May & June Low-Buy

After a two-month hiatus, I’m back, kind of. The wedding has come and gone, so we are no longer doing wedding-related tasks every moment of our waking day that is not spent at work. Hooray! However, I’m still going through some personal things and my life feels a little off-kilter right now , but I’m going to try dip my toes back into blogging. It might mean two posts a month, it might mean one a week, or maybe I’ll be able to post twice a week – regardless, I’m just looking forward to getting back into it again.

My first post back is my May and June low-buy. I skipped my May post since I was on a break, so today is going to be a combined May and June low-buy post. May was a no-buy month for me, and I actually did stick to my no-buy. Pat on the back for me! However, I thought I had pretty much lost my mojo in June because I felt like I kept spending with no regard to my low-buy budget – I didn’t even know what my budget was. I don’t know what had gotten into me in June – I blame the fact that it was a stressful month for me, okay? 😛

Here are all the items I bought in June:

Peter Thomas Roth Retinol Fusion PM Night Serum- $81

This was a bit of an impulse buy, which is a little crazy considering this product was $81! I was taking really good care of my skin leading up to the wedding, and my skin was doing quite well – up until two weeks before the wedding when all hell broke loose on my face. I guess it was from stress and lack of sleep. I was pretty upset, considering my skin is generally pretty easy to deal with normally – of course it waits until my wedding to lose its mind. On a whim, I decided to try this retinol – I’ve been thinking of investing in a retinol serum anyways, but was going to wait until the next Sephora VIB sale because it wasn’t a must-have for me. I knew going into it that people don’t typically see the benefits of retinol until a few months after use, but I was hoping it would at least help calm my skin down. I was also pretty nervous starting new skincare right before my wedding…who does that?! Luckily my skin didn’t react badly to it, and it get better right before the wedding. Was it due to this product? Not sure, to be honest – maybe it would have calmed down on its own. Either way, I have  been enjoying this retinol since. I will do a review once I’ve used it for a bit longer!

L’Oreal Lash Paradise Mascara – $7.99

I still have two unopened mascaras sitting at home and had no reason for buying this, other than the fact that it was on sale and I’ve heard rave reviews about it. I wanted to see what all the hype was about! Review to come.

Anastasia Brow Wiz in Granite – $27

This was also a bit of an impulse purchase, in a way. I’ve been using the ABH Dipbrow Pomade for the last two years and I really enjoy it, but for a while now, I felt like I wanted something to help make the edges of my brows look crisper. This was another product I wanted to wait until the VIB sale to buy, but again, I just decided I didn’t want to wait and bought it on a whim.

 

AG Conditioning Mist Detangling Spray – $24.60

Lately I’ve been giving away a lot of my makeup and skincare to my mom (which you’ll see later on in the post). The leave-in conditioner I’ve been using was one of the items I gave to her, which meant that I had to get a new one for myself. I’ve used the same one for YEARS, and while I’ve loved it for a long time, I felt it was time for me to try something new. The SA at the salon recommended that I try this one. So far, so good.

Becca Backlight Priming Filter – $41 (discounted)

The morning my bridesmaids and I were getting ready for my wedding, one of my bridesmaids mentioned about how much she loved this primer. It’s a Becca product so I’ve already heard all the hype surrounding this product within the beauty community, although I’ve never been particularly interested in trying it due to the amount of shimmer in it. However, I was intrigued because the girlfriend who mentioned this doesn’t wear much makeup at all – I figured that if she loved it that much, then it must be good. This is again something I would have waited until a VIB sale to purchase, but it just so happened that Sephora sent out the $10 off coupon that week, so I took that as an opportunity to purchase it. I’ve only used it twice so the verdict is still out, but so far it gives me the freaking glowiest skin ever – oops, I guess I no longer need all the highlighters I bought this year…

Origins Drink Up Intensive Overnight Mask – $27 (discounted)

This is another product I let my momma try and she loved it, so I let her keep my current tube of it. I still needed one for myself since it’s a mask I use regularly, so I went ahead and bought another one. I’ll most likely give her this new one and take the old one back since she tends to use up products faster than I do.

Origins Clear Improvement Active Charcoal Mask – $18 (discounted)

I bought this on a return trip to Sephora, since after my purchase of the Becca primer and the Origins Overnight mask, I hit VIB status and got 10% off (ugh, they really suck you in with the discounts). Over Christmas, I had bought a set of sample sized Origins skincare which included this mask. I’m almost done with the sample size of this mask, but I’m saving the remaining amount to take on our honeymoon. I really enjoy this mask and needed to get a full size of it, so I thought the 10% off was a good opportunity to get it.

Anastasia Beverly Hills #15 Angled Cut Brush – $19.80 (discounted)

I’ve been super into doing my brows lately. The brush I’ve been using with my ABH Dipbrow Pomade, which is an angled liner brush and isn’t even supposed to be used for brows, isn’t precise enough to give me the brows I want. After doing a bit of research and looking around for a good angled eyebrow brush, I decided to get this brush. It’s also considered a mini brush, which means it’ll be good for travelling.

So, how did I do for the month of June? In total, I spent $249 on beauty products this month! However, since I’m only counting makeup towards my low-buy budget, my total is $76 (not including the brush since I consider that a tool), and my budget was $100. Underspending for the win!