Makeup Spending Freeze Update & Project Pan
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Back at the beginning of the year, when I rebranded to Hey There, Chelsie and decided to set some pretty lofty goals for myself, one of which was to do a no-Spend makeup experiment for three months (and continue to do so in three-month increments throughout the year.) My beauty blogging buddy, Jaelan from Making Mrs. M inspired me when she wrote about her Makeup Capsule Experiment and we decided to team up and be each others’ support system while resisting the urge to buy makeup! My makeup addiction had drained my bank account dry and instead of setting aside the money I was making from my blog and re-investing it into some much-needed equipment, I kept on buying makeup. I wanted to regain some control over my spending habits and my life!
It was HARD for me to not buy makeup for the first few weeks, but as my bank account steadily grew, it became easier and easier for me to turn my head away from the cosmetic aisle in Target and the mall. I had to stop watching most of my favorite YouTubers (with exception to Jaclyn Hill & Kathleen Lights, obviously) so I wasn’t tempted to drop everything and buy what they were vlogging about.
What I Bought Instead of Makeup:
Like I said, my bank account was able to recover since I wasn’t buying makeup every couple days, and I was finally able to invest in some equipment that I’ve been wanting for ages to take my blogging game to the next level.
Upgraded RAM for my Macbook Pro: As upgrading my entire computer isn’t an option right now, I knew I needed to at least upgrade some of the hardware in order to get a few more years out of my laptop. Dustin and I did some research and decided that upgrading my RAM would be the best thing for my computer! I upgraded from 4 gigs of RAM to 16 gigs and it has basically made my computer brand new! WELL worth the money!
Macbook Pro Charger: The charger for my laptop had been on the fritz for a few months and it conveniently bit the bucket at the beginning of the year. It was a good thing that I had money on hand to order myself a new charger ASAP!
Ring Light: This has been a biggie on my list for almost a year now. A ring light is a type of photography lighting that creates a pretty ideal lighting situation for beauty portraits and videos! I’ve always been frustrated with my inability to take photos of certain makeup looks; they’ve never translated well through the lens. This light makes a WORLD of difference and being able to take those photos has inspired me to really get back into the beauty side of blogging! And, since I’m about to venture into youtube in the next month, a ring light is ideal for video recording!
Umbrella Lights: I also grabbed a sweet pair of umbrella lights to help balance out the lighting from my ring light! These are also GREAT for adding light into my flat lay photos!
Backdrop: The last thing I picked up was a backdrop stand so I can have a white or black backdrop when taking portraits. Dustin and I were making it work with white poster board for a while, but it really limited the frame we were shooting in and made it difficult to actually take photos because I had to lean against it to keep it in place. Our apartment in LA has yellow/cream walls, which throws the white balance off in my photos, so I finally bit the bullet and snagged a backdrop frame and picked up some white muslin fabric from JoAnn’s to drape over the back!
What I Learned from my Makeup Spending Freeze:
Not buying makeup really helped me evaluate my impulse buying tendencies. I used to buy makeup just because it was there in the aisle instead of researching it and reading reviews. Of course, I’m all about trying something that catches my eye and reviewing it on the blog, but the majority of those purchases never made it to the blog.
I also got to discover some of my old favorites in my makeup collection that I had put to the side in favor of the new makeup I kept buying (hello, Too Faced Chocolate Bar!) I rotated through my eyeshadow palettes (one per week) and tried to create as many looks as possible with them and even forcing myself to dip my brush in shades I normally stayed away from, like the shade Metallic in the ABH World Traveler palette. It felt good to use the makeup I had collected over the last year and to figure out what products really didn’t work for me so that I could give them away to my sisters or just toss them.
I also learned that being a beauty blogger is hard work when I’m not constantly in the loop of the makeup world! My goal here is to eliminate the overwhelm you might feel when you walk into the makeup store and I couldn’t do that well if I wasn’t staying on top of the new products and testing them out. So, after completing my first three months of my no-makeup freeze, I decided to suspend the rest of my challenge for the year.
I now know that if I ever need to take a brief spending hiatus from makeup so that I can purchase other things that I want or need that I CAN do it. I have learned to approach buying makeup with a more restrained eye, which is what my overall goal was from this experiment.
Project Pan
Even though I’m back to buying makeup for the rest of the year, I wanted to still challenge myself to use the products I already have so that they don’t sit in my collection gathering dust. I can’t remember what blog I was reading that talked about Project Pan, but the second I read the post, I knew I found the right challenge!
Project Pan challenges you to “hit pan” (or empty a tube, or completely use up) a makeup product that you have in your collection! I decided to pick 5 products in my collection to use as much as possible over the next few months with the goal to have hit pan on them by September 1st. It’s a fun challenge to incorporate these products into a variety of looks and it still gives me the opportunity to use other products that I love.
ItCosemetics Bye Bye Pores Pressed Powder: An oldie but a goody. This powder truly erases my pores and is great for setting undereye concealer. I used it ALL THE TIME last fall and then forgot about it, so I’m hoping to finally hit pan on it by September 1st!
ColourPop Super Shock Eyeshadow in Weenie: Again, another recent buy that I’m totally obsessed with and plan on using a ton this summer. It’s a beautiful rose gold color that works great as an all-over lid color for a simple day time look! It also pairs well with warm browns and coppers, so it’s great for a night out, as well!
ABH Brow Wiz in Chocolate: I really want to try her new Brow Definer but I won’t allow myself to buy it until I finish up my Brow Wiz!
Essence Lash Princess Mascara: I picked this up recently on the recommendation from my friend Amanda at Blissful Gal because I’ve been looking for a good drugstore alternative to my holy grail (Too Faced BTS.) I’ve only used it a handful of times, but so far, I am MADLY impressed with it!
ColourPop Lippie Stix in Scandy: This is a recent buy and I’m already this close to claiming it as my favorite lip color of the summer. I’ve heard that it’s a great dupe for Mac’s Candy Yum Yum (cult classic) and I love the bright color. Plus, the formula is too comfortable for words and for 5 bucks, you can’t go wrong. I have yet to go through a whole tube of lipstick, so I’m ready for the challenge.
Jaelan is also doing Project Pan with me and these are the 5 products that she’s planning on using (plus give her a facebook like while you are checking her out, she’s seriously the best!)
So, that’s the plan for the summer! I’m really proud of myself for going three months without buying makeup and I’m also proud of myself for recognizing that I didn’t need to make myself miserable for the rest of the year! My blog (and sharing all this beauty related stuff here) is my passion, so I’m not going to neglect it!
What’s been your favorite makeup product that you’ve bought recently? And do you have any you want someone to test out before you buy it? Let me know!
