What I Learned During My Month-Long Beauty No-Buy

A beauty no-buy? Yeah, you read that right…

Last month I decided to challenge myself to go the whole month without making any new beauty purchases. I felt like I was drowning in new products, couldn’t keep my vanity clean, and couldn’t possibly efficiently test everything. I also noticed how much of my paycheck I was handing over with my almost weekly Sephora orders, and I decided I needed to put a stop to it.

First - some tips

My biggest issue is impulse purchases. When it comes to shopping, I’m a very impulsive buyer. Combine that with being bored on the computer and having my credit card information memorized, and we’ve got a dangerous situation on our hands. I’ve been trying very hard to cut down my impulse purchases (across all categories, not just beauty) since the summer started and was able to succeed with these tips: Delete shopping apps off your phone. I found my Sephora purchases completely stopped once I didn’t have the app on my phone to open and browse any time I got bored. Clear saved credit card information on shopping websites. This is another one that always got me - if I was thinking about making an order and all my information was already there and all I had to do was click “complete order,” there was no stopping me. Having to sit and type in all your information (or even go grab your credit card from another location if you don’t have it memorized like me) gives you enough time to actually think about if it’s something you want. Opt out of brand newsletters and email blasts. If your inbox is constantly flooded with sales and “are you forgetting something?” emails, it can be hard to resist. I found myself browsing a lot of stores’ websites for things I didn’t need and ended up justifying because there was a sale. If I had never gotten the email, I would have been none the wiser.

The Lessons

Receiving packages is addicting. This was probably the first thing I noticed once I slowed down on the online orders. I’ve been having a few bad months mental health-wise, and I was definitely relying on the excitement of a package coming in the mail to cheer me up and give me something to look forward to. It kind of felt like ripping a bandaid off once they stopped. (I still get PR, but there were a few slow weeks when I had no new packages at all, which proved quite difficult!) It’s something I’m still getting used to, but I’m glad I now can see that I was using new things as a crutch. Writing down “wishlist” items works. Again, I’m quite impulsive. I’ll see something on Instagram and immediately think, “I need that.” Now instead of ordering something right away, I write it down in a wishlist in my bullet journal. I have a wishlist page as a part of every weekly spread, so I’m able to look at the previous week when making my new one and see what I still want. It’s been quite eye-opening to see the amount of things I only write down for one week and then decide I don’t actually want. It’s definitely helping to curb impulse buys. I don’t need new things to create new content. This is a big one I’m still working on. When I’m feeling uninspired, nothing turns that around faster than having some flashy new products to shoot. Taking it easy on new beauty purchases has made me dig into my collection when inspiration is waning, and I’ve either rediscovered old favorites or just really grasped what products are my true “holy grails.” There’s nothing wrong with shooting products you’ve shot before - in fact, I like the challenge of coming up with a whole new layout or way to show off the products.

Would you do a beauty no-buy?

What I Learned During My Month-Long Beauty No-Buy sourced from: Blog - Beauty by Kelsey