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View activity, savings and benefits
Redeem items, samples and more
View and track online orders
Reorder it from in-store and online purchases
View saved products
Recommendations from your store visits
Manage your services, classes and events
Complete your beauty traits for personalized recommendations
Payments, contact info, addresses and password
Ask questions, join challenges, and get recommendations from people like you
Discover topics tailored to your beauty interests
Add your photos and get inspired by fellow beauty lovers
From makeovers to personalized skincare consultations
Get inspired, play with products & learn new skills
Exciting launches, parties & more
Explore what's hot in your store
Hello, hello! Welcome to Year 7 of the No/Low Buy Thread.
*Many thanks to all who have participated over the last few years. While I don't
post often I do read the notifications sent to my email and I cannot say it enough,
You all are truly amazing! Thank you for your dedication and support!!
For reference here's the purpose of this thread (from Thread Originator, @lnum )
This thread is a support system for all of us who are trying to maintain a budget and keep our beauty spending limited. Post here when you have a weak moment, post here to hold yourself accountable, post here when you just need someone to talk to, post here when you have advice for all of us, and post here when you make mistakes but also make gains! Many of us post here to keep track of our monthly purchases. Anything you need to say, we are all here for each other. There's no judgement here.
Feel free to share your goals, items that tempt you, missteps (we don't believe in failures), and any successes. Above all else, encourage and support one another.
A note from lnum (2016):
Welcome to Year 3!
My motto for this thread is that I strongly believe, even on a budget, you can have the things you want that make you happy without feeling like you're limiting yourself.
This thread is a support system for all of us who are trying to maintain a budget and keep our beauty spending limited. Post here when you have a weak moment, post here to hold yourself accountable, post here when you just need someone to talk to, post here when you have advice for all of us, and post here when you make mistakes but also make gains! Many of us post here to keep track of our monthly purchases. Anything you need to say, we are all here for each other. There's no judgement here.
I am so excited to spend another year with you all. If it wasn't for the first two years of this thread, I would never have been able to cut down my beauty spending. My goal for this year is to maintain low spending on beauty, and cut down my clothing purchases. I will be funneling that money into traveling, which is what I have done in the past and it's a great goal that truly motivates me.
I'm still so proud of everyone for making it through 2015 and 2016, limiting ourselves in the beauty product area in order to improve our lives in other areas. We all did great and here's to another year of learning and saving!
Interested in past threads? Check Here:
2019 https://community.sephora.com/t5/Beauty-Confidential/2019-THE-NO-BUY-LOW-BUY-BUDGET-BUY-ACCOUNTABILI...
Challenges to Help You Use Your Stash:
@ather YES! It’s the amount of products that feels overwhelming and reducing my routine to just a few opened products at a time seems to make it easier to use them all up. The birthday gifts looked very tempting, are you still wearing makeup? Oh my gosh I stopped completely last year!
What have you been doing with products you don’t want to use? I have a bunch of cleansers I don’t know what to do with because I know my skin won’t like them and I don’t really have a chance to give them to a friend atm due to covid. The moisturizers I am using as hand creams so that’s helping to use those up. The serums I have in my rotation because my skin tends to respond ok to most serums. The masks, I’ve been getting lazy, but I try to them once a week. I basically have a schedule of trying to use up these products. 😅
@lnum I’ve pretty much stopped wearing makeup. Just a tiny bit of concealer and mascara. I’m focusing on skincare right now!! Plus we are still on lockdown so we can’t go anywhere or do anything and my car has been in the shop for the past 2 weeks! So lots of organizing my house!!
So my opened skincare I’m trying to repurpose or make my husband use it. Unopened I’m putting aside and hopefully I can find someone to donate them too!
I’ve been doing so good using my masks up. I’ve been using almost 2 a day!
@ather how has your husband been responding to all his new goodies? 😂
Two masks a day is impressive dedication, I can barely get myself to do even one per week lately!
@lnum Pretty good. He doesn’t mind. I usually remind him what to use and when 🤣 but I don’t think he minds much.
I’m back to working part time so I have more time on my hands to mask more then once a day. I usually throw on a wash off mask in the morning and do laundry or vacuum then take it off. Then I do my second one before bed my second one is either wash off or sheet mask. I’m focusing on my wash off masks since I have 8-9 open right now and are coming up close to the year mark.
I am also filtering through all my products and tossing old and not used makeup too. Trying to get myself to a minimum. I wish thining my clothes was as easy but I went through 3 drawers and only took 1 shirt out for donation.
@ather Awww you’re husband is a gem!
8-9 open masks is a lot to get through makes sense! The way you feel about clothes is how I feel about makeup, I can never let old products go! For clothes I have my one year rule, if I haven’t worn it in a year it gets tossed, it’s pretty liberating.
@lnum Yes I agree he’s pretty special!
I feel like we need to switch and I can go through your makeup and you can go through my clothes!!
@ather Yes! I’m sure there are lipsticks and powder products I never use but can’t let go of. You could set aside clothes you haven’t worn in a year and see if you miss them. Sometimes that’s another way for me to realize, oh, I didn’t miss anything in this box, time to get rid of it.
@lnum That’s a great idea. I will try that today!!! I really need to downsize sooo much.
Yaaay @ather! Love the focus on skincare!! You're doing great!
@lnum could you use the facial cleansers as hand soap or body wash?
@missjeanie Good idea! I will try this!! Thanks I have been struggling with what to do with them!
Happy birthday, @ather 🎉🎈🎂 !!! Which one did you pick?
@eshoe Thank you!!! I picked up the Laneige! Was a tough choice!! But I do enjoy the mask! So win win!!
Oooh that LANEIGE Water Bank Moisture Cream is so good, @ather! Can’t believe I forgot to ask which mask you picked up🤦🏻♀️
@eshoe I picked up the summer Fridays overtime mask!
That gets so much love here, @ather 🧡 I hope you enjoy, what a lovely treat:)
Today is three weeks into my six-month no buy. I have not purchased a single beauty item, but may need to.
(Thanks for the tag, @lmaster !)
@eshoe If your skin barrier is broken, the best way to repair it is to roll your skincare routine waaaay back to just a very gentle and hydrating cleanser, maybe one skin-soothing serum that contains no essential oils or direct acids (my fave is the very simply formulated It’s Skin licorice root serum, but even this step may be too much, depending on how badly damaged your skin is), and a thick petrolatum-based balm as a moisturizer. The balm will act as a temporary skin barrier, sealing in hydration and encouraging healing. CeraVe Healing Ointment is a great choice for this. (My usual go-to is Aquaphor but I’ve also used CeraVe.)
Stop using all direct acids, vitamin C serums/powders/whatever, essential oils, and physical exfoliants until your skin’s healed. If you see flakes while your skin’s healing, do not exfoliate. You don’t want to use any potential irritants right now.
For my skin, I’d choose ceramides over snail mucin regardless of the state of my skin. I mean the latter isn’t bad, but it doesn’t do as much longterm good for my skin as ceramides do. Oh, and The Inkey List Oat Cleansing Balm was fantastic while my skin was healing its damaged barrier last year.
Hope your skin recovers soon!
Thank you so much for sharing your methods of battling finicky skin, @WinglessOne. Curious if you have noticed a scent with The INKEY List Oat Makeup Removing Cleansing Balm 5 oz/ 150 mL. I pick up something that reminds me of rancid oil, but maybe it’s just how it is. Maybe it’s just the oats🤷🏻♀️ I am going to try it as a mask, though. That might be helpful!
I wondered about the extracts/oils. I use a lot (too many, probably) products with various citrus oils but have cut those out. I thought of you, what a bummer to have to tip toe around so many ingredient lists. If anything, hoping it will be a good training tool to remind me to actually read the list before trying and buying.
@eshoe To me, the Oat Cleansing Balm smells like plant oil with a faint scent of oats. It doesn't smell rancid to me, at least not compared to rancid food oils I've had the misfortune of sniff-testing. Your tube is probably fine 🙂 Since washing my face (during my broken barrier fiasco) was super painful, I gently rubbed this balm on my face first, let it sit for 2-10 minutes, then gently rubbed my usual gentle PM cleanser right over it and rinsed everything off at once. It was helpful as a mask, but also as a very emollient layer that buffered friction while I rubbed my face. I hope if helps you, too.
Honestly, once you get used to reading product ingredients lists, it's not a burden. It becomes just standard operating procedure. The only bummer is discovering how many products contain bad-for-your-skin ingredients in addition to beneficial ingredients. But this makes finding a great product with a wonderful ingredients list VERY satisfying!
@WinglessOne you kind of hit the nail on the head when you mentioned finding out about all of the ‘no thanks’ ingredients. I skimmed through my sheet mask stash looking for any that had ceramides the other night. I found sooooo many with fruit/citrus extracts, which made me consider that my skin may just be overloaded. I was surprised at how easy it was, so yeah...no excuses!!!
Thanks again, wish I could give you a big hug for all of your help and advice🤗