LESS: 2015 Theme and A Year-Long Challenge

I can’t believe I published 96 posts in 2014 — three times as many as my yearly output from 2011 to 2013. It may not seem much relative to many other blogs, but for me, 96 is a LOT of blog posts.

This year, I’m deliberately posting less.

I think 2 to 4 times a month would do. This should be easy because I’ll continue my shopping ban for the whole of 2015. Yes. Your eyes did not deceive you — I am serious — I did mean “year-long makeup low-buy”. If you’re wondering how I would come up with at least 2 posts a month with barely any new purchases — at my current state, I can talk about 1 product a week in the next 52 weeks without buying anything — that is the extent of my makeup surplus.

However, the low-buy is not the main reason why I decided to post less.

I’m doing this because I don’t believe that it’s possible to have it all. More of one thing is always less of something else.

I want to focus more of my non-working hours on non-beauty-related areas of my life.

I want to live a little bit slower and more relaxed.

Also, I noticed that writing about a beauty product comes easier for me when I’ve used it for a long duration of time, without pressure of squeezing my brains out for an assessment of a product. Ironically, I seem to write a little bit more critically when I’m not auditing a product to check if it meets specific criteria.

On to the nitty-gritty of the year-long low-buy challenge…

If I didn’t do a 3-month shopping ban in the last quarter of 2014, I would not have had the audacity to do this challenge, even more so to announce it, considering my apparent inability to follow-through.

I did pretty good with the shopping ban last year, by the way.

I had one MAJOR slip on October 18, but it was smooth sailing after that.

From October 19 to December 31, the only items I remember buying were:

False Lashes (Exception)
Bobbi Brown Gel Liner (Exception, I didn’t have a black gel liner)
Anastasia Brow Powder Duo in Granite (Exception, I didn’t have a brow powder)
Bobbi Brown Creamy Matte Lipstick in Tawny Pink
Happy Skin Lipstick in Honeymoon Glow
Makeup For Ever Rouge Intense Lipstick in Mat 3 (purchased the last week of December)
Makeup For Ever HD Foundation (purchased the last week of December)

Sucks that I slipped in the last few days of December, but I think I still did good.

For the 2015 low-buy challenge. I’m not allowed to buy makeup, except for the following:

NARS All-Day Luminous Powder Foundation
Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Diffused Light
Kjaer Weis Blush (not yet decided on which shade to get, but I’m leaning on Abundance because of Carina)
Inglot 411 Matte Lipstick
Replacement to any product I’d use up that is totally unique in my collection (e.g., if I use up NARS Anna, I’m not allowed to replace it because ~ see picture:
But if I finish Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer [the only concealer I own], I can repurchase it or get NARS Creamy Concealer)

I’m thinking of treating the first 4 items as rewards for accomplishments (eg if I hit my target investment amount or when I lose 10lbs, etc.) so I don’t purchase them in one go and be left in shopping withdrawal for the rest of the year.

Wish me luck, guys! Happy New Year!