Shopping My Stash

Since I am doing a low-buy this year, I thought that this would give me an opportunity to dig out some items that need a little more loving from me, and start using them on a more regular basis.

I have a pretty manageable makeup collection, so I’m generally able to use all the products that I own every once in a while. However, I still tend to default to the same ones over and over again (I’m looking at you, Urban Decay Naked Palette and Tarte Off the Cuff!) Because of this, I decided to shop my own stash in order to incorporate my lesser-used products into my makeup routine. I have stowed away my most loved products in a drawer (out of sight, out of mind) and am keeping 9 products out on my desktop, in my line of sight, so that I’ll use them more. A lot of the items I have chosen are eye shadows, which is the product that I own the most of. It only takes a bajillion years to get through eyeshadow so I know I’m not going to get through any of them this year, but I really just want to make it a point to use them more often. Keep reading to see which ones I chose!

Makeup I’m Trashing

While I’m on my low-buy, I thought I should take the opportunity to organize my makeup collection and get rid of all the things I don’t use anymore.

First, I wanted to do an inventory count of how much makeup I have in each category so that I could have a better sense of how much I own, and then decide what I want to get rid of. I don’t own nearly as big a collection as most makeup lovers, but I don’t think one needs to own a lot of makeup to say that they love makeup. Anyways, regardless of how big my collection, the amount I own is still too much for my liking.

My January Low-Buy Purchase

I decided to go on a low-buy at the beginning of the year as 2016 will be heavy on expenses (wedding! new house!). As per my low-buy, I set my January allowance to be $50 – higher than other months because I knew January would be a stressful month and that I would need to give myself a little wiggle room for some retail therapy. Well, I was right and I decided to wander around Sephora when I was at the mall last weekend.

January Reads

During December, I started reading the gritty crime fiction Career of Evil in the festive spirit of Christmas, and I have just finished the book. Career of Evil is the third and latest novel written by Robert Galbraith, or the author better known as J.K. Rowling. Since the end of the Harry Potter series, I have read all of Rowling’s books that she has written under both her own name and her pseudonym. It doesn’t matter whether she’s writing fantasy, crime, or books about social issues, I think all of her books are gems.

Review: Body Shop Camomile Silky Cleansing Oil

Bah, I abandoned my blog last week, but I am armed with a legitimate and (what I think is) a reasonable excuse: I worked 70 hours last week, from Monday to Sunday. I am not really thinking straight, and I hope this week is going to be better but it’s not looking promising

ANYWAYS, I wanted to get this blog post up. After hearing rave reviews online, I bought the Body Shop Camomile Cleansing Oil a few months ago in hopes that it could replace my longtime and very expensive love, the MAC Cleanse Off Oil.

The Caamomile Cleansing Oil costs $16 for 200 mL and the MAC Cleanse Off Oil costs $38 for 150 mL. This is $0.08/mL for the Body Shop oil, as compared to the $0.25/mL for the MAC oil – obviously, the Camomile Cleansing Oil is much less expensive!

Mani Monday & New Nail Polishes!

For Christmas, one of my friends bought everyone in our close group of girlfriends a bottle of wine as part of their gift. However, she knows that I don’t drink, so she bought me a champagne bottle…of nail polish! What a cute idea for her to get me “alcohol” just like everyone else, but that’s not really alcohol.

Happy New Year and Blog-Related Changes for 2016!

First off, I want to wish everyone a very Happy New Year! I hope 2016 holds wonderful things for you all.

2015 was a really wonderful and memorable year for me. I hit many major life milestones (most of which I will talk about in this post), went on two wonderful trips, and I started my blog in September!

I usually only talk about snippets of my life on my blog, and I have no plans to begin making my blog super personal anytime soon. However, there are some changes in my life that will affect my blog, so I wanted to give a little life update today on what happened in 2015 and how that will change my blog. Sit tight, ladies and gents – sometimes I can’t shut up so this is going to be a long one.