Can you believe we're already in 2023? Well, call me Ripley because it's here whether you believe it or not! With the end of 2022 also comes the end of my first-ever beauty and clothing low buy. I started this in February as a way to intentionally curb my spending and be more intentional about what I buy. I posted my plans/intro post in February, and my midpoint check-in came in July. As of July, I was doing really well within my criteria, and I was actually way below my set purchasing limits. Now that we're here at the year-end (actually 11-month) finale, let's see how my makeup, skincare, nail polish, and clothing low buy actually went! OVERALL THOUGHTSIn 2021, I spent (well, MSRP value/full price at the time of purchase, so not necessarily how much I actually paid) <$600 on beauty items -- 16 makeup items + 13 skincare items + 14 nail polishes. I don't have the exact total MSRP since I didn't start recording individual prices until partway through the year. In 2022, the total beauty (11 makeup + 11 skincare + 3 nail polish items) MSRP was $316.76.* *I record all of my beauty prices as full MSRP at the time of purchase. However, so many beauty brands have increased their prices throughout 2021 and 2022, so there might be some discrepancies between what I have listed and what you'll actually see out there currently. I did my best to note the changes, but it's possible I missed some. Blame the cozzie livs. For clothing, I'm not sure what my total spending was like in 2021 because I didn't track my purchases very well at all. However, it was my fashion spending that encouraged me to begin a low buy in the first place. Throughout my low buy, I ended up purchasing 24 (twenty-four!!) clothing pieces, totaling $715.86 (and this is actually what I paid including discounts, not full price). While I can’t quantitatively compare that to 2021, I'm sure it was an improvement -- despite that high number. In my original post, I said I wanted to be public about my low buy: 1) for content, and 2) for accountability. In the first couple of months of 2022, there were times when I was tempted to break my low buy but was stopped by the humiliation of having to admit my follies online -- my shame to be forever preserved by Mr. Internet himself. However, like I also said in the midpoint check-in, as the months went on, I found myself restrained less by that external motivation and more so by my own internal desire to stick to my own goals. We love to see it. Black Friday sales in particular tempted me to buy past my allowed amounts (specifically for makeup), but my low buy held me back there. Even so, my number one, most significant deterrent for hobby spending -- 100% -- was school and generally being very, very busy in 2022. I was already swamped with college last school year when I was in my first year of professional pharmacy school. And now I’m in the second year of pharmacy school, which is widely regarded as the hardest year. I have way less time to engage in my aesthetic hobbies; I am not as entrenched in online communities as I once was and spend much less time interacting (/have much less time to interact) with online content that encourages me to Buy Stuff or online window shopping/researching stuff to buy. My biggest periods of spending mostly came out of breaks. Something else that I found interesting: in compiling all my purchases in a singular list for the purposes of my low buy tracking, it was a little jarring to me to see really just how much stuff I bought. When you only buy a handful of things a month or every several months, it doesn't feel like a lot. When you look at it all together as a full picture, it does feel like a lot. It's difficult to objectively say what's the "right" amount of stuff to buy. Some people spend more of their money on going out to eat, on concerts, on movies, other hobbies or what have you that brings them joy. For me, beauty and clothing simply are the things that I spend my money on that bring me joy. And honestly, when it comes to my own money, I spend almost nothing outside of beauty and clothes. But is all this really true, or am I just trying to justify my genuine hyper-consumerism when the fashion industry in particular is so environmentally devastating? Food for thought -- it's always good to reflect on these things. Small note: my low buy didn't start until February, so my numbers don't include anything from January. MakeupAll the makeup I bought in 2022 Plan: 1 product per month (rolling allotment, barring replacements) = 11 total Actual by end of year: 11 products ($69.50 MSRP at time of purchase) By the six-month check-in, I purchased a grand total of zero makeup products. I bought all 11 of my makeup purchases this year in November, with 10 of those being around Black Friday. All 10 of those Black Friday-era purchases were from indie brands, with many of them being ~sporkly~, shifty shimmers that indie brands are known for and were something I was interested in buying more of in 2022. At the risk of sounding like a broken record here, I barely wore any makeup this year. Especially this past fall semester, I wore makeup maybe once every other week. Despite having purchased 11 items, which can sound like a whole lot, 9 of those were single magnetic indie eyeshadows, and 1 was an empty magnetic palette. One could make a strong argument that that’s basically the equivalent of buying 1 eyeshadow palette (in fact, the majority of eyeshadow palettes on the market come with more eyeshadows than that). As such, it feels like, in a way, I only bought 2 makeup items throughout the year. For the most part, I’m happy with what I bought. As I said, I wanted to try more stuff from indie makeup brands, and I did! I just wish I spent more time doing research on the Devinah shadows because 2 of the mattes -- Passion and Lucretia -- are close enough that I really could've just gotten 1 and not the other. Makeup purchase log:
SkincareSkincare purchases of 2022 Plan: replacement-only no buy for the entire year Actual by end of year: replacement-ish-only no buy ($205.26 MSRP at time of purchase) 2022 was a real struggle year for my skin. I talked about it in my dry skincare routine post and my 2022 beauty favorites post, but in my memory, I had the worst skin of my life in 2022 and for the most prolonged period of time. However, even with those new challenges, 10/11 of my skincare purchases were just pure replacements for staple products or categories in my skincare routine. The only purchase I regret is the INNBeauty Project Slushy Serum Moisturizer Crush. This was the purchase that’s making me say I achieved a "replacement-ish" no buy. I knew nothing about the brand when I saw this in person at Sephora (I hadn’t even heard of it before), but I was sucked in by the very cute packaging -- even though I didn’t really need to buy it. I didn’t do any research at all before buying it, and it’s honestly kinda useless in my routine. It’s meant to be a hybrid serum-moisturizer to be used on its own or underneath a dedicated moisturizer, but it’s not occlusive enough for my dry skin to be used as a moisturizer alone, and even as a serum it feels too watery and like all the hydration just evaporates off. Other than that 1 product, I’d say my skincare RONB was successful! Skincare just isn't something I feel I have too much of a problem with when it comes to overconsumption since it's more of a utilitarian, practical thing for me rather than a hobby thing, especially because (unlike makeup and nail polish) I completely use up pretty much every skincare product that I buy. Skincare purchase log:
Nail PolishCirque Colors Yuzu, Velvet Rope, and La Dolce Vita Plan: 6 polishes for the entire year Actual by end of year: 3 polishes ($42 MSRP at time of purchase) I only made 1 nail polish order throughout the year. Since reentering the hobby of nail polish back in 2019, my interest in nail polish has waxed and waned, so this singular purchase of 3 polishes is not all too surprising. I love fun, unique indie and boutique nail polishes, so the 3 polishes I got were all from Cirque Colors, which is an Asian-owned boutique brand based in Brooklyn. Cirque Colors customer support is also really awesome. That purchase was during their anniversary sale where they had a 20% off coupon code. When I placed my order, I forgot to use the coupon code, so I contacted customer support, and they quickly refunded me the difference. Nail polish purchase log:
ClothingPlan: 2 new pieces per month or 4 secondhand/slow fashion pieces per month (rolling allotment) = 22 new or 44 secondhand or somewhere in between Actual by end of year: 10 new + 14 secondhand/slow fashion (equivalent to 17 new or 34 secondhand/slow fashion), total $715.86 The rule I set for myself is that I could buy 2 new pieces per month, with secondhand or slow fashion pieces counting as "half" of a purchase. Anything I got for free or that was required for something didn’t count as a purchase/in the low buy, so these numbers don’t include a handful of gifts, shirts for student organizations at school, things my mom bought for me, and a plethora of items I pilfered from my mom’s closet when we moved out of my childhood home. I also set out from the beginning that only daywear would count as a real purchase: no occasion wear, no loungewear, no underwear, etc. However, while doing all my totals for this post, I realized that I had screwed up in the first half of the year and forgot to include a few purchases. This meant that I was beyond my purchase allotment month-to-date in March and April. Fortunately, that didn't affect my ending result, and I was still within my allowed grand total by the completion of the low buy. While I can't say that every single item of clothing I bought during my clothing low buy was a home run, for the most part, I made generally good purchasing decisions (nonetheless, I would also argue that it’s impossible for 100% of the clothes you get to 100% work out 100% of the time, even with careful consideration, because there are so many different factors at play when it comes to style.) The leeway I gave with secondhand stuff and items from "ethical"/"slow fashion"/"sustainable" brands was great, and it gave sustainable purchases an immediate, direct advantage over fast fashion that’s much more tangible than the lofty vision of ~#sustainability~. Of the 24 total items I bought during my 2022 low buy, 58% were sustainable purchases. In 2023, I hope this proportion is even greater.
While I've been tracking my beauty purchases for a hot second now, this was the first time I actually calculated an annual total, and I'm content with those numbers. With the results of that tracking, I don’t think I'll even include skincare at all in the next low buy since it's not something I struggle with when it comes to how much I buy. As for clothing, I've been trying to compile a wardrobe spreadsheet of *all* my clothes, but it's been a long time in the making and is still a work in progress. As such, 2022 was my first time really tracking all of my wardrobe ins, and it was eye-opening to me to see how much I bought and spent through my low buy, even with my rules, although it didn't feel like that much in the moment. All in all, I'm satisfied with how my low buy went. My rules did help restrain my purchases, but it was in a way that was realistic and still allowed me to enjoy my hobbies. I plan on having another low buy for 2023 (but that'll be its own dedicated introduction post). If you find yourself also struggling with your consumption habits, a formal low buy with pre-set-out rules is a great way to keep yourself in check! Did you do a low buy in 2022? How did it go?
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about @glowyminoI have dry skin and very dry and textured lips. I also have a medium-light skintone (somewhere in the realm of NC25-30) with strong warm yellow/olive undertones. I have a tendency to prefer a glowy, lightweight base and color cosmetics in shades of a warm undertone. Read more about me in the about page! Archives
May 2024
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