Join me in a beauty product buying ban or come and give me moral support!

[listsandbudgets]

I can't do this alone folks. I've got TOO MUCH STUFF... I also have 2 beauty advent calendars

So I've set myself a challenge. Between now and June the 1st 2024 I will not buy any beauty products UNLESS I've run out of all of that particular type. If I've got a tiny sample bottle of shampoo or conditioner I'll use it all up. All those half used bottles of moisturiser, night cream, shower gel and toner and body lotion MUST GO... the mountain of soap must be surmounted.

My only concession is that I will not cancel the Liberty Beauty drop will get a couple of boxes to cheer me up

So if you want to join me make up your own rules and lets cull that stash

In the past I’ve been terrible at using hand cream. I now keep one in the car, this seems to ensure I use it a few times a day.

Thanks @OchonAgusOchonOh & @Peridot1. My boredom tolerance level is not great. Good chance I’ll be on here a bit more than usual.

@Fraaahnces sorry to hear its going to be a long stay. can you get some audio books and subscribe to Netflix to watch on your phone? I suppose you could turn up woth your entire stash and catalogue it while you have the time .

seriously i hope everything goes as well as possible and you come out the other side feeling far better than you arrived

here ate all my shower gels and oils with less than a quarter left. i've decided not to ope up any more until I've ised at least 4 of these up ( excluding mini bottles)

they take up a ridiculous amount of space

I read that as 'he ate'
Use the Radox up first, then the trial sizes.

With the MB and similar, offer the empty bottle on your local freebie site. Someone will want them for decanting into.

This is a good goal. I do find my bathroom cabinet quite full of little sample bottles. I have quite a few face masks, which I don't use very often. So I will aim for at least once a week, in fact I used Caudalie Brightening Glycolic mask last night in the tub.

I don't have a lot of make-up extras, except for lipsticks and tinted balms. Cross my heart I won't buy any more until at least summer time!

@FayCarew My DP has some very odd tastes - nothing like a bit of foamy shower gel on your breakfast cereal

So since posting in November at beginning of this thread I must confess a minor deviation of no more spending. However they were necessary purchases. A moisturiser as skin so dry and ecstasy I had in stash wasn’t cutting it. I also bought a barrier cream as I’d had an allergic reaction to a facial.

However I’m powering through with empties and not opening the few smelly gifts I’ve been given for Xmas yet. So far this month I have

Temple spa mascara - discontinued. Was a slightly cheaper version of limelife by Alcone mascara and frequently didn’t need to pay postage. Will repurchase when current stash of either of them begins to run out. Currently using a mini one which should last until Easter.

Neals yard aromatic shower gel. Love this but have a million shower gels to use up and mostly use soap these days. No repurchasing allowed!!

L’Oréal age perfect toner. Nothing special. Have plenty of others to use in its place.

. Some of them smell good enough to eat.
I woke up this morning to find a nearly full 500 ml bottle of shower gel had been emptied by the cat playing in the shower. My fault but still....
It was a cheap one fortunately.

@CornishTiger If you need it you need it. This isn't about depriving yourself of things you need but things you WANT and really don't need because you've already got half a dozen of them - but if the half dozen you've got make you scabby and miserable then replace them with something that works.

I'm thinking that on some things - mainly soaps, hand creams, body lotions perfumes and shower gels I'm going to carry this ban on beyond June unless they come in a kit of some sort. I mean why buy soap when I've got about a dozen plus bars already and even the smallest of them seems to last at least a month

What I'll probably need to buy by or before then is shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, cleanser, moisturiser and serum. I have a feeling that I've got enough of nearly everything else to last the year or longer

@FayCarew Silly kitty - glad it was just a cheap one. Was the cat covered in the stuff?

Can I join? I confess I'm a beauty hoarder. Just been through my stash today and it's not the worst but still pretty bad, I need to stay away from the advent calendars and free gifts and use everything up. Makeup stash not too bad at all as I did declutter it recently although I have way too many lip stains that I rarely wear, lips too dry most of the time. But I have 17 cleansers, 17 moisturisers, 12 shampoos and 9 dry shampoos, which is ridiculous. I have about a million of the Clinique Moisture Surge which I don't particularly like, got loads of it as GWPs when stocking up on makeup, might have to donate. Got some Lush Snow Fairy body lotion and shower gel for Christmas, can't stand the smell but am trying to use it up anyway. Empties today were a full size suncream, a tiny No 7 Boosting Serum which was sticky and did nothing, and a large Batiste Tropical dry shampoo. I promise I will not buy anything else until I actually run out of something and don't have a backup. I've picked out one of each thing and stored the rest so I can use up one at a time, got quite a few bottles nearing the end so hopefully I can say goodbye to a few things quickly. Have slathered myself in goop after my bath tonight. Let's get rid!!

You are really right @listsandbudgets its about having stuff that works and makes you feel good whilst resisting the appeal of something new.

well done @sallyanne33 but ditch the lush stuff you don’t like. Life is too blinking short!

What sort of size are the Clinique moisture surges. Are they new? Worth selling on eBay? Or donate to food bank. What is it you don’t like?

@CornishTiger I've got one 100ml and 4 x 7ml. Could put the big one on ebay perhaps and donate the small ones to the food bank, didn't think of that. There's nothing wrong with it really, I just find it a bit meh considering the price. I prefer Dramatically Different, makes my skin feel softer.

Id stick them all as a bundle on eBay or vinted. Someone who uses it will like the smaller ones for travel. If you don’t love it and it’s unused /sealed worth a go.

@sallyanne33 welcome!!! You and I think alike. As soon as I saw your picture it reminded me of my system too. I like to scatter things and classify by type.

Just as an example, the ridiculous amount of hand creams I own. The above ones are hand washes.

The hand creams! Where do they come from?? I’ve got so many but I swear I don’t remember ever buying one.

I usually take mine to work and pop them in the basket in the ladies loo. They still breed there as well

@sallyanne33 , thanks for the photo. I feel better about my stash now.

last night I counted. including 5 sames.and the 3 in stash at my mums I have 31 perfumes..

that's not quite normal.. is it?

i've used up another sample of shampoo

to those who've photographed their stash I'm impressed I'm not sure I'd be brave enough to see it all laid out like that. keeping it split up in bags and boxes and cupboards seems to make ot feel more manageable.. but it's not is it?

SAMPLES not sames

One hair product down, four partials to go. I’m not anywhere some of your stashes, but have limited room in my ‘hair’ drawer.

I have 2 perfumes, one day and one night now I feel inadequate. I need choices!!!

I use up small sizes when I'm travelling too ,
I don;t buy Advent Beauty calendars but I did buy a couple of those M&S Formula 4 piece sets to try different things , and great for taking away .

I've finished a Molton Brown Orange&Bergamont shower gel (favourite ) so I'm using up some soap now (cheapie Waitrose Camomile which is nice)
Finished an M&S serum (grey tube )

I have some perfumes to recycle ( Eden and Penhaligons ) so they'll go out in the next collection bag .

@listsandbudgets I already have a stockpile of audiobooks to head into, and will research which tv subscriptions I will sign up to for “free” trials. Good idea on that one. (I work such odd hours atm that I forget about tv…) I have been tempted to write a novel based on some interesting situations at work, so I might write some notes and shape it out. See if it has legs.
I have decided that I need to do another makeup full. I have WAAAAY too much.I wear sunscreen, a bit of concealer sometimes, blush as bronzer and eyeshadow and mascara. That’s it mostly. I could get rid of every lipstick rolling around in my drawer because I only wear lip balm or gloss. If I could bring myself to do that, I could potentially justify buying one or two Pat McG glosses eventually.
I think when I am recovering from this surgery I will be bored enough to maybe use some of the sheet masks festering in my drawers. That’s a positive, right? (I find out more next week I believe)