Thursday, September 25, 2014

5 Beauty Lover Saving Tips

I'm currently in the midst of a mega-life change - I've just left my job and plan on getting a job in my field next year, am getting married in a month and have a busy end of year ahead with overseas family coming out and a big glorious honeymoon to enjoy.

I'm becoming better at pinching the pennies to make my wedding lovely and keep our household running, but the beauty lover in me still needs a hit every now and again! I've been thinking about how I usually save money or shop sensibly when it comes to beauty products and the like, and have rounded up my ideas for you. These 5 tips will help you think smart about how you shop and hopefully stop you from coming home with products that won't get any love in your stash!

1 //  Evaluate your stash
Are you like me and own a million red lipsticks, a shade you wear approximately twice a year? Once you get to know your stash properly it becomes so much easier to evaluate purchases on the go. For example, I know that I own far too many neutral blushes (blushes in general actually, as this evidence shows...) but that they are something I wear all of the time, so if I'm pondering a new nude blush at least I know I will use it, and can think back to my current shades to see if this one is too similar to the others. Now that I've learnt to do this I find myself never buying red lipstick ;)
my true obsession, and my wasted money obsession!

2 // Check out current deals before you click 'checkout'
This is one that I have always done before I checkout when shopping online, and I think the same sort of reasoning works when shopping in store as well. You wouldn't dismiss sale information or a free GWP at a store, so checking current sales for favourite sites like Adore Beauty and BeautyBay just makes sense! Sites that collect coupons for a bunch of places are my favourite as they've done the gathering for me, leaving me more time to check out swatches of the items I'm lemming ;)

3 // Wish List
You have to be realistic when it comes to loving beauty - I am well aware that I could never pull off a project pan, so beginning one would just set me up for disaster in the long run in the form of a huge splurge on products that may not be worth it. Instead, I like to create wish lists to whittle down my lusts and really work out what it is that really gets my heart racing. Lately I've been all about the honeymoon wishlists (see part one and part two) and it's always good to look back to past lemmings to notice trends!


4 // Follow International Trends
Being in a remote country like Australia means that we are made to wait a really long time for products to hit our shores. I keep an eye on my favourite international beauty blogs like Temptalia, Eye Heart It, Beauty Reductionista and Beauty Reflections to make sure I know what will eventually come out. This gives me time to check out more reviews and work out whether or not a product would work for me, and by the time it comes out here I am prepared with a full purse for it!
Products I've bought after reading about them on international blogs!

5 // Sign up to email lists for your favourite stores
This is a double-edged sword - if you are on a shopping ban this can cause too much temptation, but I personally find it wonderful to get the notification about a sale as soon as it has begun. Some of my non-beauty favourites include Lovisa (I love a good costume piece!) and Cotton On (I've used both of these recently for wedding related purchases, and didn't pay full price because I was notified about the promotion early!)

How do you save money when it comes to beauty shopping? Have you ever done a project pan or a similar mission?

Emma x

10 comments:

  1. Loved this post, some really great tips here! I evaluate my purchases by setting aside a certain allowance every month that can be spent on spoiling myself. Obviously I don't go out of my way to spend all of it but I make sure i don't spend over that amount. And when I don't spend all of it, soemtimes I pop that into my savings as well or I let it roll over to the next month when I know there's something I want that's a little pricer coming out.
    I try to not spend it unless I really like it because I work hard for my money and if i earned this money, i deserve to treat myself provided that I can still pay for everything else I still need to pay for and save part of my paycheck everytime ^^

    Chloé⎪ à la foliee

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    1. Thanks Chloe!
      I like the allowance idea, that way it can sort of change as you go along. I've had to look at how much of the 'little stuff' I buy now that we have a mortgage, and I try to only buy if I adore something and know I will get a lot of use from it

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  2. Love this post ! Thanks for the tips! x

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  3. Wonderful tips sweetie... I have put myself on a No Buy autumn/winter cause I do not need anything more when it comes to beauty. Only thing I will buy are the things that I really need such as new mascara, eyeliner etc. Yesterday a friend popped over and we went through my TWO drawers of nail polish. I had two huge drawers of nail polish and I felt that I had to get rid of them. I gave 152 away to my friend and then I had a small bag full of polishes that I am going to sell at a flee market
    It feels SO GOOD to have gotten rid of a FULL drawer :)
    Next step is to go through eye shadows :)
    xx

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    1. I like the theory behind a no-buy but I don't like completely depriving myself so they never work for me. I need to get rid of so many nail polishes though, that is a good idea!

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  4. Great tips chickie! How do I save? Hmm...I haven't been buying any beauty products - oh wait I did, recently! How I "save" money is by using gift cards. Gift cards that I "cashed' in when I redeemed my credit card points ;) Plus waiting for sales of course. And also via those overseas shopping sites.

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    1. Thanks Norlin! I love a good gift card, nothing beats free beauty money!

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  5. Ahhhh, how do you like the D&G blush??? We don't have it in Canada so I'm always eyeballing it on sephora.com.

    And seriously, all I ever do sometimes is to evaluate the stash, but I can never come up with a conclusion to all this evaluating. -_____-

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    Replies
    1. It's quite nice, still giving it a run through but bought it because Jess (dontcallmejesse) loves it and anything she loves, I need! haha.

      I like the consistent evaluating, always in flux and all that

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