I keep putting off and putting off and putting off posting in this thread again. My sole post was many months ago. A family member very important to me passed away not long after that. It has been a very hard 2014. When I'm stressed or upset, my impulse for years has been "buy and collect." I've been a collector of various things my whole life, and when I finally got in to makeup in 2011, the LE aspect of MAC kicked up my collecting side and transferred those habits to makeup. Not good when it comes to things like cream products, lipglosses, etc. I have been trying since early 2013 to cut way back on my makeup purchases. Sometimes I have better luck than others.
Back in December I set a tentative goal of no more than 2 items per MAC collection, with the exception being the mineralized collections which I could get 3-4 things (since I love mineralized products) and the Maleficent collection, which I put no item limit on (I'm a Disney collector first and foremost). Also set a goal of buying no more than 2 MAC lipglosses through the end of June.
I did really well so far mostly. Playland tripped me up due to the bright lipsticks and the bright casual colors (bright lipsticks and CCs are my weaknesses, MAC wise). The Osbourne collection really messed me up with low buy just because so many things worked for pale, cool me, when so many collections before it had royally disappointed me in terms of lacking cool products. Otherwise, I have met my MAC goals. I even surpassed the lipgloss goal, only buying one from Alluring Aquatic and receiving one as a gift from Playland. I've been so happy with that decision that I decided not to buy any more glosses the rest of the year.
My problem has come with other makeup brands. I've mostly avoided things like the CVS clearance sales like the plague and cut way back on LE Color Tattoos from Maybelline (a wise choice after I realized to my horror several of my open ones that aren't event that old are already dried out, while my older MAC paintpots remain perfect). But I've had trouble with things like the Kat Von D lipsticks and Urban Decay eyeshadows. I haven't gone overboard on the UD side, but I definitely did on the KVD lipsticks. I got 7 in a matter of maybe 2 weeks, which is just insane for me. That's what prompted me to return to this thread and set some kind of goal for myself for non-MAC products too because having boundaries worked for me there, and I don't want to just replace a "buying too much MAC" problem with a "buying too much of other brands" problem. So I'm going to try a low-buy goal for non-MAC products of no more than 2 items every two months. Whenever the holiday sets start coming out, that will be my exception and I'll allow for up to 2 additional items from that alone, not counting to my overall low-buy goal. I'm hoping that's workable, since I love holiday sets.
I am proud of myself because I didn't really think I could do as well as I did with the low buy goals. As bad as this year has been, I showed restraint and turned to other avenues (music, reading, and photography) to make me feel better rather than buying makeup. I just still need and want to do better on the non-MAC end, and I hope to not slip up with any of the remaining MAC collections this year. Two overbuys was enough. I'm figuring I should allow for two more though, because I can see from lists of what's to come that I will be skipping a lot of collections entirely the rest of this year because so much of it doesn't work for me. So I'm thinking if I go over, I can't go over but by 1 or 2 products a max of two times. I simply hate that I have so much stuff I don't have time to use, and some stuff that's never been used at all. I don't like to be wasteful. I want to use what I have and enjoy it.
I figured the other day that I would try a variation of what many of you have done, to use as many products as possible, especially neglected ones. I thought a fun goal for myself would be to do a 31 day challenge where I have to use at least 120 different products by the end of the 31st day. If I want to get an A+ from myself, I'll have to use at least 150 different products. I can repeat products, but they'll only count one time. I have a goal within a goal of using 50 products I've never used before. A lot of these will be eyeshadows from palettes I never got around to using, like the UD anniversary palette. We'll see how this all goes.
I don't wear foundation or concealer, and I don't wear mascara. I'm not going to count primers (eyeshadow primers or lip primers). So basically my options involve eyeshadows of all forms, eyeshadow bases, eyeliners, blushes, MSFs, CCBs, CCs, beauty powders, other various powders, lipsticks, glosses, and liners. Probably 80% of my collection is MAC, and I don't even know just how many things I have. I hope to find out by the end of this thanks to a spreadsheet. And also hoping to weed out products I really do not like and either give to friends or donate or something. And weed out products that need to be tossed too!
Here's what I've used so far. Just completed Day 2. I'll list the product, what brand and collection (if applicable) it came from in brackets, and then my impressions in parenthesis.
Day 1
Freak eyeshadow [UD's Electric Palette] (This palette is a very recent purchase and I've used it 3x already; LOVE IT)
Fringe eyeshadow [UD's Electric Palette] (LOVE IT)
Powersurge Kohl eyeliner [MAC] (My standard go-to liner.)
Legendary blush [MAC's Marilyn Monroe] (Still really like it, even though it's not pink, aka my favorite color for cheek products)
Lush Amber lipstick [MAC's Semi Precious] (Sort of like it; pretty color but very drying, like the older lustres tended to be on me. I can't believe I had never opened this. I thought I had!)
Day 2
Her Alter Image eyeshadow [MAC's Venomous Villains] (still LOVE IT)
Vile Violet eyeshadow [MAC's Venomous Villains] (still LOVE IT)
Powersurge Kohl eyeliner [MAC]
Just a Wisp mineralized blush [MAC] (LOVE the color; a pain to apply though; very powdery and easy to look like a disco ball; I think I need to try a different brush with this.)
Budding Love lipstick [MAC's Chen Man] (still LOVE IT; one of my all-time favorite non-bright lipsticks)
Totals
Days: 2
Different products used: 9/120
Products used for the first time: 2/50
I'm sorry this is so long! I thought maybe talking about my experience would help someone else, and help me too to talk about it. And I'm excited about this little project I'm taking on. I think it will be fun and enlightening. I'll try to update every few days.