I broke my No Buy

I did it, I caved in and broke my no buy.

I bought make up.

I made a post on reddit that explain my feelings about it. I made my peace about it. Like some people on r/makeuprehab helped me understand I didn’t broke my no buy, I finished it.

I’ll make another post about what future holds for me in terms of buying make-up. In this post I want to tell you what this 7 months experience taught me and how it changed my buying habits.

• Like I said previously it was easy temptation when I was unemployed
• I realised that the only products I was feeling more tempted about was steps that were missing in my routine.
• I didn’t stopped going to stores, I still liked to see what was knew, what new products looked like. What new brands my local Sephora had. But I always found a reason not to buy anything new. Either I already had something that did the same thing, had enough of x products or it was just too expensive to be worth it.
• I didn’t want to spend money that wasn’t mine on make up or skincare – meaning sometimes we (as a family, I like with my parents) had money accumulated on supermarket card but it didn’t felt right spending that money on make up or skincare when I could buy food or items for the house instead.
•  I did my research intensively whenever it was time to replace a product and I needed something different from what I was using previously.

I do feel like I have a different attitude towards shopping. As with most things in my life I want to be more mindful about what I do.

 

The saddest news I’ve heard

I’m a big Game of Thrones fan, I’m an even bigger “A Song of Ice and Fire” fan. Jon Snow has been my favourite (as well as other characters) since I read the first book  – before watching the first season.

Like many other people I didn’t like the last season, I wasn’t a fan of season 7 either but on a different scale. I felt, above it all, my favourite characters weren’t being portrayed fairly. Tyrion wasn’t his smart witted self for about 2 or 3 seasons; and Jon was more mysterious and quiet by each episode. Of course all of this comes from the lack of knowing what Jon is thinking the last two seasons, the lack of the books.

I felt manly angry, angry that the show had so much potential and it did so little in the end, it felt ridiculous, almost like a joke at times. I don’t like being a hater, I tried and tried seeing the creators point of view. I never voiced how I felt about the show online. In general I’m very careful about what I post on social media and I didn’t want to do or show another angry post about GoT or another meme.

The saddest thing of all this it isn’t how the show was a let down at the end. It even isn’t the possibility of the books never being published (I mean, George RR Martin isn’t getting any younger, we never know). The worst thing, the saddest and the most heartbreaking situation of all this was the news that Kit Harrington (the actor who plays Jon Snow) had checked in into a wellness clinic due to stress, exhaustion and abuse of alcohol. It’s devastating for me that the actor who gave life to my favourite character has been dealing with mental health issues.

Everything else becomes irrelevant with these news. Of course I’m glad he’s getting help, that’s amazing, and I hope he will get better. But I know the pain of dealing with mental health issues. I know enough pain and heartbreak not to wish it on anyone, let alone someone I think so dearly off like Kit.

I hope he gets the help he needs and I hope the internet calms down about GoT. And as always with these stories, at least it brings more light into how important mental health is.

 

How to feel better without spending money

There are those days (sometimes weeks or months) that you just don’t feel yourself, you feel off. You don’t want to talk to anybody nor engane in any social activity. Those days are the worst, if you suffer from anxiety or depression like me those days can be really hard and scary.

Everyone has their own coping mechanisms, somehow when these days happen I feel a sudden urge to spend money. To treat myself to something nice. Since I’m on a RONB and just trying to cut down my expenses overall (going to therapy twice a week ain’t cheap) I feel trapped when those urges come to surface. I know that buying that powder won’t be a bad thing (I don’t own any powder currently, it doesn’t go against my rules, but it feels like cheating), buying all sorts of junk food won’t be bad either, I love eating, and I eat quite healthy most days. But none of those things will actually help me feel better.

Sometimes all I can do is wait for the feeling to pass over me, understand what’s making me feel this way and then let the feeling ride out. During these days I feel like some things DO actually help a bit, and distract me while at the same time put me at ease/a smile on my face.

• cooking/baking
• watch feel good movies/tv shows
• read a book
• go for a walk in a park/nature
• just getting outside the house in general
• putting make up on and/or nice clothes

One thing that probably is the most effective of all and that I don’t do often enough is actually talking to people, venting to someone I feel comfortable with. We all have room for improvement in our lifes and this is something I need to start to do more: talk with people about my feelings.

I hope that this post helped you in some way, even if all the tips I gave are generic at least know that you are not alone. Everyone feels awful, we just don’t talk about it.

This is a topic I’d love to write more about so please let me know if you’re interest and what do you want me to write about. I have a few posts in my mind like an actual list of movies, tv shows and youtubers that I prefer to watch in these situations. Hope you’re all well and stay healthy.

Being employed and a foundation that doesn’t suit me

Like I said in the last post, it has been easy to stick to my RONB (Replacement Only No Buy) since I was unemployed. Well that is no longer the case, thankfully. With my new monetary situation it comes new “hardships”: I have money to spend and I sort of want to spend it in make up products.

The only foundayion that I own doesn’t suit me very well. It has a pink undertone and it looks grey on my chin, as well as looking just off when I apply it all over (I mainly just apply foundation to the center of my face). Now of course in my head this calls for a new foundation, but I feel like I would be breaking my rules. The fact is I don’t need foundation, just wearing concealer has been working just fine for me. I don’t need it, yet I do want to buy a new one. There are so many new foundations out there I want to try, as well as old favourites that worked wonders for me in the past and I never repurchased them.

I must be hard on myself and not see make up as a treat and just as something I currently have a complete collection to fill my needs and room to play with.

My No Buy year so far

Its been 4 months into my Repurchase Only No buy year and I decided to do an update.

So far I’ve only repurchased my mascara, as it was time to buy a new one I dedcided to try the famous l’oreal paradise extatic. In the first month of wearing it it was too wet and it came off too much product in the wand. Right now it’s the right consistency but I don’t think I will be repurchasing it.

I did do a big purchase that was already “planed” when I started my no buy which was eye make up brushes. I saw a store on instagram selling zoeva rose golden set for 20€ and I impulsively bought it. I don’t regret it though as zoeva brushes are normally very expensive. Even if I only use 4 or 5 brushes out of  12 (for now) it was way worth the money.

As for feeling the need/wanting to buy I feel if you are interested in make up you know how completely saturated the industry is. Everyday there are new releases and it is certainly a struggle to try to avoid it on social media. One thing that did help me was swatching all my eyeshadows to make me fall in love with them again and realise I do not need anything more and have exciting colours I haven’t played much with.

I must say being unemployed with regular expenses makes it quite easy and forceful to stick to a no buy. It also forces me to find a cheaper alternative to something I truly need, I might do a blog post on that later on.

Oscars best dressed

I’m no one to do a best/worst dressed list.

But I found this year the fashion at the Oscars was really different and I have been hearing a lot of negativity so I’m gonna show here some of my favourite looks of the night.

I won’t do a worst dressed list, that’s just mean. Everyone has different opinions of what looks good and fashion is always changing.

Image above Jason Momoa in a gorgeous Fendi pink suit; Nicolas Hoult in Dior; Helen Mirren looking faboulous in pink by Schiaparelli and Allison Janney wearing Pamella Roland.

Elsie Fisher in Thom Browne; Regina King in Oscar de La Renta; Emilia Clarke in Balmain and Melissa McCarty in Brandon Maxwell.

David Oyelowo in custom Etro suit; Amy Poehler in Alberta Ferreti; Michelle Yeoh in Elie Saab and Henry Goulding in Raulph Lauren Purple Label.

 

One thing I’m loving seeing is seeing man making bolder choices and also lots of women this year wearing pants and suits.

Wether you love them or hate them I think it’s always fun watching the big stars walking the red carpet and seeing the looks the stylists together with the celebs come up with. If you are into fashion and wanna know a bit more about what stylists do I recommend watching this roundatable interview from last year. Here’s hoping they do more of these.

Wet n Wild e Real Techniques em Portugal

Hoje vi no continente em Aveiro pincéis da Real Techniques e alguns produtos da Wet n Wild, assim como da W7 (que ainda não tina visto continente) . Na altura não me lembrei de tirar foto para vos mostrar aqui. Da Wet n Wild tinham vários produtos em conjuntos juntamente com uma bolsa.

Há anos que queria que a marca viesse a Portugal porque a qualidade é boa a preços muito baratos e claro que tinha vir quando eu estou num ano de No Buy! Se não encontrarem num continente perto de vocês também vendem online.

So queria partilhar esta informação pois é bom ver que cada vez temos mais marcas a chegar a Portugal.

Favourite TV shows I watched in 2018

My true love and favourite hobby in life is watching tv shows and movies, make up is just something I fallen into but don’t want to take that seriously. Every once in a while, you’ll see post about it here, in fact just like it used to be in the past of his blog.

Today I want to talk about tv shows on the drama category. Nowadays we are bombarded with great television and too many platforms to watch it on. Which can be both great and also overwhelming. These past years have been the era of television while there are still great movies being made and worth watching, we have a lot more revivals, and remakes as well as way too many super hero sequels. I’m gonnna break down my favourite/some tv shows I love/started watching in the past year.

The Handmaids Tale – this show is going for its 3^rd season and it’s still going strong. For anyone who hasn’t heard about it, it is inspired by Margaret Atwood book with the same title. I especially like how throughout the seasons who can see the motivations behind most characters and what lead them to what they do.

Glow – not quite sure if this show is more drama or comedy, but I’m gonna put it here because as you will see when I write about comedy shows they are all more light-hearted.

La casa de papel – Only watched this recently, because it was so hyped up I wasn’t feeling like giving into the hype and also I was watching too many things. Now, I don’t regret seeing it sooner, because while most people are waiting for the next season I had a blast watching the show for the 1st time. It is truly incredibly, the moral questions it raises, the relationships that arise in these situations.

The man in high castle – I’ve watched since it started airing, I feel like lately it has a few flaws or more I’m not interested in all the characters. It isn’t a show I want to binge watch but once it’s on I really enjoy it and thoroughly root for some characters. The 3^rd season was really good, better than the 2^nd one in my opinion.

Products that tempt me

Yes, I’m on a no buy but I’m human and our society is ruled by consumerism so – even though I’m getting better at avoiding them, I sometimes fall on the instragram traps. Some products that I feel tempted and might add to the wishlist are: fenty beauty gloss, nabla cosmetics single eyeshadows.

I don’t know how useful a wishlist is in a no buy. I’ve kept wishlits all these years in a way to control my spending. I would often put a product on a wishlist and some days or weeks after I would check the list to see if I still wanted those products. What I noticed is that I would delete most products from the wishlist with only a few sticking there or that I ended up buying. In fact there are still products there that have been there for the longest time. I still want them but haven’t had the money to buy them.

I’m not sure if having a whishlist isn’t in a way contributing to wanting to buy stuff. What are your thoughts? Do you find it hard to resist the temptation, especially now during Christmas?

Make up habbits

I mainly only wear make up on weekends. I can’t be bothered to put on make up in the morning during the week, I always stay in bed for as long as I possible can so I do everything else in a hurry and make up isn’t just a priority when showing up to work. I do like how I look with make up of course, and very recently I discovered a look that looks great on me, and I’ve received compliments on – that seriously never happened to me.

When it comes to eyeshadow for the longest time I didn’t wear any, the past two years I bought two eyeshadow palettes and have been experimenting, but it was only when I bought the kiko green me palette in “02 Feisty Saffron” that I found which colours I think suits me best, and that is warmer tones. It’s been really fun these past months to try out new looks and colour combinations.

Even though I still find myself wanting to buy new eyeshadow palettes whenever I go to Instagram and see all the new gorgeous releases. It makes no sense, I wear eyeshadow maybe 2 to 3 times a month, I don’t need more.

I don’t have much make up, and I don’t think I have a problem (yet), especially compared to what you see online. Considering I’m currently an unpaid intern I literally cannot afford to even think about buying make up.

I want to see this as an experiment to know myself, if I can actually pull this off.