Well hello, after being on a bit of a roll with publishing lots of blog content weekly – a few extremely busy weeks from work hit, as well as some things in my personal life progressing and eating away at my spare time and attention… so the pictures for this have been prepped since the start of the month but I just didn’t get around to writing it up.
If you aren’t aware this year I’m embarking on a low-buy year I have a £500 budget for the year to spend on non-essential/non-replenishment items. January was pretty intense on the old budget cutting out a big chunk, February also gave me a decent chunk removal as you’ll see shortly – the good news is… so far I’ve not spent a penny on beauty in March! I am at the end of a big project at work and plan to treat to say, well done on surviving that project once it’s all finished – but I’m going to let that roll over into April.
I’ve also been thinking and if I have a non-essential purchase that I finish up entirely in the year and it seems reasonable if it’s a item like foundation which requires replenishment, I’m going to give myself that budget back and move the budget across to my second spreadsheet.
Essential Purchases / AKA Not Counted in Budget
Ole Henriksen Lemonade Smoothing Scrub
I love Ole Henriksen and as a recent launch I’d been eyeing it up, I also love anything lemons/lemonade – and knew this would be on my to try list. This then went on offer and had £10 off it, so I snagged it and used my Boots loyalty points to make it a free purchase. I’ve used this pretty cautiously so far – I had a bad skin reaction around the time when I first used this and whilst I didn’t think it was this, I’ve bene very careful about starting to use it again. However over the past few weeks I’ve done a few patch tests and I think I can say it wasn’t this and I may be safe to trial it properly. This is manual exfoliating with sugar scrub particles which dissolve down and don’t feel aggressive paired with AHAs – this feels very tingly, if you like an intense scrub you can feel – this is worth a look.
NYX Professional Makeup Glitter Primer
I have been on the last dregs of my Too Faced Glitter Primer for a long time, a little of it goes such a long way in the beginning of feb when I purchased this I was sure I only had a few more uses of it but even in mid-March I think it could last me towards the end of the month. I bloody love that primer and have used it for years – but Too Faced are not CF, I looked for another alternative and this one has good reviews. I rarely use a glitter primer for glitter but find with some foily shadows they really help grip onto the pigment without you have to blend it in and loose the foil glow. Here’s hoping it’s as good, I’ve yet to open it up yet!
L’Oreal 8 Second Wonder Water | Review
And the world went crazy for the 8 Second Wonder Water, I somehow forgot about my hatred for L’Oreal and before I knew it I was swiping it up. I’ve already reviewed this and it’s in my empties box for this month already. Recommend checking out my review for my full thoughts, but if you want glossy hair – this is a great product for irregular use.
Flower Beauty Light Illusion Foundation
I was in need of some foundations that were a better colour match for me and this one had been on my hit list to try out. I had enough Superdrug points to snag this for free so it’s staying on my no-counted list! I’ve used this a few times so far and it is quite a pretty foundation, much lighter coverage than I’m used to but is a good colour match. I have been so busy at work I’ve not had as much time for trialling and playing with makeup – so I will be coming to this in a review when I can.
Elf Camo CC Cream
This had some really good reviews when it came out and I purchased this as my attempting to colour match foundation (before I purchased the Flower one), so I’m counting this as an essential purchase as I was fighting with foundations that were way too dark for me and limited other options. Review is pending on this, I feel like I’m going through it very quickly – the finish is nice and is buildable but struggling in a few spots to get the coverage I’d like.
Elf Poreless Putty Primer
This had been on my hitlist to try for a long time – when I purchased from Boots they had a 3 for 2 offer running and this one I’m counting as the free item. I have used this a few times so far, the texture isn’t what I was expecting, I was almost expecting something slightly bouncy feeling but it’s almost like a silky balm. To be honest, though I haven’t been paying real attention to wear time/trialling it with favourite foundations I know how they perform, so TBC what I think of this one.
Danglefoot Polishes in Sassench and Do you like my Dipolokiss?
Okay, these are not essentials at all – and the only reason I’m allowing myself to call them that is I really don’t buy many polishes any more, maybe no more than 10 a year, and these two are unique in my collection. What caught my eye was Sassench, a colour based on an Outlander mystery trio, but seeing a swatch on it after it was released it gave me warm fuzzy feelings like my favourite from the brand Loki does. This is a multichrome with teal, purple, copper and emerald green flashes, it is so so pretty and will be a firm favourite. I picked up the other as a) I don’t have a pink from Danglefoot, and b) I don’t think I have a pink holo at all. Mad. So this was righting two wrongs and they are entirely unique in my collection.
The Non Essentials / AKA Counts Against Budget
Elf Poreless Putty Primer Luminous
This was again part for the 3 for 2 deal, this one I’m counting as a spend as the second item as I really didn’t need it. I find it very annoying that Boots stock some items of elf, whilst Superdrug carry others – there wasn’t much else I was interested in trying that was available from the Boots site -, so settled on trying the luminous version of the primer too. Yet to try this on the face yet, it’s a very subtle healthy glow though which I think will not translate through foundation – although I could be surprised!
KVD Beauty (or whatever they are this week) Go Big or Go Home Mascara
I’d heard incredible things about this mascara and snagged it on a Boots £10 Tuesday deal, I clearly missed photographing this but it’s gone in my “to be used pile” and will be the next one I begin trialling after I’ve finished testing my current one from Pat McGrath. I’ve really good things about this in many reviews, so here’s hoping it’s as good as the Pat McGrath ones I’ve recently been so in love with. I forgot to photograph this one!
Huda #FauxFilter Foundation
This one pains me to include. This arrived from Boots, I’d been curious to try the Huda Foundations and heard the newer one was even better in the first reviews that started coming out – so this was my first foundation purchase of the month and when it arrived I was like – oh hell, that was a terrible colour match for me – without the need to even open it, I’ll return it. Leaving it on the edge of my dressing table a naughty dog (Dexter, I know it was you), got hold of it and chewed up the box and the lid has teeth marks embedded too. I think this could match me in a summer (depends how much of a good summer we have). The only little silver lining is I bought it on a 20% off day – so at least it wasn’t full price.
Latest in Beauty Subscription | Review
There were a few items in here that made this subscription worthwhile for me – I had the Colourwow on my list to retry and didn’t want to commit to purchasing it, and was restocking on my favourite sponge cleaner that is now discontinued and the only place it’s lingering is Latest in Beauty. A good deal for me last month, I could almost justify putting it on my essentials as the RRP of that sponge cleaner is £9.95 and the box is £12.95 – but I’ll be fair and put it on this list of non-essentials.
The Cult Beauty Lip Edit | Review
Originally I had this on my essentials list but after discovering my house is actually littered with lip balms in every nook and cranny this maybe wasn’t as needed as I first thought. I’m working on a lip care post reviewing and testing all of these out (and a few more!) – so I won’t delve in too deep – but this was a real steal of a purchase. I’ve already finished one of these up too, so it was £20 well spent.
At the end of February I had spent a total of £197.95 on Non Essentials, and £89.18 on Essentials/No Counts. Averagely I should be spending around about £41 per month on non essentials to stay on track for a £500 budget. A calmer month in March has helped even the stakes, but I do find on that run up to my birthday I start justifying things as birthday presents to myself and spring and summer months tend to be a lot more slow in comparison. I have my eye on a more expensive palette as my project finishing treat, but will attempt to hunt out a discount code to make it a bit cheaper – it’s also one I was planning on treating myself to once I’d completed the milestone on my project pan palette which has already been completed as I’ve been so dedicated to using it up.
What have you treated yourself to lately?
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Ole Henriksen Lemonade Smoothing Scrub sounds like something I would like 🙂