In 2022, I made a low buy for myself to control my beauty (makeup, skincare, and nail polish) and clothing spending. After that experience, I’m instating another low buy for 2023! This time around, I’ll be focusing just on makeup, nail polish, and clothing (no skincare). Today, I’ll be going through my why, along with my rules for each category. WHY A LOW BUY?As my sister once put it when describing our family: "we all have a little bit of hoarding tendencies." I love makeup and fashion, but that doesn't mean I need to consume more of them. I want to enjoy the stuff I have, I want to use money more wisely, and I want to be more environmentally/socially friendly. Occasionally I think about how most of the possessions that we own will inevitably end up in a landfill somewhere and will outlive us a thousandfold -- and that’s a scary thought. The fashion industry especially is incredibly environmentally devastating, and it’d be nice to slightly mitigate that in the simplest way I can: just buy less. Having specific, quantitative rules via a low buy helps control my purchasing habits in an objective, clear-cut manner. Last year in 2022, skincare was one of the categories in my low buy. While I already knew at the beginning of the year that it wasn’t something I had too much of a problem with when it came to overconsumption, my practical (as opposed to fun/hobby) approach to skincare was really solidified by the end of the year. Since I’m happy with my skincare purchasing habits, I didn't find it necessary to include it in my 2023 low buy plans. Previous low buy posts: MAKEUPPlan: 1 product per month (rolling allotment) In 2022, my rule for makeup was 1 product per month, with that purchase rolling over into the next month if I didn’t buy anything. That worked out well for me (I bought 11 makeup products through my 11-month low buy, with 10 of them being around Black Friday), so I’ll be keeping essentially the same rules for 2023. Since I "saved up" my allotments in 2022 by not buying anything until the latter half of the year, I liked that I had more purchases stacked up around the end of 2022 when there are more sales. That accommodated both for buying more stuff on sale and for buying multiple things in a singular order (which is usually how I buy makeup and is better from a fuel-efficiency standpoint). The thing I will be changing, however, is that replacements will now count as a “real” product. In last year’s low buy, I explicitly didn’t include replacements as a purchase as a way to let myself buy more makeup, but I think I’m at a point in my makeup collection where I don’t want to nor need to give myself that breathing room. NAIL POLISHPlan: 6 polishes I’m keeping my same low buy rule as I had in 2022: 6 polishes through the entire year. I only ended up buying 3 by the end of last year, but my interest in nail polish tends to ebb and flow, so I think this is a realistic goal for me. Just like with skincare, nail care products (e.g. cuticle oil) are more of a utilitarian purchase rather than a fun hobby purchase for me, so once again, I won’t be including nail care in my low buy plans. CLOTHINGPlan: 2 new pieces or 4 secondhand/slow fashion pieces per month (rolling allotment) As of right now, clothing is what I buy the most and is my category that needs a low buy the most gravely. When it comes to hobby spending, historically speaking, I tend to transfer my spending from one hobby to another; for me, fashion was my consumerist replacement when I became less engaged with the makeup community. In 2022, my low buy rule was the same as I’m doing for 2023: 2 new pieces or 4 “sustainable” pieces per month, with available purchases rolling over into subsequent months. Just as in last year, I’m not counting anything I’m required to buy (like stuff for school), loungewear and athletic wear, and underwear -- only daywear/what I consider to be “real” clothes. However, a difference is that for 2023, I will be counting occasionwear toward my purchases. My closet is robust enough now that any fancy occasionwear pieces I buy at this point are wants rather than purely practical purchases, and it only makes sense to count them when I include them in my (still a WIP) wardrobe tracking spreadsheet. Last year, I ended up buying 24 pieces in total -- 10 new, 14 secondhand/slow fashion (which was a decent total amount under my low buy-allowed maximum). In 2023, I hope to buy a greater proportion of sustainable pieces. I like that leeway with sustainable purchases, both to make my low buy more realistically achievable and to make sustainable fashion decisions “worth” more in my closet in a very immediate and tangible way. I know we're already over a month and a half into 2023, but better late than never! In 2022, I didn't start my low buy until February because I didn't even decide to do one until after I made a large fast fashion purchase at the end of January. This year, I knew I wanted to have a low buy even before 2022 was over, so my low buy still encompasses the entirety of the year despite this post only coming out now. I'm happy to report that everything's going according to plan thus far, haha. Are you doing any sort of low buy in 2023?
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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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