No Buy Makeup Challenge Update-Week #1

As I said in my last post, I began a "No Buy Challenge" on January 1st and plan on going until March 31st... I know seems like forever.  I have really been looking at my life from a new perspective lately, for a lot of reasons I think, including how poor my finances have been and I've really been trying to cut back on excessive spending.  Well, while looking at this I have realized just how much money I have spent on makeup over the past year... and if I were to give it a rough guess I would probably guess around $1000. A $1000 dollars. There is no justification for that.  Now, that's not to say that I regret my purchases or that I am not in love with  my makeup, but rather I just cannot be okay with spending money like that on makeup when I'm in default on my student loans and am living with my parents... it's unacceptable.  Another thing I realized whilst surveying my life and specifically my makeup collection. I have so many products that I rarely ever use.... nice products that just get lost in the shuffle as well as products I spent good money on but didn't really love.

And so, all things considered,  I decided that I'm going to commit to not purchasing any make up products for 3 whole months. Last year I attempted a 10 pan challenge and failed epic-ly, it seemed daunting and scary to have to pick products to completely finish.  I also realized that I was rushing through, using more product than I normally would and was reaching for the same products every single day, which is not the point of the challenge that I'm doing this time. This time I want to work on appreciating the things that I have so that I don't find the need to constantly buy more.  I want to experiment with things that I haven't used much of in the past and try out some of the palettes that have been neglected due to having smaller more compact options. I want to really savor the "art" of using all the makeup I've purchased and make it worth it. Who knows, maybe I'll end up continuing it on for longer than 3 months.  But I'm not thinking that way yet.  Just want to be greatful for what I have now.

This week wasn't too hard actually, very surprising since I was in more than one Drugstore in the past 3 days and each time ended up with something in my hands.  But it was pretty easy to talk myself down from there and remember my goals.  I did buy my first Sigma brush, the E25 Blending Brush, with a gift card I recieved from my brother for Christmas.  Considering it wasn't my money, nor was it an actual "makeup product" I didn't feel too guilty, I've been needing to replenish a few of my brushes, my ELF Studio Brushes, though I love them they are starting to fall apart and so I'm slowly going to work on building up my set again but for now it was just that one 10 dollar splurge. Let's see what all the hype is about I guess lol.

Well I hope you are all having a wonderful and blessed 2013 so far!
And if any of you have completed a challenge similar to this one please comment with your tips!
Talk to you soon!
Colie   

So.. Project 10 Fail

My Non Palette Eye Makeup

About a month ago I started a Project Pan with a list of products I wanted to hit pan on, and though I have hit pan/finished a few of the items on the list, I have also grown to love and appreciate a few of the cosmetics that I originally put on the list.  The whole Project Pan became very vain to me after that.  I had been rushing through these products, hoping to finish them the as quickly as possible just so I could buy new products.  How twisted is that? So I've decided to change the parameters of my cut back into a more lax makeup diet. I have decided that from here on out I am just going to try to spend less than $20 a month on cosmetics and at the end of the month I will do a post on that months emptys.  I hope that this will help encourage me to use more products that I own and spend less on new products.  This will include makeup, hair and body products.

If anyone has any tips on how to spend less/use more please leave a comment below!

Additional Project Pan Products

Hey all!
So I went through my entire collection today and added some products to my P10P so it's more like a P16P now.  The rules are to remain the same though, I just found some new products I would like to try to finish up for various reasons.

Here are the added products:

1. Beauty Rush Baked Eyeshadow in the color Gold Rush- I have had this product for probably around a year and really want to finish it off and just remove it from my collection.  I like this product but have a lot of very similar colored eyeshadows. 
2. Wet n Wild ColorIcon Baked Eyeshadow in the color Fiery- Love this color, it's very mauvy and shimmery I would just like to try to use it more mostly. 
3.  Nuance by Selma Hyack Lights.Camera.Action Eye Trio- This is such a handy product that comes with a cream eyeshadow, eye brightener and eye liner in one stick.  I bought this product a few months ago before I discovered E.LF. and just really want to remember this more and continue to use it.  
4. NYC Metro Quartet Eye Shadow in Lexington Luxury-I have 3 of these in different shades and this is my least favorite color combination.  I dont hate it but it's really boring so I just want to get rid of it without wasting money. 
5. E.L.F Studie Single Eyeshadow in Butter Cream-This is probably my least favorite E.L.F probduct.  The color is a yellowish cream color and it is very chalky.  I received this in an E.L.F free gift package and don't want to just waste it. 
6. E.L.F. HyperShine Lipgloss in the color Flirt- I have like 4 of these products because E.L.F. always sends them as a free gift and I often neglect to use lipglosses. 
7. E.LF. Eyelid Primer in Sheer- I have accumulated a ton of eyelid primers and just want to use this one up. 

All of My Project Pan Products

I also decided to remove my Mac PaintPot from the original list because it is so expensive I really don't want to burn through it, I want it to last..  I'm not really sure why I originially included it anyway because it's neither something I want to finish off or use more of. 

I will post a list on the right side of the blog of all the items I am including in the P16P and will cross them off as I finish them. 

Thanks for reading and post again soon!

My Project 10 Pan

Hey All! So I realized I have been really gluttonous about my makeup collection in the past month and need to pull in the reigns. So I decided to start my own "Project 10 Pan".  I am so nervous about this project because I am literally addicted to makeup but I love these products that I have picked so I am not worried about this because the last few months I have definitely been hoarding makeup.  I have bought everything in sight without thinking about how much I was spending.  So here it goes! For those of you who don't know a "Project Pan" is when you go on a makeup/beauty product buying strike until you finish "X" amount of products.  I will be hitting pan on 10 products.


As of tonight the following rules apply:

• To add a product to my finished "Pan" list, I have to use up the entire thing. Like as in throwing it in the trash barrel kind of finished. Dead.
• I may slip up if I find something limited edition, one of a kind, and a product that I know I will regret passing up. I will probably just keep it in the box until I'm done with this project. Then it will be like a little reward for finishing! 
• Building off of the previous rule, if I see something on a major sale or if ELF has a major deal I will buy the product but it will remain in it's packaging until the product pan is over.  I will also let all of my readers know if this happens so I can be kept accountable. 
• If I receive any giftcards or CVS extrabucks I will use them.  The point of this is to spend less money, not downsize.

Here are my products:

• E.L.F. Complexion Perfection Powder- I love this product so much and use it constantly.  It's only $3 dollars from eyeslipsface.com and I will be starting a brand new one for this product.
• Sephora Mineral Matte Touch Up Powder- I just bought this product last week and it's a great setting powder. So smooth!!
• Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips Nude Palette-  The colors in the palette are beautiful and I use them all the time.  It is very versitile and the shadows are all beautifully creamy.
• Loreal Voluminous Million Lashes- This is my everyday mascara and this is a fairly new product so finishing it will take a while. 
• Sephora Jumbo 12hr Waterproof Liner in White- I use this everyday for innercorner brightening but I have a whole bunch of innercorner pencils so I would like to continue with this one. 
• E.L.F Mineral Eye Liner in Black- Again I use this pencil almost every day.  It is a great waterline color and the pigmentation and staying power are amazing!
• MAC PaintPot in Rubenesque- This will be my most difficult product to hit pan on because I only use a tiny bit per use.
• E.L.F. Cover Everything Concealer in Corrective Yellow- This is a great undereye concealer.
• Hard Candy Sheer Envy Illuminating Primer-  This stuff is great but I have the regular one that I prefer so this is the only product I am trying to Pan to get rid of rather than just throwing out my money. 
• E.L.F Minty Lip Gloss in Seattle- Clear, shimmery, minty, GOODNESS!

Yep so that's it! If anyone has every done a product pan or a makeup diet please let me know any tips you used for curbing the desire to buy buy buy. LOL. Thanks for reading and Ill be back soon!