So, why would a beauty blogger give advice on how to stop a beauty shopping addiction?
Well, since I blog on beauty, beauty products are a big part of my life. But as I set a beauty budget for this year and glamorously exceeded it, I thought I would give some warnings and tips about a makeup shopping spending addiction.
I know which beauty products work and are worth the money, which helps to stop buying shades and textures we won't be using anyway. In a future post I will make a list of the only products I will buy from now on.
Over the past few years I have downsized my beauty stash from maybe over 30 shoe size boxes to around 10.
1. Make a beauty case with only your favourite products
The first step is to find what beauty products make you feel amazing. There must be that one foundation that fits your skintone perfectly, same for lipstick and eyeliner. It doesn't matter how pricey they are. From now on, you are going to use them everyday. Life is too short to save your makeup for special occasions. For special occassions, you can build it up a little more. You will have to replace your favourites more often, but it will still turn out cheaper than buying endless amounts of cosmetics + you will look good every day! I see that as a double win! There are many more benefits to this, e.g. less space, less frustration, no bad surprises when you see some random lipstick from your stash in the daylight all of a sudden.
Only replace your favourites, and you will save lots of money in the long run.
So swatch all your makeup on your face in daylight, and tell yourself if you like what you see.
2. Display and appreciate your products
A makeup shopping addiction is easy to hide. The products are small, cute, come in various prices and are easy to organise and look like a neat part of your life. The reality is that blobs of products are now infected with bacteria, that increase exponentially by the hour as they sit in your warm drawers in the summer. If you keep hiding the makeup, you will forget about it and not use it, and you will also hide your addiction.
I'll give you a shocking example. I was browsing at the perfumerie when I spotted the most gorgeous blush. It was the 'Rose Paradis' Blush by Lancome, a gorgeous, matte but slightly glittery neutral pink medium blush. I wanted to buy it instantly, wondering how on earth I didn't buy it already. Then I wondered: didn't I? I said nah, impossible, I would remember it and I would be using it, so no way. Well, I got home, checked my stash and even though I had cleansed it out only a week ago for the millionth time and I only had like six blushes left, I couldn't even remember having this amazing blush and I didn't understand why I wasn't using it. Probably because quality blushes rarely run out.
By displaying, you will feel obligated to use them more often. This might make you realise how you don't like one product at all and you will realise how much money you wasted on these products. Using many "bottom of the drawer" all at once can also help to give you some shock therapy: so thát's why that 50 euro highlighter is still only used 10 times in 3 years... Happened to me: a 50 euro Dior highlight was in my drawer since 2017. I thought I liked it, it had amazing packaging, a gorgeous Dior logo embedded in a dreamy golden highlighter pan. It would sit in a glass display box all the time and I would never use it. I kept telling myself it was too precious to use up... But as I started cleaning my act up and this highlighter was next in line for panning, I realised after 1 use that I just didn't like it at all. It's easy to know which makeup is your favourite: you'll use it, trust me. The Dior highlighter was too golden, too glittery. I broke it, washed out the tin and am now selling the pretty packaging online.
Also, clean your makeup perfectly so it becomes a pleasure to use and to watch. This will help you realise how much work it takes to maintain a small makeup stash. Also display all of your makeup as much as you can. This will stop you from hiding your makeup shopping addiction and will make you realise that less is more. It will pull you a bit more towards the high end section and that is exactly what I want you to do, because you save a lot of money if you can find just a couple of favourites in the high end section. I used to think it was a boring idea. I used to love having stashes of cheap makeup in which I could drown, I wanted all the colors of lipstick and nail polish in the world. In the end, I threw it all away... Because the application, the smell, the packaging was horrible, sometimes also the lasting power and the colours. All things that high end makeup does offer! Sticking to a fixed list of favourites in the high end section will definitely help a makeup shopping addict save money in the long run.
Buy good makeup organisers that offer enough space to display everything perfectly and try to limit your amount of makeup to these organisers. I personally have enough with two small drawers that are both filled with horizontal organisers. Horizontal organisers are far handier than vertical organisers, that are only handy for lipsticks, liners and mascara. I strongly suggest this type:
Yes, these are very simplistic and not exactly for showcasing your most precious makeup (for that you could use one very pretty showcasing organiser for on your vanity), but these simple boxes offer so much:
- they're small and versatile enough to put away in small drawers, limiting your addiction
- they are flat so there is room to put eyeshadow quatros in there flat as well, so you can really display anything
- the small boxes are excellent for putting nine lipsticks in vertically without pinching or without them falling over
- the long boxes are excellent for liners and mascaras, the longest one for exceptionally long blush pallets and powder puffs
3. Don't use different colors in summer and winter
When you look at pretty models or actresses, do they ever look drastically different? Do Liv Tyler or Monica Bellucci ever looked like bronzed beach goddesses? No, no they don't. They have their own genes, hair colors, eye colors, etc. and the truth is that all it takes to look beautiful is the intensity of the makeup, the application and the blending. Hence why a black and white picture of gorgeous woman is still beautiful.
4. Get your signature look
And so that is why you should make your own look. Try to get inspiration from actual makeup artists on youtube and copy their look for perfect application. It is not the amount of different products you have, it is about which products work for you.
5. Throw away all the old and bad makeup, or sell it
No one can use several mascaras at once. Look at your stash right now. Are you really using that one gloss you bought a year ago? Are you still using a mascara from september? What about that eyelash glue?
6. Find dupes, but good ones I am personally not a dupe fan, but if this is your cup of tea, go for it! In my personal experience I do think that in the long run you will find your life time favourites faster if you look in the high end section. This will save you money in the long run, because we are talking about avoiding huge expensive stashes and buying too many different things that you won't even use anyway.
7. Save money for other goals
If you are already using your money for other goals, you can't spend it on makeup. To avoid spending your money on other unnecessary things, put it on a long term account (a bank account that you can't access for a while) or have it invested by the bank in a low risk stock fund.
8. Never, ever, buy makeup you have never seen in real life
Stop buying makeup from brands you have only seen online. Chances are that the products that arrive will be disappointing. Always swatch products well at the shop. Even at the shop it can be misleading. I once saw a gorgeous lipstick from Guerlain and when I swatched it at the store it looked great, but as soon as I walked out I saw in my hand mirror looked neon purple with a metallic foil finish. Gross!
9. Don't buy beauty products that you really do not need
Lip scrubs, shaving cream, eyebrow gel, a nail polish collection, brow gels, eyeshadow palettes, nail oil, skincare (does it even work, aside from UV protection?). Think about how little you actually need to look gorgeous. Remember beauty is more often in hair, youthful plump skin (hydrate) and just a touch of makeup.
10. Do not go into beauty shops without a plan
I used to be guilty of popping into a makeup store to feel better, or as a reward. When I started saving money and sticking to my list of favourites, I realised how often I was going into beauty shops and it was ridiculous. I knew where all the makeup was and would probably be able to work as a beautician in one of those stores without training, because I had tried almost everything. Instead of going into beauty shops, I try to focus a bit more on book shops, libraries, or just nature.
11. For any actual new products that you really really want, make a wish list and a budget
Of course makeup changes, gets discontinued, or just doesn't fit you anymore. And around the holidays, maybe you just want to buy that one little cheat that you have been thinking of for months. Make a wish list and think very hard before you buy. After a while, the urge to buy this product will go away and you will be grateful that you kept the money instead. Buy something nice for someone else instead or save for the future. The best time to do this is around the holidays, because you get extra money at work and you know exactly what money you are left with at the end of the year, plus, there are sales.
12. Talk yourself out of buying the products you think you will like with pure logic
Cosmetics play a lot on our emotions and our desires.
I will give you a personal example of how I control my urge to buy something I think I desire:
Gorgeous blush, right? Well, here are the reasons I thought of to not buy this product:
- it only looks like a gorgeous color, but on me, it will look too blue
- I know this because I checked swatches online
- and also because the name of the shade is "Osée". I once wasted money on the Dior lipstick with the same name, because it was too metallic, too gritty and too blue
- it's 50 euros. I already have my favourite blush, the Dior Rosy Glow blush, and it works perfectly on me
- I would really miss that 50 euros, even if I liked this product, even if I USED it!
13. Calculate the total worth of your stash
I once managed to estimate how much I must have spent on cosmetics during my entire lifetime, and it wasn't pretty. I could have bought my dream car with that money, or done a deposit for a house. My current stash is now worth around € 4.000 euros as well, and I can only wear so much at once. Calculating the total amount makes you realise what your stash is already worth and how ridiculous it would be to spend even more money on products you can't even use because your face is, well, full! I was thinking of buying a gorgeous looking Lancome eye cream for a little while recently, but resisted when I realised I had a 70 euro eye cream from Estee Lauder sitting quitly in a drawer, unused. I had forgotten what it was worth (mostly because I probably did get a discount on it but online it was worth 70 euros), and by searching the price I realise what I have in my hands, and if I don't like this product, then maybe I need to learn that expensive product just don't work. There are hundreds of articles online that will prove that.
Now I am not saying it is easy, it takes time to get used to this idea. But imagine you could rewind the time and have all the money back that you spent on makeup throughout your life... Well, you can do that, because you have more life ahead of you and you want to stop yourself from ever spending so much on makeup again. You do have control over your life, your hard earned money, and you don't have to look the least bit less pretty for it. If your passion is makeup, you might want to start appreciate what you have more, or just indulge in all of the free online pictures of makeup and just be grateful that you don't have to buy anything of this. If you really want to get your hands on makeup every single day, consider becoming a makeup artist or makeup salesperson.
Good luck!
Helena
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