A Long-Overdue No-Buy
I've bought a lot of makeup in the last two or three months, and I've bought it largely due to stress. I've alluded to this lightheartedly with my "Stress-Fueled Impulse Purchase" series, but it's time to acknowledge that I have to stop buying new stuff, at least for a while. Liz's last post as the Beauty Reductionista prompted some much-needed self-reflection. I'm not even close to being in debt, and I don't feel like my shopping habits are out of control, but I'm definitely guilty of emotional purchases.
I'd wager it's happened to most people reading this post: you become fixated on one product and tell yourself that this is it, the one thing that will complete your collection. After you buy this thing, you'll be spoiled for all other things ever after. Come to think of it, buying this thing is a wise preventative measure, because the thing will be so superlatively great that you'll never have to buy another thing like it. So you buy it, and for a few days you really do feel that it's the best thing ever and your makeup collection has acquired its capstone. Except, wait...what was that other thing you just saw out of the corner of your eye? And so the cycle begins again, and you become enthralled to a new thing that promises some grand transformation of your face or life or whatever. But nothing ever really changes, does it? It's just the same pattern of curiosity -> desire -> purchase -> pleasure -> boredom -> curiosity, over and over again.
And guess what: our society is engineered to perpetuate this cycle. Welcome to capitalism! So I'm not going to beat myself up over buying one too many lipsticks last month, but I am going to declare a makeup and polish no-buy for the rest of 2015, with the exception of boring products that I use up and need to repurchase (mascara, clear brow gel, etc). I've specified "makeup" instead of "beauty" because I don't have a problem with buying too much skincare and I really do need a better sunscreen. But do I need another lipstick? Absolutely not. And yet, as I write this, I can think of at least five lipsticks that some recalcitrant part of my brain is telling me I need. Here, I'll even list them: MAC Heroine and Antique Velvet, Portland Black Lipstick Company Bad Penny and Irony, Rituel de Fille Hex, Urban Decay 1993, Wet n Wild Mocha-licious. There you go: seven. I "need" seven new lipsticks, despite owning at least 75. This isn't healthy. And experience has taught me that if I hold out, my "need" will dwindle to nothing. So I'm going to hold out—starting now.
I'd wager it's happened to most people reading this post: you become fixated on one product and tell yourself that this is it, the one thing that will complete your collection. After you buy this thing, you'll be spoiled for all other things ever after. Come to think of it, buying this thing is a wise preventative measure, because the thing will be so superlatively great that you'll never have to buy another thing like it. So you buy it, and for a few days you really do feel that it's the best thing ever and your makeup collection has acquired its capstone. Except, wait...what was that other thing you just saw out of the corner of your eye? And so the cycle begins again, and you become enthralled to a new thing that promises some grand transformation of your face or life or whatever. But nothing ever really changes, does it? It's just the same pattern of curiosity -> desire -> purchase -> pleasure -> boredom -> curiosity, over and over again.
And guess what: our society is engineered to perpetuate this cycle. Welcome to capitalism! So I'm not going to beat myself up over buying one too many lipsticks last month, but I am going to declare a makeup and polish no-buy for the rest of 2015, with the exception of boring products that I use up and need to repurchase (mascara, clear brow gel, etc). I've specified "makeup" instead of "beauty" because I don't have a problem with buying too much skincare and I really do need a better sunscreen. But do I need another lipstick? Absolutely not. And yet, as I write this, I can think of at least five lipsticks that some recalcitrant part of my brain is telling me I need. Here, I'll even list them: MAC Heroine and Antique Velvet, Portland Black Lipstick Company Bad Penny and Irony, Rituel de Fille Hex, Urban Decay 1993, Wet n Wild Mocha-licious. There you go: seven. I "need" seven new lipsticks, despite owning at least 75. This isn't healthy. And experience has taught me that if I hold out, my "need" will dwindle to nothing. So I'm going to hold out—starting now.
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