amount of rip-roaring success this round, but a good bit of that seems to be user error. The Valli O'Reilly trick is a prime example: I couldn't remember if she brushed over the lashes with the actual mascara wand or a clean, dry one. Suffice to say that running the wand on top of my lashes made them clumpier, even with a tissue underneath. But the clean spoolie + tissue combination worked really well for me, pulling out obvious clumps while catching flakes. It's way more work than I'd want to do normally, but I'll keep it in my pocket for special occasions or "what the Hell did I just do to my eyelashes" moments.
I've tried soap brows again since filming and photographing this post, annnnnd...yeah, I'm still not sure how I feel. On the one hand, I dislike having to get the just-right-amount of soap to prevent sudsing, but still get that hold, and it's a little fussier than what I'm used to. On the other hand, it gives me some damn cool texture, particularly on my good brow. And a $3 bar of glycerin soap is waaaaay cheaper than the two or three tubes of brow gel I kill every year.
The most successful tips are probably the Jordan Liberty ones. I haven't had much luck with color correctors in the past, and I still don't think the one I used here was quite the right shade of peach for me. But it definitely brightened the area and cut down on how much concealer I needed. I might try a thinner, lighter peach corrector in the future. The glossy lids are not something I'll be doing on the daily, since it's a tad messy and my deepset eyes hide the effect most of the time; still, it looks damn cool in pictures.
If you want to watch me rub soap in to my brows and hear me spray and slap my face at 4x speed, please enjoy this bonus video.
(NOTE: To watch in full screen, start the video, then click the "YouTube" link in the corner of the video.)
I'm not exactly a skincare expert, and many of the reasons why my skin stays relatively clear are internal: my genetics, my diet, stress levels, medication, and so forth. But now I have a camera that does that insanely cool face tracking thing, and I thought this might be helpful. Fair warning: I'm not wearing my glasses in this video.
I've gotten used to owning a wide range of fragrances, mostly in the form of samples or splits, and switching up my scent regularly. This is different from most of my friends: they own one or two perfumes that they wear daily like a signature. Unlike them, I have to make a conscious choice as to what I want to smell like that day. I've done this for so long that it's become sort of intuitive to me--I know what will and won't work for whatever I'm doing--but there is a method behind the madness.
Before we get too engrossed, let's break down a couple of definitions for those of you who are newer to fragrance.
Longevity refers to how long a fragrance lasts. Opinions vary as to what constitutes good longevity. Personally, I think anything that lasts for more than 8 hours is strong, less than 4 is weak, and everything in between is average.
Sillage(usually pronounced "see-ahj") or projection refers to how much a fragrance "pushes off" of the skin. If you can smell someone's perfume from across the room, they've either bathed in it, or they're wearing a couple of sprays of something with very strong projection.
Notes are the individual scents that make up a perfume. Most fragrances contain three "levels" of notes: top or head notes are smelt immediately and usually fade quickly, middle or heart notes make up the majority of the fragrance, and base notes are the long-lasting, underlying smells that support the rest of the perfume and/or become apparent at the end of the perfume's lifespan.
(ETA: Huge thank you to Emi for pointing out that I'd borked up my definitions in the original draft. My apologies!)
I won't lie to you: this post is partially an excuse for me to post a bunch of charts. I love charts. So let's start with this first chart, which breaks my fragrance collection in to four broad categories. I've provided a few examples in each category for clarification.
Now, you must remember that this isn't an exact science. The four categories I created for this post are far from inclusive; there are fragrances that could be put in multiple slots, and each slot contains fragrances that smell very different. Commodity Book and Juliette Has a Gun Lady Vengeance are nothing alike in terms of notes, longevity, sillage, or overall feel. But I tend to wear them in very similar situations, which is why they're in the same group.
For clarity's sake, I'm going to briefly describe the types of scents in each category using broad terms. The first category in yellow features citrus and fresh/clean smells. These are the sorts of fragrances my mother loves. They tend to be "bright" and clean without smelling soapy; they're usually very light and inoffensive. Examples include Atelier Cologne Orange Sanguine, which reminds me of orange juice; L'artisan Mure et Musc Extreme, a very classy mixture of tart berry and smooth musk; and Thierry Mugler Womanity, which is a salty, oceanic smell. The sillage and longevity in this group tends to be quite low.
Next are the white or light florals and "sheer" sweets. By sheer sweet, I mean that they are sugary and fresh versus syrupy. Examples include By Kilian Love, which smells of spun sugar and candied flowers; Dame Perfumery Desert Rose, a rose-water-in-a-bottle fragrance; Montale Intense Cafe, a sweet vanilla and rose with a hint of coffee for interest; and Tokyo Milk Tainted Love, which smells of sweetened tea. Note that none of the florals in this category are especially powdery; these types of smells are generally smooth and rarely have much texture.
The third category includes gourmands, rich scents, and fragrances with a lot of spice. Again, we're talking about some very different fragrance profiles, but because I tend to wear them in the same situations, I've grouped them together. On the rich side, we have Hermes Ambre Narguile, which wraps you in warmth and sweetness. On the spicy side, we have Commodity Book and Dame Perfumery Dark Horse; they both have a "dry spices cracking on the autumn wind" sort of vibe. I'd put Juliette Has a Gun Lady Vengeance in the middle: there's sweetness and richness from the vanilla and amber base, and the patchouli and rose add some texture.
The textured, thick, complex or unusual category encompasses my more "artisan" fragrances, the kind of stuff that people who aren't in to perfume tend to hate because it can be weird or strong or this-smells-like-nothing-in-nature-ish. Notes that tend to be very heavy, textured, or enveloping usually push a perfume in to this category. These notes include rich vanilla, which makes up the base of Thierry Mugler Alien Essence Absolue and Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille; leather, with a suede variety dominating Papillon Anubis and a more chemical sort blended in to House of Matriarch Black #1; tobacco, patchouli, myrrh, and oud are also common. I admit that these are the sorts of fragrances I'm inherently drawn toward. For the most part, fragrances in this category last for hours and have powerful projection.
The most important factor in what fragrance I'll wear that day is whether or not I'm leaving the house. I'll never forget when a fragrance reviewer's FAQ video included the statement, "I want my fragrance to fill up a room; I want everybody to smell me." It's just...so the opposite of what I want. Not only do I dislike the idea of dominating a room, I also know that not everybody likes the same fragrances. Personally, I just don't want to force myself on anyone, and that includes my smell.
This is especially important when you consider my jobs. I teach and I work at a doctor's office; in both instances, I'm working closely with a lot of different people. Their tastes will vary, yes, but more importantly, they're stuck in a situation where they cannot get away from me. So if a student hated my perfume or had severe allergies, but I decided to "fill up the room," they'd be shit out of luck.
Lastly, I used to deal with chronic migraines. While perfume wasn't a trigger, smelling a really strong, nose-piercing smell absolutely made the pain worse. I'll never forget the time I had a migraine in a clothing store: a woman wearing boat loads of Thierry Mugler Angel (one of the strongest designer perfumes I've ever encountered) walked past me, and the smell was so strong, it felt like I was being stabbed in the face. Fighting weekly migraines has made me more cognizant of things within my control that might trigger problems for others.
The above flow chart breaks down my basic thought progress. If I'm not going anywhere, I'll wear whatever I want. If I'm going to work, I only use fragrances from the yellow and orange categories, since they usually have less projection and shorter lifespans. And if I'm going somewhere else, like to the store or to the bar, I let the weather guide my choices.
This is where things get interesting. As I mentioned earlier, I'm drawn to rich, thick, spicy smells. Perfumes with leather and vanilla are my krytonite. But when it's 98 degrees outside and the humidity is past 80%, wearing something as heavy and enveloping as Mugler Alien Essence Absolue is a bad move. Not only will it feel weird to wear something so "warm" on an already hot day, but the hot weather makes the fragrance project even more. And while being hugged by a vat of vanilla and amber is awesome on a cold day, nobody wants that in the middle of a Pennsylvania summer.
The weather is the final deciding factor in my fragrance choices. As the above chart shows, I don't wear those light, citrus-y fragrances all that often. This is partially because they're Not Usually My Thing; I just find them too thin and fleeting. But in the summer, that's exactly what I want. Perfumes like Atelier Cologne are sort of refreshing on a hot day. And as gross as it sounds, I've long said that Mugler Womanity smells like "sexy sweat," so if you're going to sweat like crazy anyway...
Spring and autumn are the most flexible times of year, since the temperature in Pennsylvania tends to stay in the "temperate" category with occasional shifts to slightly cold or slightly hot. For example: this past October, I wore Dame Perfumery Desert Rose on a shopping trip, then switched to House of Matriarch Black #1 when I went to a drag show later that note. It was relatively temperate that day, so I had no qualms about jumping from something as light and feminine as Desert Rose to the very complex and weird Black #1.
Winter is my favorite time for fragrance because I can use my perfumes to add a feeling of "warmth." Scents like Papillon Anubis are especially lovely sprayed on your favorite sweater. I never wear those lighter citrus smells in the winter, even if I'm going to work, because it just doesn't feel right. If I want a perfume to wear to work on a snowy day in December, I'll reach for something like Tokyo Milk Tainted Love Instead. It's too chilly to smell like oranges.
At the end of the day, you should wear what you want when you want, though I always recommend taking those around you in to consideration. Fragrance is just so incredibly personal. But there's a thought process behind what I choose, and perhaps it will be helpful to those of you struggling to pick the perfect bottle for your day ahead.
I am not a makeup artist, nor am I particularly good at applying makeup, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Almost every time somebody points out that one of my brows is wonky or my blush isn't totally blended, I say, "Yep, I totally bombed that one." I like to leave perfection to the real experts: professional makeup artists. These are the people who create stunning styles for runway models and make celebrities look even more beautiful.
The great thing about the 21st century is that the internet has brought experts and their insider knowledge closer to us, including makeup artists. Some, like Lisa Eldridge, start their own channels and flood them with gorgeous tutorials and fun gift guides. Others, like Pat McGrath, create their own product lines, then pop up regularly in interviews to provide tips or breakdowns. Because these people would know better than anyone how to make a face look good, I decided to jot down some of their tips and attempt to copy them.
Lisa Eldridge: applying liquid highlighter with a flat brush
Lisa Eldridge is a talented makeup artist and a YouTube celebrity. It's almost impossible to find somebody who watches makeup videos and DOESN'T love Lisa. It's obvious why: she creates a wide range of looks on her channel and provides plenty of explanation on how to get the look. One of her big things is making the skin look as "real" and "fresh" as possible, which often requires highlighter. But unlike me, Lisa usually doesn't apply her liquid highlighter with her fingers--she tends to use a flat brush instead.
Mary Greenwell: "the famous Mary pummel"
Many people (including me) were first introduced to Mary's personality via Lisa's YouTube channel, and the differences between the two women left some viewers charmed and others flabbergasted. I'm in the former group; I think the woman is the personification of "WHEEEEE!" What stuck out to people the most is the way she just slaps makeup on to the model and rubs it in to their skin. In this video, the model refers to it as "the famous Mary pummel." That's hilarious, so clearly, I gotta try it. Mary also admits to using more foundation than most people would because she wants it to be blended all over and pressed in to the skin. Scary, but worth a shot.
Pat McGrath: using blush to shape the eyes
Pat McGrath doesn't just make luxury makeup products packed in a metric ton of sequins. She's also the creative force behind beautiful looks for brands like Dolce & Gabbana, Armani, and CoverGirl. McGrath has become infamous for traveling with dozens of bags of makeup, but she should be famous for her incredible work. I particularly loved this soft, romantic look she created for D&G, and I decided to steal her idea and blend some blush on to my eyes.
Rae Morris: keeping your lips youthful
Rae Morris doesn't seem to get a lot of credit or attention on the blogosphere these days, and it's really a shame. She's written some amazing books, and her brush range is top notch. (I don't own any of them, but I've fiddled with a friend's.) In this video, she provides numerous tips for making the mouth look youthful, including "don't overdraw the outer corners" and "apply shimmer to your top lip." I'm so set in my ways with lipstick that this kind of scares me, but the end result in this video is so gorgeous, I'm gonna give it a shot.
The Results
(in two weird lighting situations because I suck)
For the most part, these tips impressed me more than I ever expected, proving that makeup artists really know their shit. Rubbing the foundation in to my skin was almost smothering, there was so much of it, but it gave me an even more skin-like, lovely finish. However, using more foundation than usual was not a great choice for my deep fine lines.
I'm officially in love with that blush in my crease. Like, I totally suck at eyeshadow, but as long as I prep with some primer and a nude shadow as a base, the Tarte Paaarty blush blends wonderfully in to the crease. It's so natural and soft and beautifying...which makes sense, because blush shades are usually selected to flatter skin.
Avoiding overdrawing the edges of my lips looks a little better than my usual shape, though it's quite a subtle difference. I don't think you can even tell in these pictures, but at least for my initial application, I didn't overdraw the corners of my mouth and kept most of the fullness to the center of my lip. I kind of messed that up when I reapplied, and I hate to admit it, but it definitely didn't look as nice.
And I'm sticking with a flat brush for my Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector. Yeah, I'll have to wash a brush more often, but I don't use the Becca highlighter every time I do my makeup, and I really should be better about washing my brushes, anyway. It's kind of embarrassing that I own all of 10 and will let them sit on the edge of my desk for weeks before scrubbing them.
The duds? Well, I didn't like putting shimmer on my upper lip, but I kind of expected that one. I also don't really like this amount of foundation, since it tends to settle in to my smile lines. In the future, I'll probably do a slightly gentler version of the "Mary Greenwell pummel," and I'll use less foundation to do it.
Don't believe that I actually rubbed my face that hard? Friends, I bring evidence!
What's your favorite tip from a makeup artist or beauty pro?
People have strong feelings about feet or anything feet-adjacent, so if this post makes you recoil and run away from the blog screaming, I understand. But I've studied and prepped for this post for so long because...well, for one thing, I think it's interesting. More importantly, though, I absolutely love this pair of shoes, and I think they deserve all of my preservation efforts.
This is a pair of Dr. Martens sandals. I can't remember the exact style name because I purchased them back in graduate school; the Doc Martens website was having a sale one January to clear out summer styles, and I happened to snag the last pair of these sandals in my size for $35. I do recall the style name starting with an A, and it may have been something like "Alena" or "Alia." Regardless, I bought them cheap eons ago and they no longer produce this style.
Did I mention that I purchased these back in graduate school? Yeah, these guys are at least 5 years old. That's a long lifespan for shoes, especially sandals! So given that this pair has lived a long, healthy life, why bother trying to scrub the mucky things out?
Ignore the absolutely vile footbeds on these for a second and just look at the rest of the shoe. I've worn these for a good 8 months of the year every year I've had them, and they've been almost everywhere. They've visited cities, flown on planes, taken long walks through the park, and clocked in at numerous grocery stores and restaurants. Yet despite all of that, if you ignore the footbed, they look practically brand new. The rubber and stitching on the bottom don't have any obvious scratches, discoloration, or scuffs. And even though I've worn these on rainy days a-plenty, somehow, the plaid fabric is spotless.
Now, I want to point out that I treat all of my Docs with their Protector Spray, which helps prevent damage from water and sunlight. (Note: I also like their Wonder Balsam, and I use that and the spray on the few leather goods I own.) Still, it's unusual for a pair of sandals to look this damn spotless after so many years and so much wear.
Except for those footbeds. Those dirty, icky, footbeds, the footbeds that not only have a clear indent of my feet due to constant wear, but also rock an unsightly layer of caked-on grime. I couldn't take it anymore: these shoes deserve better. Unaware of the existence of actual footbed cleaner, I spent months scouring websites, magazines, and shoe boxes to figure out the best method for cleaning these guys up.
The most recommended tools were a toothbrush, some water with dish soap, and a damp paper towel or soft cloth. All of these items were readily available to me, including extra toothbrushes; my family always has a pack of the cheapo "6 for $1" brushes under the sink for scrubbing grout in the bathroom or on the windowsills. I put a few drops of Palmolive in a cup, added some lukewarm water, set my sandals on the side porch, and started scrubbing out my shoes. I initially used a back-and-forth motion, but quickly switched to small circles, which worked even better.
After scrubbing just the heel portion of one sandal, I pulled up all of the dirt you see in the above picture. I was actually stunned that this was working and that my footbeds were that scummy. I mean, subconsciously, I had to know, but...seeing it was weird.
After finished the left shoe, I ran a damp paper towel all over the footbed to rinse off the soap and pull up a little extra dirt. I also got a fresh cup of soapy water to prep for the right shoe.
Comparison photo time! The shoe on the left went through one round of gentle scrubbing, while the shoe on the right was untouched. Was the soaped-up footbed the soft, creamy beige shade it was when I first pulled my sandals from their box? Hell no, but it was clearly cleaner. Actually, I think this photo doesn't truly exemplify how much cleaner the shoe on the left is: the indents from my feet make some areas more shadowy than others, as does the fact that the bed is still a bit damp. The one bummer was that I couldn't remove the sap stain from the left heel, but hey, small victories!
I finished both shoes and left them on the side porch to dry out of direct sunlight. After they'd dried several hours later,I did another round of scrubbing and drying. At the end of the day, I was suitably impressed with how much nicer the footbeds looked and how much cleaner they felt. Again, the shadows play some tricks here, and they're not like new, anyway, but you can see in this photograph that they look leagues better:
Two final notes: first, scrubbing the footbeds of your sandals can cause some texture changes. A few articles mentioned using a bit of sandpaper, very gently, on the soles to soften up the texture. I did notice that my sandals were a tad rougher after cleaning at the very ends, but because I don't actually feel those parts of the sole when I'm wearing the shoes, I let them be. Second, I did not patch test this cleaning method because I figured that if it ruined my sandals, I still got 5+ years of awesome sandal-age for a measly $35. If you have a newer or more expensive pair of sandals, however, I'd definitely recommending testing this on a small portion of the footbed first. Better yet, you could contact the company to see what cleaning method they recommend.
Sandpaper and patch testing aside, I don't think this is something I would do constantly. It only restores the shoe so much, and I do think it would thin out your footbed over time. But as a yearly upkeep step? It's absolutely doable, especially if you have an old knock-around pair of sandals you love as much as I love these Docs.
I'm about to say something that I know--I just know--will make a few of my regular readers cringe: I don't think capitalism is the devil. I agree with economist Robert Reich: while the staggering income inequality in the US today must be addressed, history has shown that a powerful middle class that works hard and buys stuff benefits our economy. I think it's totally fine for my boss to make more than me; he's better educated, deals with more nonsense than I do on the daily, and takes larger risks when he makes decisions about the future of our college. None of this changes the fact that marketing, a cornerstone of any capitalist society, is ubiquitous and, to some extent, creepy. As stated in Rafael Behr's article "Anti-Consumerism: New Frontier or Dead End for Progressive Politics?":
No-one is forcing shoppers to shop. They must, at some level, want the things they buy. But at what level? We now have, thanks to developments in neuroscience and behavioural psychology, a greater understanding of how consumer demand is generated within an individual. A picture is emerging of the areas of the brain that are stimulated by advertising messages and how they relate to conscious behaviour. The function of much advertising is to provoke responses that correspond to primitive urgent needs--fight, flight, eat, procreate. That is why so many products are sold either as antidotes to fear (soap X will stop bacteria from harming your children) or as promises of sex (soap Y will make you irresistible). Junk food advertising animates our troglodyte urges to eat as much and as often as possible, regardless of whether we are hungry.
Students sometimes roll their eyes at me when I tell them that they are constantly basing decisions on advertisements, but a few moments of discussion reveal that, unless you're an ascetic hermit living in a fortress that blocks all wi-fi signals, you're experiencing it. Advertisements are in our magazines, plastered on the walls of our stores, dropped in our mailboxes, flooding our iPhone apps and web browsing, and paying for our few remaining print newspapers. An article from the Los Angeles Times points out just how much of our television time is taken up by commercials: roughly 15 minutes per hour. (I'm painfully aware of this fact because my mother hates commercials with a fierce and fiery passion; she will flip between four or five different news channels just to avoid the latest McDonald's advert.) And again, these advertisements are designed to make us feel things: "I need it or I'll be unhappy." "It's so beautiful; I'll just buy this one product and I'll be satisfied." "Nothing has worked so far, but this one definitely will."
But that sort of advertising is obvious. It's the sneaky shit that we need to watch out for, the kind that speaks to our fears or subtly strokes our ego. In terms of the beauty industry, I've noticed this most frequently with "green" products. Take the above advertisement for Une products as an example. The focus in this ad is the line, "I am not artificial." Western countries, and particularly the United States, tend to be big on this notion of the "true self," "being you," etc., provided being you doesn't run too counter to the societal norms. Even the paragraph in finer type starts with, "I am true to myself." Combined with translucent, uber-positive buzzwords in the background ("free," "natural," "intuitive") and a second text box outlining just now safe and ~~natural~~ the products are, this advertisement claims that Une products can help you break the shackles of society and be the real you!
By doing what society wants and buying more shit.
"Renee," you say patiently, "we know this. We've seen the documentaries and read the articles about the non-stop marketing in our culture. You're not telling us anything new."
I know I'm not. You see, I kind of have to go on this little ramble because...I'm embarrassed. I'm embarrassed that I'm hyper-aware of marketing strategies and consumer culture, yet I still want to buy everything. It's the definition of First World Problems: wanting to buy new products, despite the fact that you already have plenty of stuff, and feeling frustrated by that desire. Somehow, I'm still getting sucked in.
And yet I've managed to stick to my $250 budget for the year thus far, to go on buying freezes for months at a time, to pay my bills while maintaining this blog despite facing some financial setbacks, and to overall feel happy with my progress as I downsize. How? Let's talk about the terrible "I WANT IT!" feeling and how we suppress it.
I've been on a downsizing, buy-less-shit journey for years now, but I still have some bad habits. The biggest bad habit I had to admit to this year? If I can get a lipstick for free or free-ish, there is a 95% chance I will get it without thinking twice.
I noticed this most recently when I placed a Sephora order (using a gift card, weeee!) for a new candle and some fragrance. I waited to place my order until Sephora had updated their Rewards Bazaar with a slew of new deluxe samples, and until there was a coupon code I wanted to use. There were two lipsticks I haven't owned available, Marc Jacobs Slow Burn and Bite Beauty Pastille, and I hit the "Add to Basket" button immediately.
But something stopped me when I went to hit the "checkout" button. Wait. I have plenty of lipstick. And both of these shades are mauve pinks! Not only do I already own a few mauve, pink, and mauve-pink shades I like, but why the Hell would I need two new lipsticks in very similar shades?
So I did a quick inventory and realized, with a start, that half of my collection is "nudes and soft pinks;" about a third of those lipsticks are minis that I received as gifts or tossed in my shopping cart on a whim. I know I'm not as viscerally attracted to nude lipsticks as I am to bright reds, so I don't judge myself as harshly for getting new ones--it doesn't feel like I'm feeding the addiction.
It sounds silly, but just realizing that I hoard lipstick samples without even thinking about their place in my collection was a huge turning point for me. So was this inventory, and therein lies the next way I address that terrible "I WANT IT!" feeling: sometimes, we have to admit that we're not buying things to fill a gap in our collection. We're buying things because it feels good to have something pretty and new.
Lena recently wrote an incredible blogpost outlining how this works with eyeshadow palettes:
Because makeup companies only really have to hook you on one special
awesome shade per palette to potentially get you to purchase the whole
thing, they have 10 opportunities to catch 10 unique customers, all who
will be paying $50 for 10 eyeshadows, a "good deal" by all accounts. But
those customers, if they weren't presented with the 10 shadow palette,
would only be "worth" the $10 they would have paid for a single shadow
in that one appealing color.
Damn, is that on-point! I'm not in to eyeshadow, but I have friends who are, and they'll gladly exclaim that palette Y is perfect for travel and gives them every shade they need to complete a look. Meanwhile, they have roughly the same shades in palettes A, B, and C. In reality, most eyeshadow palettes only have one or two unique-to-us shades, but that's enough to make us buy.
Please don't think I'm being snide, because I do the same fucking thing. "Well, of course I already have a few pink blushes," I tell my eyeshadow-obsessed friend, "but this one is different. It's warmer!"
"If you want a warmer pink blush, why don't you just mix in some of that peach one?" my friend asks.
"Shut up."
"I mean, they all look the same on you, anyway."
"Shut. Up."
In all seriousness, this is where inventories and flatlays come in handy. Any time I feel tempted to buy a new lipstick, I organize what I have, take photos for Snapchat or Instagram, and chide myself for wanting another neutral red Besame lipstick when I've barely dented my Red Velvet sample tube. Having all of your makeup spread out in front of you, and realizing that you already have that exact shade or the ability to mix something like it, is a great way to stop the "I WANT IT!" feeling. Yeah, maybe you want it, but you definitely don't need it. You can see that you don't need it--take a look at those six eyeshadow singles that almost perfectly dupe that palette, or the three cool pink cream blushes you have that are indistinguishable when swatched on your skin.
I think it's also wise to spend less time focused on individual products and more time on the looks we create with them. I'll show you an example using Alia Shawkat, one of my newest crushes thanks to too much Drunk History:
Beyond the fact that Shawkat is super cute, she's got the kind of "my face but better" makeup look that suckers me in. Now, I could go on a quest to figure out what exact makeup she's wearing in her public appearances. I could even draw some conclusions from more general information, like this interview where she mentions wearing Hourglass products.
Hourglass, you say? And you often wear very soft, rose-petal-pink lipsticks? I bet you're wearing one of the Lip Stylos, maybe Dreamer or Seeker. That's it, I'm buying a brand new $32 lipstick just to copy that one look! Mission accomplished!
I wish I could say the sight of Aubrey Plaza and Alia Shawkat in Revolutionary War Hero drag doesn't affect me. I'd be lying.
WAIT A FUCKING SECOND. No, I'm not going to buy that Hourglass lipstick! I already own rosey and peachy pinks! I even swatched a slew of them for my Moderate Stash series last year! Why the fuck would I buy another one just because it's the exact product she used?! That shade is not unique! I can replicate that look with what I own!
Yelling aside, this is something I think most of us can do, and it'll benefit us in the long run. Instead of buying an eyeshadow palette, we can Google looks created with it, see if we can replicate our favorites with products we already own, and then just fill in the one or two gaps with a couple of single shadows. Emma Stone's Oscar lipstick sold out as soon as the exact shade she wore was announced, but before I rush out to buy, I should try mixing what I already own to see if I can get something similar without spending more money. As one Reddit user put it,
[Eyeshadow palettes] always catch my eye! Shiny! Cute design! But the last few
releases I've found myself just buying the singles of the colors I'm
missing. That's how I managed to not buy ABH Modern Renaissance - I
bought one red single.
So now, I can't think of any eyeshadow colors I'm missing and the new palette releases don't catch my eye anymore.
When the mental exercises are failing, it's time to try some challenges. The first time doing any kind of challenge that restricts spending is tough, which is why I often recommend starting with a low buy instead of a no buy. You can also try smaller versions of classic challenges, like "Just Don't Buy Shit This Month" (versus a year-long no buy), or "Finish One Item This Month" instead of a traditional "Project 10 Pan."
More importantly, you have the freedom to create your own "use your stash" challenges. I'm currently doing another round of the Lipstick Diaries, for example, which has helped me purge more lipsticks, better appreciate shades I haven't touched in a while, and keep a record of what shades I already own (and therefore do not need to buy right now). Here are a few other challenges and activities I've seen people do to get more use out of their makeup collection:
Calendars -- Print out a calendar with a challenge or key word for each day of the week. Let this guide your makeup. For instance, you might have a week like this: "goth look Sunday, red lipstick Monday, bright eyeliner Tuesday, no foundation Wednesday, movie-inspired Thursday, something blue Friday, all drugstore products Saturday." Obviously, this works best for people who wear makeup every or almost every day.
Beauty Roulette -- I've done this before, and it's always fun! There are two versions. The one I've done is a form of Project Panning that requires you to pull random products, product types, or goals. The other form has you pull random products from a box or a bag, and then you have to work them all in to a look. Oh, geez, you pulled out a green, red, and mustard eyeshadow? Figure it out!
Catalogues -- This is sort of what I do with the Lipstick Diaries: I wear each product at least once, photograph it, and use those photographs as a running reference guide. But you can certainly tweak this to suit your needs. If you have thirty lipsticks and you want to get rid of a few, for example, you can force yourself to wear each one once and only once--you don't get to re-wear a color until you've gone through the entire collection. This will force you to wear every shade you own and encourage you to get rid of the shades that aren't flattering. Or maybe you could use it to help you with a no buy: "I don't get to buy a new eyeshadow palette until I use every shadow shade in my collection at least once."
Weekly Rewards -- This works best for people who have a lot of unopened products and samples to try. (I always do because I do most of my shopping at Sephora, and there are at least three free samples in every order.) Allow yourself to pull out one new item a week; this will give you that "Ooooh, shiny new product!" experience without making you spend more. Again, tweak this to suit your needs. Maybe you can't haul more stuff until you empty the box, or you have to write a review for each product before you can buy something new, etc.
Dupe It -- As I mentioned earlier, I think trying to replicate looks is a great place to start on a downsizing, buy-less-crap journey. Find a look you love and use what you already own to duplicate it. It didn't come out perfectly? That's fine--try again with different products or new techniques. Keep trying until you get something you love. I recommend documenting and writing about the process, but I'm a nerd who gets in to that sort of stuff; pass if it's not yo thang. Try this with colors, too: instead of buying a warm red, see what happens when you mix some of your neutral reds with a coral shade or a yellow pigment.
Last, but not least, I have to ask: how do YOU address that terrible "I WANT IT!" feeling? These methods have worked well for me, and some of my friends and readers have told me that these suggestions helped them as well. But not everybody is the same. What does and doesn't work for you?
