Do you get the urge to splurge on beauty products? Are your cupboards full of your stash? Join this group of beauty addicts!

[Experiment627]

Going strong for more than 8 years! Full of great reviews, reports of empties and despair over our ever growing stashes!

Hope you had a fabulous time opening your boxes @MavisMcMinty i hope you’re OH has a long walk today so you can saviour your products. Sorry to hear about your allergy problems @Fraaahnces
5 calendars is a perfect number @Experiment627

Clarins body oil. Like a lot but only if on offer.
Sinday Riley vitamin C cream. I loved this. Rich but sinks in well. I’d pay real cash for it and will rp soon.
Dermalogica cleansing gel. It was good, lasted ages too.
*Dr Salts^ Lavender shower gel. Like this a lot but trying to use soaps more.

little conditioner sample - too mall to assess.

56/80
19 samples.

I just read back and saw you had a crappy bday @MavisMcMinty. I’m so sorry to hear that. I do hope you and DH are feeling better now.
My allergy issue won’t be too hard to sort. DS has anaphylaxis to nuts, kiwis and horses. (Horses are rather easy to avoid when you live in the city!). Unfortunately I have coeliac disease and that means until I am allergy tested, no orange and almond cake. It definitely means that my very favourite pistachio brittle ice cream is no longer a happening thing, too. I still think it’s a first world problem atm. There are so many worse things.

Oh it wasn’t really crappy, @Fraaahnces - a friend was supposed to come over and the house was in a right state, so I was able to put her off and not have to clean and tidy (with my bad back). And that’ll be another present when I see her!

Yes… good to have something to look forward to @MavisMcMinty. The comments above about UK winters make he ponder how subjective weather appreciation is. I live in a sub-tropical part of the world. The difference in sunshine hours in Winter and Summer is minimal. (One hour, I believe.) It gets dark here about 5pm in Winter and 6pm in the Summer. No lovely twilight. No mucking about. We have a sunset that lasts about 20mins then the lights are out. We don’t have defined seasons. It’s supposed to be Winter here and yes the nights are chilly, but that is mostly because houses are designed to let the cold air in. This “not quite summer” period lasts about six weeks and then it’s bloody hot again. We don’t get the stunningly colour FIL floral displays that you do in Europe. We have our own flowers, but they’re a bit sedate in comparison. (That or very spiky-looking). I miss seasons terribly. There is none of that anticipation you get when the leaves change colour and the sky is bright and clear. People like me think, “Oh shit, it’s going to be over 30’C for the next ten months and it’s going to be humid AF until April as well… FML.”

I rather like the idea of having a fragrance advent calendar, and using it properly so that it goes into January. Did anyone have the liberty fragrance last year? Hopefully they'll do it again this time. I've just spent an hour with the physio, so treated myself to a Starbucks, and despite going into M & S for some bits, did not go near the beauty hall! Go me!

I may never need to buy another beauty product again, going by my birthday haul. Got some bamboo pads in a box of 100, to be used like cotton wool pads.

And yes @Fraaahnces - I’d miss the seasons really. My parents lived and worked abroad most of my life and in some countries the weather/length of day never changed, and in others there was the (slightly more) rainy season to break things up a bit.

Please help me I am totally addicted to skincare. I am trying to stop and get myself down to a tried and tested routine and products - but I love a skincare deal and super love an advent calendar ! Looking forward to learning from you all !

Learning how to buy more things, probably, @Maighnuad . This is not a good place to kick your addictions. Succumb! Give in to the love and rejoice!

What @MavisMcMinty said, I love this thread but it really hasn't cured my addiction 😂

I have to say I've found this thread really useful, I now have one draw and am practically on one and a spare of lots of things.

I found the inventory idea v helpful. This thread is not quite as bad as the Liberty thread for encouraging purchases.

That wasn't meant to happen.. I found a still sealed 30ml tube of l'occtaine hand cream for £1.50 in charity shop and now it's on my bedside table

And I've got no empties.. worse away for a couplenof weeks ams left wash bag etc
at home.so need to restock but while O want expensive thins with a big gift with purchase I will settle for some basics from Sainsbury Fenwick and cult do have some very lovely GWP though

I get more extreme seasons here. ATM it's hot and humid, which I don't love, but I do like seeing sunlight every day. I was in England last summer when it was really hot, and that is my normal for June, July, August. Then we have real winters. I don't even bother doing up my coat until below-5 now.

Sadly, I'm either reacting to my new skin care, or sun cream, possibly both. I have a rash and spots on my face. I'm trying to stay home and wear no make up, and trying not to touch the itchy spots, but it's hard.

One empty - votary apple toner from the beauty drop. I didn't like this as much as I wanted to

Back from holiday today so I can open last week's beauty drop and rejoin the thread. I asked a friend to take in the box which had been left in a 'safe place'. No sign of it. She finally found it last night when they went to water the plants - in the wood store.

I think I need to do an inventory. I’ve started a few times but not finished and have added to it all. I have added a lot. I will do a proper inventory with a view to actually reducing my stash. I’m almost at the end of three cleansers so that will help. A bit!

And I think I’m going to be a bit ruthless abut things I’m not loving using. Currently using a Beauty Pie Japanfusion mist, serum and moisturiser and not loving any of them. Bought them because I really like the Japanfusion cleanser. The moisturiser leaves my skin feeling a bit tight and dry. Going to try them all for another couple of days with more layers of the mist and maybe a facial oil added in for extra hydration to see if that helps. If not they are out!

I am also planning a weekly bath with a face mask to help with using up bath products and face masks and body lotions.

Not sure I will be brave enough to post the results of my full inventory but I might!

@Peridot1 And I think I’m going to be a bit ruthless abut things I’m not loving using.

This is one of my problems. For example, I currently have a L'Oreal professional shampoo that makes my scalp fall off (DH's too). We were using it up by using it every 3/4 washes but it's ridiculous, life is too short for shampoo that makes your scalp sore and itchy. Can't sell it, can't even give the bloody stuff away but I can't bring myself to just chuck it so we're now thinking we'll use it up as shower gel instead. But I should probably just chuck it as life is also too short to smell like a hair salon rather than one of the lovely shower gels I have just sat waiting to be used.

@Peridot1 apparently, some folks on here, who are much more organised than I, have spreadsheets of inventory! I know! Blew my mind too
So, Liberty, the absolute barstewards have brought another kit out! That's the bad news. Good news is there is very little I would actually use, though I do like the washbag.

@SwordBilledHummingbird - I’d say if it messes up your scalp it’s probably not going to be good as shower gel? Maybe use as hand wash first to check?

@SpongeBobJudgeyPants - yes I’ve seen spreadsheets. DH reckons NASA would be the only organisation capable of setting up and running mine as I have so much!

@Peridot1 It's just my scalp that seems to be sensitive, DH too. I rarely react to anything else, though hand wash was another possibility so maybe we should do that to be on the safe side. I don't particularly want an eczema flare-up!

I've never made an inventory but thought I would share my method. I record everything that comes in during the year and everything that goes out (it's just rare that I get round to actually posting that here!). My ultimate goal is to use up more than I acquire, which sounds easy but I make it difficult for myself by also carrying over failures from past years. So the last few years I have actually improved a little year by year but still managed to carry over 29 items in total to this year. Which I appreciate doesn't sound like much of a success 😂

I record toiletries (which for some reason I don't recall includes household smellies like candles and diffusers but not perfume) and cosmetics separately. This year I'm doing a lot better on cosmetics than I am on toiletries. Part of the problem is that I just really enjoy having lots of different scents to choose from, to suit my mood, plus I like to coordinate, so if I'm wearing a vanilla perfume I like to use complementary toiletries and even a vanlla candle. Yes, this is probably nuts but it makes me oddly happy.

My numbers for this year:

Toiletries

In: 232 ( damage largely done by having three advent calendars in January plus I bought DH a beard oil calendar for January, so four really).

Out: 188

Carried over: 29

Cosmetics

In: 45

Out: 48

Carried over: 46

Ok, so looking at those numbers makes me realise that I REALLY shouldn't be buying any beauty advent calendars this year 😳

@Peridot1 it really helped me- I had 130 unopened products, now I’ve 34.

Oh and I categorise ie:
face masks
eye creams

it deters me from buying if I can easily see I already have 10.

I think it sounds like a good system @SwordBilledHummingbird. After all it’s whatever works to make us more aware really isn’t it? And I completely get you about co-ordinating scents!

@PomRuns - yes it will definitely be by category. I have started in a big notebook but need to update it. And yes it’s very likely I have ten eye creams!

@SwordBilledHummingbird use it as toilet cleaner

😂It's so harsh it might be just the thing we need to get rid of limescale!

So I've been actively using up things for a week now, and here are my empties.

I admit that the cotton buds aren't really beauty products/toiletries but I had 2 pots, so I'm counting it😆