Exactly 365 days ago I set myself the challenge of living off £50 for my entire beauty regime for a year. It sounded mad but I’d accumulated so many beauty products that when I came home from university and amalgamated them I knew I had to find a way to cut back. I’m not especially addicted to buying beauty products but between being drawn in by special offers or new colours, and getting birthday presents, I’d hoarded a whole pile of stuff that was really nice but massively duplicated. So, since then I’ve bought almost nothing and logged my spend every few months.
You can read the previous ’roundup’ posts here: May Update and Empties, December Update and Empties, September Update and Empties, and Organising my Beauty Collection.
So, since my last update I’ve bought a couple of bottles of shampoo (I even splashed out and got some purple shampoo which I’ve been wanting to try for ages) and some Barry M as a real treat seeing as I knew I was finishing way under target.
New Purchases:
Had to get this V05 with the broken lid for 50p (bargain!) and the Special Edition Barry M was free if you spend £5 so I ended up getting 3 instead of 1 (they get me every time!). I’ve decided to pretty much only buy the Gelly ones from now as they last ridiculously well (especially when paired with the Barry M Top Coat as well).
The purple shampoo hasn’t had a massive effect but I only use it once or twice a week to keep my hair nice and blonde so perhaps I need to up the usage for more noticable results.
Empties:
Mostly shampoos and shower items this time which is great as my shower is finally organised and I’m almost down to one shampoo and one body wash which is the dream! I’m going to be so zen…
I’ve also used up my bronzer and can’t wait to get a new one of those as summer is throughly upon us now.
Final totals:
This time I spent: £3.09 + 50p + £3.99 + £3.99 = £11.57
Overall spend: £26.05
Overall %: 52.1%
My experience through the year:
I’ve been really surprised how easy I found this challenge actually. I was quite daunted at the start but the more I looked the more I discovered hidden in my beauty collection! I’ve used up about a million foundation samples (mixing dark and light shades to get the right one for me) from magazines, plus eye shadow colours I’d neglected, and finally got round to either using or throwing out cleansers and nail varnishes etc. In fact I think I’ve used products MORE than before because I’ve been keen to use more up – e.g. hand moisturisers and body tanning lotions. I’d HIGHLY recommend this challenge to anyone looking to save some money, clear out space, and rediscover the lost gems in their beauty collections. I’m certainly going to continue avoiding buying things before I’ve used up their predecessors and would encourage you to do the same.
So, are you inspired to try anything similar? You can always set a higher limit if you’re worried. Go one… be brave!!
I’ve loved following this challenge, I can’t believe the year is up already! I’m the same, I won’t be a new item until I’ve finished up the old one. Although I do keep some spares around of products I love when they’re on offer, Simple Facewash for example 🙂 Are you going to try a lower budget for this year?
Tempted! But think I might just carry on with being cheap without a guide. Definitely enjoyed saving money and realising that I didn’t need to buy new foundation etc when I had millions of samples of leftovers already!
I couldn’t do it!! Haha 🙂 with shower & skincare I tend to use things up til they’re completely gone, but makeup and nail varnish are my weaknesses! And dry shampoo I couldn’t live without, I go through about one a month haha! xxxx
Yeah nail varnish is my weakness too but I managed to use all the fab colours I’ve already collected instead 🙂 But…. I did persuade a PR firm to give me dry shampoo as I 100% couldn’t live without that! Also got a few other brands in £1 land and some of them were really good! Would recommend that 🙂
That’s a useful challenge. I need to do something like that. I do have too many products laying around 🙂