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

@Stoic123 - my New Year’s resolution last year (and probably the year before) was to stop buying Kindle books. I’d bought three by around 11am on New Year’s Day! It’s so hard to resist the 99p deals. I have loads to read. And loads of actual books too.

@stokey and @Stoic123 Welcome. I'm extremely impressed you're aiming for autumn - I'm already wondering if I'll make June! Enjoy using all the things you already have rather than piling things on top of them and not using those up either. Stoic I think a kindle book ban is a good idea. I've got a lot of real books I've not read not least DPs enormous sci fi collection which probably numbers a couple of hundred if not more, surely I'd enjoy SOME of them!! - plus I've got a heap of detective novels I've not got through

@MidnightMeltdown Just wondering how many ACs you have. I've got 2 and I've seen plenty more I'd love to have and I think it's only my own ban that's holding me back

It's been a good November. Except for a tiny slip up where I ordered a free sample of Jo Malone (which arrived and is lovely) I've not bought any more beauty products whatsoever. Because I've got so much stuff which I tend to use according to my mood the levels of things haven't gone down massively but I've used up some smaller products at least.

I've been thinking that i keep quite a lot of stuff at my mum's as I spend quite a bit of time there and don't want to be lugging it all too and fro. I've decided to treat each lot as a separate stash and apply the unless I've run out of a category rule to each or it will get too complicated.

In other news my never ending bar of soap started in July is down to a slither - perhaps in a week the damn thing will be gone!

Yes - the 99ps are a killer.

I might have to do a 2 book a month limit during 2024 (any price). I've just checked my list of unread books....100s. I'm too embarrassed to give exact number.

@listsandbudgets

Only 5

Not including the one I bought in the sale to put away for next year and the Fragrance box that I opened 3 months ago.

I don't keep everything though. I usually gift some of the products to my mum that I think she'll like, and sell stuff that I don't want. Although I do tend to replace the sold stuff by buying bits from other calendars. For example, I sold the AB cream from my Harrods calendar and replaced it with the Vilhem perfume from the Liberty ac.

Also, I tend to think of the M&S calendar as a gwp, so that makes it 4, right?

Thanks @listsandbudgets .

I'm going to be able to use/run down most of my items.

The only thing I struggle to use up at home is is shower gel as I prefer using soap. The gym is the only place I use shower gel and I've been a bit lax for a while - maybe a 3rd resolution (to go with beauty and kindles) is needed.

@MidnightMeltdown - 😂

I mean, M&S practically force you to have it if you walk past the shop. I don't feel that I should be held responsible for that one.

Despite having heaps of products from last year I have bought several advent calendars. I’m disgusted with myself. My solution is to try and sell stuff I won’t use and buy nothing else at all for at least a year.

The neverending soap 😀. I started a collection some years back as well, it was Nesti Dante that came in a multi pack and on sale. so of course I had to have it. Put one in the shower, and. one for a bath and was happy for a while as everthing smelt beautifully. Then the thrush decided to wade in with a vengeance so it was quite obvious that I could no longer use the lovely soap for anything other than handwashing!. In the meantime I also found some gorgeous French soap, and thought I was really smart and to take it out of its packaging, so it can 'cure' and last longer. I managed to pass on the Nestis but the French ones are here to stay as I've opened them all. I have the same soap in my bathroom for about a year now. And it's still going strong. I keep thinking I'll swap it out for a change, but what is the point of putting half used soap back in the cupboard 😂. So every cupboard and drawer in my house had an unwrapped bar of soap in it now

And I do wash my hands a lot, but honestly this bar seems to be a bar for life.

I saw a clip of someone using the old bar soap scraps to make up a new bar. My first thought was, how many years did it take to get thst collection of scraps.... I can't even use up one!! 😂

OK so it's the 1st December tomorrow. Who's opening which AC (if you have one or five)

I plan to open the Liberty one this month then keep the M&S for January.. I think I know what's in the first drawer of the Liberty but I'm looking forward to trying it. :)

I'm opening Liberty. I also have the Flannels perfume cracker for Christmas Day and the big cracker as a present. I already have more lipsticks than I'll ever need 😬 I'll get on Vinted in the new year and shift the stuff I won't use.

@Stoic123 - I’ll have a look tomorrow to see how many unread books I have on my kindle. It’s a lot! I went away on my own in September for a week and read ten books from getting on the plane going and landing back in the uk. I think I need to do that every month!

Oh God I don't want to think about my Kindle habit!

To be fair though, I used to buy more and weaned myself off the 99p thrillers a couple of years ago. So now I do buy quite a lot but mainly literary stuff that I actually want to read. Come to the 50 books a year thread if you want even more temptation put in your way!

Enjoy the openings tomorrow. For the first time since 2018 I don't have a beauty one so am feeling pleased that I didn't succumb but also Fomo! I will be enjoying Degusta and looking at my beauty stash to console me!

I do a 50 book challenge with my sister @Stokey. I end up adding lots to my want to read list from her. Not trying the thread here! I think I tried it a few years ago and spent longer reading the thread than reading books!

Curious as to what the French soap is. I’m with you on the never ending soap. I have a massive stash of them and one bar just goes on and on. I also can’t use anything perfumed on my body so it’s hand washing only. You get the end bits that just go soggy and annoying but I feel duty bound to keep using it until it completely disappears.

I have YEARS and YEARS supply of Italian and French soaps - mostly in gift packs, bought from the chemist. I have only used Bioderma Shower Oil for ever as I have sensitive skin, oh and the thrush is real with any soap too. (Baaaad design!) I sorted mine into scent families and combinations that I liked and popped them all into organza gift bags. I have wrapped every jumper and Winter layering piece around one before chucking it into suitcases for storage. The rest I have put on clothes hangers and in the pockets of coats, inside dresses, etc. I had enough to put in everyone’s cupboards and drawers and I don’t have moths!!!

It's Savon from Marseilles. 😊

They were in giftpacks and I threw away the packaging, so it's possible it's the Savon de Marseilles.

I do have supplies for years to come at the rate it just goes on and on. Maybe even decades as once soap cures it apparently lasts even longer.

I would love to be able to use them in the shower. But good old Zero Sanex it has to be 🙈

I don't have issues with fishmoths either, so at least they are being useful whilst waiting for their turn.

I SO NEED THIS - thank you!!!

My cupboards are overflowing and I've a couple of boxes of "extras" in the bedroom....

So, having just stocked up on Space NK and Body Shop in Black Friday sales, all I really need is a new mascara. And I've promised to order some lavender sleep potions from a mate in next few days.

I commit to:

• using and FINISHING the products stacked up, especially body and face ones... and if not, to chuck or give on
• SORTING my makeup so its easy to see what I have
• FINDING OUT what really works for my skin and hair..

My goals:

• have EVERYTHING in the bathroom cupboards, or neatly stacked in second bathroom cupboard if its things I use regularly and have bought in a sale
• to know what I have and a plan for using it .. even if that is lets experiment with this pile this month!!

And yes, a moratorium on buying new stuff UNTIL I have used up or chucked everything in that category...with the one exception of hair care, as that's my first experiment in the New Year: What really works for me?? Time to investigate... fed up of overdry frizzy hair....

Morning all.

I have had 2 fails and have come on here to confess.

First one is not too shameful. I still haven't found something that will she tame my coarse, damaged hair. My hairdresser recommended a product (wasn't selling - just started using herself), so I went online to buy. I long for manageable hair.

Second one is worse - Liberty email came reminding me that I has a £20 voucher due to expire by end of December. Used it towards an EDT I have been wanting to try when I have plenty of perfume to use up.

Be strong, be strong.

How are you all doing?

I am in the middle of Advent opening so am getting an item every day but I am being strict on using a use or lose policy. So as I open I decide if I will use it if so it comes upstairs to my bedroom otherwise I have a shoe box which I am filling with give aways for my DDs/ DNS to help themselves to when I see them over Xmas . To date only one door has made it upstairs with two in the shoe box.

I’ve got my beauty advents to open so I’m ok with not spending any more money at the moment. I have F&M chosen because it isn’t heavy on the skincare and therefore there’s less to add to the stash, and I’ve made my own one up from the Liberty GWP, the contents of which I’ve completely forgotten so each day is a real surprise.
As someone with difficult hair I can absolve you Stoic. One would try anything to get hair which behaves reasonably normally. I find it’s one of the upsides of this freezing weather that the humidity is low and I have less frizz.

Thank you Narnia.

That is a good system Purivida. I have an advent calendar and am making myself try an item the same day as opened unless it will go off quickly (e.g. Vit C) or I know I will not use (hygiene bank collection at the gym).

I’m doing ok. Not bought anything. Getting to the end of a few things too so can shop my stash.

Although have put three things on my Amazon wish list for DH to possibly get me for Christmas. Does that count?

I only started my ban 3 days ago but have so far managed to survive.

Opening advents atm so lots incoming, but at least I know that by 25th December I will be at 'peak stuff', and the number of products can only go down there.

Hoping that I don't get more beauty products gifted to be at Xmas

Running out of storage space!