No Buy July

It’s been a long while since I attempted a low or no buy, mainly because I always bloody fail at them. I tried to set myself a beauty budget of £25 a month in January last year, and that idea had completely slipped by about April time and I’ve not attempted one since.

I think I’ve only tried a total no-buy once before, and I’m only going to begin with a commitment for a month, maybe I’ll extend it past that depending on how things go. I’m looking at my overflowing beauty cupboard and my box where I keep all packaging of things I have yet to review, and I’m overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I have.

I haven’t had much time for properly trialling stuff out this year, and in terms of skincare I pretty much went back to my old holy grail items to prevent any pre-wedding skin freakouts (which worked!). The pile of backlog that has occurred as a result of it all is overwhelming, I have a huge pile of cleansers,  tower of lipsticks, several eyeshadow palettes, and a bowl of nail polishes that’s now overflowing to the area around it – of stuff I need to get around to trying and reviewing.

Packaging Graveyard… I only keep it till it’s been reviewed then it goes!

The one beauty expense I’m allowing myself is the Look Incredible box, but I’ve unsubscribed from both Love Me Beauty and My Little Box this month – so the influx of new from beauty boxes has been significantly cut – and I’m left with the one box which I love receiving. There will be a few hauls coming up of new things I bought since getting home from Honeymoon, as I ended up in a post-holiday blues / I got a payrise shopping spree (not too crazy I might add – just three!).

The area where I may see myself struggling to not buying is foundation, all of my favourites are now too pale for me since I’ve been away, and a lot of my darker ones are way too dark. I have a couple of almost finished up ones which are the perfect shade for me right now, but I don’t know that they’ll last me the whole month as they’re either nearly gone or sample sizes, but I’m gonna try.

As I already mentioned there will probably be less beauty content this month whilst I start trying things out, I’m in the midst of beginning writing up my travel posts which is taking longer than expected and I was planning on spending most of this weekend blogging, however had some freelance work I had to completely re-do as I somehow lost the file between February and now, so a job I thought would have took 3-4 hours, took me 12.5! The longer I leave my travel posts the more I will forget, so I want to get on with it whilst it’s fresh! If you’ve seen anything I’ve hauled or featured in a beauty box recently (or maybe even a year ago, the backlog goes back that far!) and want me to review sooner rather than later – please let me know, I’m looking at the mini mountain in my spare room, not knowing where to start!


Hope you have a happy weekend, and fingers crossed we start to see a sunnier July, we missed the UK hotspell whilst we’re away and I’m craving some sunshine again!

rachael-signature

FacebookInstagram | Twitter | Pinterest | Tumblr

Helpless Whilst Drying

Email: helplesswhilstdrying@gmail.com

Follow:
Share:

33 Comments

  1. mihabalancom
    July 4, 2017 / 6:55 am

    I also did my best to stop with the shopping and sorting things out before jumping into the big sale. Looking forward to read your travel posts and hope for lots of sun in UK.

    https://mihabalan.com

  2. Brooke Nicole Clarke
    July 4, 2017 / 7:17 am

    Good luck! I’m trying to do this too, but I know I’m going to fail miserably! I tried to do this in June, but ended up spending over £300 on beauty products!!! x

      • Brooke Nicole Clarke
        July 4, 2017 / 7:39 am

        You’re definitely excused from your honeymoon spends! I saw your post on that, and you got some amazing things!! x

  3. July 4, 2017 / 8:14 am

    Good luck with this months no buying! I feel your pain with foundation shades! I’m currently mixing two shades because my skins is annoying and in between them right now! Also can’t wait to see your travel posts 🙂 Em xx

    http://edoublemamurray.blogspot.com.au/

    • Thanks Emma! It’s so hard isn’t it – a lot of the dark ones I have are way too dark, and will require so much mixing! Hoping to get the next travel post up on Thursday – they take so long to edit!
      xx

  4. July 4, 2017 / 9:30 am

    Good luck with your no buying! I’m trying to do the same as we move into our house next month but I’ve found that everything in my make up bag seems to be running out at the same time!!
    Look forward to reading your travel posts 🙂 x

    • It’s always the way, you end up with months that are really expensive because everything runs out at once! Raid every drawer and cupboard and check you’ve not no backups you can use up in the meantime! I also spend loyalty points during no buy months if I really need to get something!

  5. July 4, 2017 / 9:51 am

    I love a good challenge, so I’m definitely looking forward to knowing how you do with a no buy month. Do you think you’ll be relaxed or anxious to shop? I bet it will be fun, shopping your own stash for reviews 🙂

    • I think I should be alright June was a pretty heavy shopping month for me, I bought lots in Malaysia, and I’ve bought a few exciting bits which I’ve yet to haul, so I’ve got lots to try which I’ve not even touched or swatched yet! To be honest it should be easy, but for some reason an unreasonable side of me always comes out during months like this and I end up justifying purchases I would never have made. If I succeed I might do it every other month for the rest of the year, my backlog is so huge I need as much help as I can getting through what I’ve not tried!

  6. July 4, 2017 / 11:56 am

    Really interested to see how this goes – great idea! Xx

  7. July 4, 2017 / 3:05 pm

    Love no-buys! You can mix the pale and the dark foundation until you get a shade you like xx

  8. Sophie in Wonderland xo
    July 4, 2017 / 3:36 pm

    Good luck with the no buy!! I always fail miserably! cant wait to read your travel posts xxx

  9. July 4, 2017 / 6:43 pm

    I do the same thing with packaging – after the review goes up the packaging all goes into recycling!

  10. July 5, 2017 / 1:04 am

    I’m with you girl! I wrote a summer to do and not to do list. Top of the not to do was ‘not to buy make up’. We’re four days into July and I’ve bought lashes, two mascaras, an eye-shadow palette and two primers. Fully justified to my unsurprised husband with “Gift vouchers covered most of it.” 😂

    • That’s what happened the last time I went on a no-buy, I try and save vouchers and loyalty points for these types of occasions as you’re not technically spending any money, so they’re fine for a no-buy!

  11. July 5, 2017 / 2:17 am

    Great idea! 🙂 No-Buys are a great way to force yourself to dig into your collection.. I’ve still got a ridiculous amount of unopened makeup.
    Re: your too pale foundations. Perhaps you can find shade adjusting drops like what The Body Shop offers? That could help tide you over the summer months.
    Looking forward to reading your travel posts – after beauty, travelling is my favourite thing! 😀

    • Travelling is my favourite thing – I just don’t have the budget to do it as often as I’d like, and I don’t like putting the dogs in kennels very often which often limits where we can travel to or what we can do! I do want to do a lot of local travelling this year, especially as we’ve pretty much used up all our holiday until next year – there’s so much on our doorstep we’ve never done though!
      I did think about getting some shade adjusting drops, seems like a break in the no-buy though! I’ll see how far I can make my foundations stretch, I’m wearing a paler one today but bronzed up and it’s not too bad so may be able to get away with it!
      More than unopened makeup I’ve got so much skincare at the moment!

  12. July 5, 2017 / 3:19 am

    Good luck with your no-buy month! I was able to actually do one for the first time this year, you can do it!!! The trick is to avoid shopping at all the places that tempt you, which is definitely difficult when even the drugstore has a beauty section :]

    • Yes that’s a good point, I find it hard as if I want to get out at lunch the only shops that are near me are Boots/Superdrug and Supermarkets and there’s no where else to go – so if I want to get out of the office they’re the places I naturally end up!

  13. July 6, 2017 / 10:29 pm

    Good luck on your no-buy month! It sounds kind of silly, but I find one of the tricks I use to ensure I don’t buy anything, is to tell myself that the product will still be there for me to purchase the following month, when my no-buy is over. Unless of course the product you want to buy is LE…then good luck! haha

  14. July 12, 2017 / 5:38 pm

    Yey!! Yes to no buy~~~ those summer sales are on. May the force be with you (and me) xox

  15. Harold's
    July 18, 2017 / 11:22 am

    ! .

  16. July 25, 2017 / 12:57 pm

    I love this idea of having a ‘no buy’ month, I might have to give it a go sometime! As for your foundation situation, have you thought about mixing your lighter shades with your darker shades? The foundation I like the most is actually a bit too yellow for me, so I mix one of the same formulation that’s a bit more pink toned, and it works perfectly!

Leave a Reply and Let's Have a Chat