Category: Minimalism

As part of my use whatever I want thing, I’ve pulled a few bit and pieces back into my collection because I missed them. So that means in virtually every single section you’re going to see a rise in the value. How can I do this? When I destash an item I actually put it in a ‘lost and found’ box. If I don’t want it 12 months later it can go. If I end up missing it, it gets kept. It’s a habit I learnt after impulsively destashing a few items and still to this day missing them.
There is also going to be a rise in places because I have given in and bought a few items because they were just too darn pretty but I was fully aware of this and I will not be allowing myself to do that again for a while.

So let’s see my collection totals!

So there is an overall rise of nearly £300 this month. 90% of which is items returning to my collection however I am increasingly aware of how much eyeshadow I have and how much I do not need any of it. I suspect I will shortly be passing on a large amount of it. As much as I love my collection, most of it barely sees the light of day and it needs to be given a new home.
I need to get over the sunk cost fallacy that’s currently holding me back.

As for skin care

No purchases on this section this month, which has lead to a decrease in items and value. That’s a total drop of 6 items and a decrease in the value of £121.95. Again most of the value comes from a very expensive face mask.

I’m kinda annoyed at myself this month. Too many purchases for items I don’t need has lead to a rise in value overall. I do need to do some destashing of makeup next month. I think it’s time to get rid of some eyeshadow.

How have you been doing with your collection? Has it grown or shrunk?

This month I’ve done a bunch of destashing and trying out of items. So there’s a lovely shift down in cost, while I did make some purchases.

So let’s see my collection totals!

Overall there is only a drop in the price of £24.47 this month with 18 items out, which in of itself is great. However, I did spend this month on some new blushes while destashing a few I did not use. At the end that meant while I have two less, the section itself has jumped in value.
Brows have seen an increase because I mine are so sparse and I wanted to try and see if I could do them a different way. I decided to gut my contour section because I just do not do it. I’m left with one contour palette and a bronzer. I have destashed a bunch of liquid lipsticks I do not find comfortable to wear, along with a lipstick I didn’t like and a couple of palettes I did not get on with. The others are items I successfully used up this month, namely a Fixing Spray, a concealer and two eyeliners.

As for skin care

No purchases on this section this month, which has lead to a decrease in items and value. That’s a total drop of 8 items and a decrease in the value of £198.98. Most of which come from me using up some expensive face masks.

Overall the trend is still down. I’m currently experiencing some fomo, so hoping the purchase of the blushes will kick that in the ass. Along with moving about my collection to try and get some use out of what I have.

How have you been doing with your collection? Has it grown or shrunk?

Three purchases this month. One was a badly needed hair dye, two were heavily discounted items from a supplier that I leave reviews for. As a result, my value might have jumped but I did not spend as much as the total says I did. In total it was more £20 than the £128 price listed. I always list my items by replacement value rather than cost.

So let’s see my collection totals!

No movement at all on the makeup front but I expect a few months will go like this. I have hit pan on a brow pomade and my current eye base. I don’t think I’ll get through a pomade just due to the fact I’m switching colours of hair right now.

As for skin care

Any progress I might have made on this section has definitely been killed off this month by my purchasing a face oil at a heavy discount. This has definitely been combated by me using up a couple of really expensive cleansers this month.

That’s a total drop of 7 items and a decrease in the value of £88.60.

So despite getting a couple of items given to me, there’s still a nice drop in the number and value of my items. 6 in total and £44.6 in value. I expect a smaller drop next month because I don’t see me destashing anything but you never know!

How have you been doing with your collection? Has it grown or shrunk?

No purchases this month. It was in fact very easy as this month. I think because I’m using my best stuff, I am not falling prey to FOMO.

There is less of a dent in the figures due to a couple of hand me downs from my mother. Specifically two Elemis Papaya Enzyme Peels, which are worth £34.50 each.

So let’s see my collection totals!

There’s been a little movement this month and it’s all been in the right direction!

• I finally used up a brow product! I knew it was nearly done so I made an effort to get rid of the Auburn pencil I had and that means I have success in the brow department.
• My eyeshadow palettes have reduced by 1 and £24 in value because I destashed a palette I found I really didn’t like due to the PAW challenge.
• Eyeshadow singles have decreased due to another destash, this time it’s the NYX Jumbo eye pencil in Milk. I used to use it as a base and I now use concealer as it creases less. It was also way over its expiry date.
• Highlighter is another destash. It was a rose gold mousse product. Just too dark for my skin, so it had to go.
• The numbers are throwing me with liquid lipstick because I destashed two items but only seem to have gone down by one? At least the value has dropped £15!
• I’m glad to be rid of one more mascara. I currently have two in use and can’t wait to move onto some of my more recent purchases here.

That’s a total drop of 6 items and a decrease in value of £74.49

As for skin care

Any progress I might have made on this section has definitely been killed off this month by my mother giving me a couple of face masks. It’s also why while there has been no movement in the number of items in the face masks, there is a lowering of the value.

That’s a total drop of 3 items and a decrease in the value of £47.49

So despite getting a couple of items given to me, there’s still a nice drop in the number and value of my items. 9 in total and £121.98 in value. I expect a smaller drop next month because I don’t see me destashing anything but you never know!

How have you been doing with your collection? Has it grown or shrunk?

So I am going to start posting a little update to my collection every month rather than empties. This year I’m on a RONB (Replacement Only No Buy) and as part of that, I’m tracking my collection. I want to keep an eye on it as things can creep in, as they have done this month. So if you’re interested to see the movement of my items and why they’ve shifted how they have, stay tuned.

So I did buy some items this month, received some for my birthday and found a few that I hadn’t listed. A lot of the items I hadn’t listed were duplicates (or backups) of items already on my inventory but I decided it would be better if they were listed too. I expect I will see an overall increase in the value of almost all my sections due to this.

Bought

• Shampoo
• Conditioner
• Micellar Water
• Nail Cleanser
• Gel No Wipe Top Coat
• Polish to Gel Mixer
• Venus XL 2
• Cherry Slime Lipgloss
• Poisonberry Lipstick

While I am not tracking nail polish, I have bought a few items as I’m attempting to use my gel polish this year. Since polish is beauty related I decided to track any spending there, even if I’m not tracking the total value.
Let’s address the elephant in the room, my purchase of the Venus XL 2. January is my birthday month and while I did say I would wait I have a spare space in the palette rack and of course birthday money. So I bought it with the lipgloss from that collection I wanted. I did also buy Poisonberry, this is a replacement because my original one is currently missing. All my lipsticks are here except that one.

So collection totals!

Let’s start at the top.

• Blush Something interesting has happened here, there’s a rise in value but not items. I added an item I hadn’t destashed back in and removed an item from that shelf that’s really just a contour palette.
• Brows have remained the same. This one I expect will probably not change. Most of the items are pomades and take a long time to use. The one pencil that might go out is a natural colour and my hair is currently not.
• Concealer has gone up by one item that I was going to destash but I am actually using.
• Eyeliner – I ummmmm don’t know what’s happened here. I’ve clearly destashed some more expensive items and found I had some cheaper ones.
• Eyeshadow Palettes – That there is theVenus XL 2 effect.
• Eyeshadow Singles has gone up by two because I’ve listed some backups.
• Face Primer has dropped in value if not in the count. I finished one and listed a backup I’d forgotten about.
• Foundation has gone up due to a couple of foundations I found in my locker at work.
• Highlighter has increased because I completely forgot to add on my purchases from Halloween!
• Lipgloss is a hard one to take. I completely forgot about a few items in my last years total so it’s jumped a lot.
• Lipsticks I can thank a couple of forgotten items and my last Pink Parcel for the jump in items and value.
• Liquid Lipsticks is again the forgotten items brought back into the total.
• Powders is another ‘items I didn’t actually destash readded to my collection’.
• Setting Sprays might look like a victory but actually, I realised a spray I was using as a setting spray wasn’t actually one. So they’ve been moved to a new category in skin care. I have used one up as well.

So that’s a total increase in the value of £257.30 and 20 items. Not a great start to the year.

As for skin care

Any progress I might have made on this section has definitely been killed off by me listing the back-ups of my face masks but it had to be done. Most movement is items used up, the notable exceptions (excluding face masks) are the added facial sprays which I mistook for setting sprays and a few hand creams I got at Christmas.
Once I have used my one and only foot cream, it won’t be replaced. Instead, I’ll use my hand creams and once they’re depleted I’ll use my body lotions.
I don’t expect to see a lot of movement on the serums and facial oils as I use them for a month and then switch to a different one. So while it’d be nice I don’t see them changing by the end of the year. I have decided to do the same with the eye creams as well. So they’ll get used rather than gathering dust but I’m not likely to use any one of them up as a result.

Overall there has been an increase in the value of my skincare by £35.75 and an increase in the count by 6.

Which means the total value has increased by £293.05 and items by 26. Totally not the direction I wanted it to go, so definitely more work to be done.