How much is too much? Makeup Burnout? Spending too much.

[AudreyNicole]

Re: How much is too much?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Karen_B I do the same thing! Very often, when I feel the need to buy something and I know I shouldn't (I am on a very tight budget at the moment) I just go through my stash and that will curb the need to purchase. The other day I rediscovered Moonflower from the Strange Hybrid collection, and I thought to myself, this is gorgeous! It stresses me out somehow to think about all the lovely colours sitting in my makeup cupboard, feeling all neglected and unloved... LOL! Oh and speaking of sticking to a budget and saving money - I have completely given up buying full size jars of pigments. I get samples on here or I split with a friend or two and that of course saves a lot of money. I have a full size jar of Vanilla, and I use it very often, and it looks practically untouched. So there would be no point at all to splurge on a jar of a bolder colour that I probably wouldn't use too frequently.

I absolutely LOVE Moonflower! I use it alot! I know what you mean about pigments. Most I get samples of, but I have full size jars of the ones I consider multipurpose - Vanilla, Your Ladyship, Gold Dusk and Silver Fog. I do plan to get samples of the Naughty Nauticals pigments, with the exception of Mutiny. That I will buy a fullsize jar of because it is my favorite color, and I know I can use it alot with the rest of my shadows in that color family.

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkishstar Yeah, and to give myself time to REALLY enjoy it, I refuse to get back-ups of things anymore. I won't even get a chance to use up the one I got in the first place, so why get a back-up? It just makes me spend more money and only wear things once or twice. So I really really need to start selling off my stuff too in the near future. Once I know I am done and I'm satisfied with the colors I have. I know I will stop. And if not.. then I will have to keep selling stash off... D: The colors that are my weakness though.. are red lipcolor, hot pink lipcolor, and teal and turquoise eyeshadows!

I won't buy backups either. I did it once or twice, and sold them off shortly after. I try to swap for them, but I don't fret if I can't. And I am with ya, teals and pink lips and cheeks are my weeknesses. I always find them SO hard to resist!

 

[Emily_3383]

Re: How much is too much?

I have been feeling this way for a while. I really try to buy only one thing per collection and not even/ My goal right now is to finish using a few things before i buy a new one.

 

[Beauty Mark]

Re: How much is too much?

Quote:

Originally Posted by AudreyNicole I have been doing this recently too. I call it "shopping my stash" Today, I wore Ether mineralized shadow, which I think I have worn twice since I got it, and I fell in LOVE with it. Now I know why I bought it! I think that with the way MAC releases collections like wild fire, it doesn't give me a chance to enjoy the things I get from one collection before I am buying from another. I am rediscovering things that I bought a year ago, and loving it! It's kinda cool

It's kind of amazing when you do that with anything you own. I've been doing that with music and have found that there's a lot of music I enjoy

 

[Chic 2k6]

Re: How much is too much?

i used to want everything from new collections.

and i havent bought MAC since the Metal X collection back in december!!

i just dont have the money anymore now im at college and I have a car now

 

[stv578]

Re: How much is too much?

Well, my husband also thinks a lot of the colours i purchase look similar! I know I have too much make-up, I can't really justify the amount of my current stash, but... the odd times that I exercised restraint, I have ended up regretting not getting something, as was the case with BLM last year. I also find that I tend to go through some serious phases with colours, so I'll go from doing brights to neutral browns, cools then warms, etc. And while I have a fairly large stash, I still find sometimes that I don't have the perfect shade of this or that. It's a vicious cycle!

I'm actually glad I've joined Specktra, because having a sneak peek at the upcoming collections means I can pick a few items from each, because I know what's coming up and when, as opposed to seeing a collection and feeling like i need to buy certain items because they are LE. So I have planned about 2-3 items from each summer collection, maybe 4 from the neo sci-fi. If I hadn't seen all 3 previews, I think I would have gotten 4 or 5 from NN alone.

I also found recently as we started to redecorate our place on a budget that I haven't had near the same urge to go out and haul, because I see all these great things I want to get for the house, that would've been so much easier to do if I hadn't gone so crazy hauling so much make-up over the last year. It's just too easy to spend a ton on MAC or other brands when you feel like your just getting a couple items here and there, but man! Does it ever add up!

 

[BlahWah]

Re: How much is too much?

Quote:

Originally Posted by CoralBlast i was so embarassed when i bought 5bp blushes and the cashier said "is this for storage ?" and when i said it's mine she looked at me like that !

I can't believe a MA would say that! She's supposed be supporting you, not questioning you! =P

For good and for bad, I have to be ultra picky about the items I buy simply because I have an incredibly limited budget. For the most part, buying 4 shadows/lippies/glosses eats up almost 1/2 of what I've put aside as "fun money" for the month, which goes from eating out to seeing a show or anything else I treat myself to. My MAC buying was crazier at the beginning when, having become a MAC fan in late 2005, I realized I missed out on C-Squeeze and Salsabelle and Belle Azure and... lol, that list can go on. I tried to find all those great items from the collections and spent, if not money, soooo much time on hunting those down and getting the "best deal". For the most part tho, I hardly have anything that's incredibly similar, except for Purple Shower/Endless Love and Aquadisiac/Turquatic, altho I can still justify those in my head as I use them...

What sucks is that I don't have much from the permanent collection either because I'm always drawn to LE items! Anytime a friend asks about a shadow I'd have to disappoint them b/c they can't find that shade anymore!

Things got a bit out of hand again with Fafi and Heatherette but after my last haul of 2 more bpb, I'm on a no-buy till Cool Heat. I find that my skills have improved over the last few months as well, which makes some ignored shadows come alive in ways I never thought possible on my lids! So with that excitement in store, I'm telling myself I've got enough until the collection that makes me drool right off the bat.

 

[darkishstar]

Re: How much is too much?

Quote:

Originally Posted by AudreyNicole I won't buy backups either. I did it once or twice, and sold them off shortly after. I try to swap for them, but I don't fret if I can't. And I am with ya, teals and pink lips and cheeks are my weeknesses. I always find them SO hard to resist!

Yeah, I'm going to have to open a sale thread soon too and finally learn how to sell things online! Hahahaha

I need to get rid of some extra back-ups and things I really don't need. I know I really went crazy on Antiquitease and got quite a few too many back-ups of things I really don't need. Even though I love Mi'lady Red.. I don't need 2 extra back-ups. You know?

In the end, if you regret not getting something, it's not the end of the world you know? You learn to live without it and see it on someone else's beautiful face in an FOTD thinking.. "Darn, I wish I had that color now! It looks so gorgeous on her! But I'm glad I can see the color being used because if I had bought it, maybe I might not have used it as much!" So there you go. At the end of the day, you life won't end without the color.

 

[AudreyNicole]

Re: How much is too much?

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlahWah I find that my skills have improved over the last few months as well, which makes some ignored shadows come alive in ways I never thought possible on my lids!

This is true for me too. As I am digging through my stash and rediscovering things, I find I am getting better with putting shades together to make a nice look, whereas before, I was afraid of certain colors because I didn't know of a way to wear them that was flattering on me (i.e. Freshwater, Firespot, Eyepopping) I also ignored alot of great colors because I didn't have the right colors to pair with them to make them wearable for me. Now, I have built a collection of complimentry colors!

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Originally Posted by darkishstar "Darn, I wish I had that color now! It looks so gorgeous on her!

Ohhhh, in the beginning of my MAC collecting, I fell into this trap BIGTIME! I would go through FOTDs here, and see something on someone who was 5 shades darker than me who had brown hair and eyes, and think just because it looked so great on her, it would look just as great on my NW15/blonde/blue eyed self. SO many times, that was not the case, and I ended up regretting my purchases. Or in other situations, I would hear raves about certain products, like bronzer for example. Well, if everyone else loves MAC bronzer, I will too, right? Wrong. I don't like it on me, and I bought it anyway... Stupid! I know now what I like AND what works best on my skintone, and that's what I'm stickin' to!

 

[Meryl]

Re: How much is too much?

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Originally Posted by stv578 Well, my husband also thinks a lot of the colours i purchase look similar!

It depends on how perceptive, or colour sensitive, a person is. I find my eye-shadows and lipsticks are very different when I compare them on a white piece of paper.

However, when worn on the eye or lip... they do all start to look the same.

 

[abbyquack]

Re: How much is too much?

i'm so glad everyone is feeling the same way as me! i've been looking at these new collections and i feel so much pressure to buy it all because it's "limited edition" or because it's new, but like with NN, i'm not even into most of the colors. Ok so neo sci-fi is going to be sick for me, but this is MAC's tactic. You sell these cool packaged goods, le, etc and people think they have to have it when they most likely won't use it ever.

And I have been making combos out of old colors too, something that is so rewarding!

But honestly you don't need everything, and you shouldn't feel pressured to because everyone here feels the same

 

[darkishstar]

Re: How much is too much?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beauty Mark It's kind of amazing when you do that with anything you own. I've been doing that with music and have found that there's a lot of music I enjoy

I do that too! I was so crazy about music that when albums of artists I like would come out, I would go crazy and get them all one after the other and never have time to digest and enjoy them. When I slipped in MAC addiction, I've actually been listening to my music more and getting more out of it!

So hopefully the same applies for MAC. That once I find something else to obsess on, I can discover new things I love about my collection that I didn't have time to enjoy because of all the spending I was doing.

 

[tripwirechick]

Re: How much is too much?

I have been feeling exactly like this for the last few months. I've got to the point where I am at a loss for what to wear, not because I have run out of ideas, but because I am overwhelmed by the amount of things I have to choose from. I have sold some things from my collection, but I still have so much. I think I have been smarter about buying from the more recent collections. For example, I was going to get Rollickin' from Fafi but decided not to because I had the blue McQueen paintpot and resigned myself to that being enough for me.
It would make life much easier if MAC would just slow down, and I think I would feel more excited if the collections were more spaced out. There would be more anticipation for something new rather than new things every other week.

 

[Beauty Mark]

Re: How much is too much?

Quote:

Originally Posted by tripwirechick I have been feeling exactly like this for the last few months. I've got to the point where I am at a loss for what to wear, not because I have run out of ideas, but because I am overwhelmed by the amount of things I have to choose from. I have sold some things from my collection, but I still have so much. I think I have been smarter about buying from the more recent collections. For example, I was going to get Rollickin' from Fafi but decided not to because I had the blue McQueen paintpot and resigned myself to that being enough for me. It would make life much easier if MAC would just slow down, and I think I would feel more excited if the collections were more spaced out. There would be more anticipation for something new rather than new things every other week.

It's very clever marketing. When I know a month is going to be tight for me, I simply don't look at the website or to the MAC store (actually, Sephora is more of my weakness, so I don't go there). It's hard to get excited about something you have no idea about.

 

[Krasevayadancer]

Re: How much is too much?

Great thread Audrey! Here are my thoughts.

I definitely agree that there are way too many collections coming out in the next few months, but I do think that the excitement of new colors and products + each collection being different and having something for everyone is really what gives mac its ultimate appeal. What I buy definitely falls into several factor categories:
1. The "hype" factor:
This is where specktra is involved. Oftentimes I will look at the preliminary details of a collection or I will see it in person and I will think to myself, whats the big deal. In the end I buy it because I feel i have to love it as much as everyone else does, and in the end it sits in my traincase til I decide to sell it because it sits unused... Two great examples: Parrot E/S and Mi'Lady MES
2. The "perfect for me" factor
More often than not, if something falls into this category I will get it and use it til it runs out.
3. The "i'm going to regret if i don't get it" factor
This is similar to the hype category. I think to myself that I like this but am not sure if I would get much use out of it. In the end I cave because i think to myself, what if it sells out and I can never have it
4. The "newbie" factor
Not applicable so much now, but when I first got into mac and it's hype, i felt the need to purchase every item in a new collection because i don't have anything like it. Now i have learned that if I am comfortable with a color and it looks great on me, then I should get it. This leads me to category 5...
5. The "i'm trying to expand my horizons" factor
This is when I buy a color I never really wear, but figure i should incorporate into my regime. Bottom line is it never works. I find that I wear what i wear for a reason, anything else just doesn't look good and hence doesn't get used.

Once I was able to separate items and collections into these categories, I am not too concerned with having similar items because quite frankly if the colors work for me then I will use them everyday. I have also learned not to go too crazy with lipglasses cause in the end they all look the same to me (all of them are pale pink!)

 

[FrazzledOne]

Re: How much is too much?

I totally agree with AudreyNicole with her original post. I went through my shadow collection and I have 553 MAC shadows. Yea, you read that right and after doing my swatches I just shook my head. I mean, how many shades of green, beige, or whatever color do I really need?

I can see if one just started into MAC, but with the new collections coming up the shadows are either dups of older d/c shadows that I already have or something very close to my collection. Besides if MAC has just a slight shade difference in one of their new shadows, can you really tell the difference on your eyes?

I haven't bought anything new since the N collection and I won't except for staples that I run out of. I still like the new stuff just to look at or get ideas from the collection "looks".

 

[JanineDesiree]

Re: How much is too much?

i know how you feel. even though i have much less then you, and most people, i am seeing a trend with the lip products. they are all so similar in color, and i buy backups.. which i think makes me crazy now that i have items all so close in color. but i just cant part.
but i have never been one to buy alot from collections coming out. usually no more then 3 items from a collection, tho usually only one or two items. i just need to be more picky with what i buy for lips.

 

[AudreyNicole]

Re: How much is too much?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Krasevayadancer Once I was able to separate items and collections into these categories, I am not too concerned with having similar items because quite frankly if the colors work for me then I will use them everyday. I have also learned not to go too crazy with lipglasses cause in the end they all look the same to me (all of them are pale pink!)

I know what you mean about lipglass... All that I have, I never wear alone, just over lipstick, so they all DO look the same... I have promised myself, after Naughty Nauticals, NO more lipstick or lipglass until I use up some of what I have (I won't even tempt myself by swatching them) . I am caving with Naughty Nauticals only because they are lustreglass, and I prefer them

 

[makeupgal]

Re: How much is too much?

As the owner of 147 lipsticks, 63 pigments 294 eyeshadows, the list goes on...(not bragging here, just making a point), I HAVE TO agree with you. It's like an obsession and there is NO WAY I can use up what I already have in my entire life. I think I buy entire collections just out of habit, meanwhile thinking this lipstick looks just like this or this eyeshadow is amost like that one. So after reading this, you made me realize that there is no rule that says you have to buy the entire collection and 2 or 3 things will suffice. Thanks for the reality check!

 

[AudreyNicole]

Re: How much is too much?

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Originally Posted by makeupgal As the owner of 147 lipsticks, 63 pigments 294 eyeshadows, the list goes on...(not bragging here, just making a point), I HAVE TO agree with you. It's like an obsession and there is NO WAY I can use up what I already have in my entire life. I think I buy entire collections just out of habit, meanwhile thinking this lipstick looks just like this or this eyeshadow is amost like that one. So after reading this, you made me realize that there is no rule that says you have to buy the entire collection and 2 or 3 things will suffice. Thanks for the reality check!

I blame it all on those great girls at International Mall! It's THEIR fault!

 

[makeba]

Re: How much is too much?

when i first developed an interest in MAC i was so overwhelmed and excited that i felt i needed everything. I have a pretty good collection now; but still desire to have more. But I now realize that all collections do not fit my skin tone or color choice and heatherette is one of them. So now i just skim through the collections that come out and if something fits i get it and if it doesnt i move onto the next collection. Now naughty nauticals interest me a lot becuz blue is my favorite color so i will be checking out this collection for sure.