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What helps you to resist buying a beauty product you want (but shouldn't buy)?
What helps you to resist buying a beauty product you want (but shouldn’t buy)? Share your tips & tricks!
Here are a few things I tell myself: 1) Wait for reviews; 2) Wait for a sale; 3) You don’t need it. Then, I tell myself I can dupe it at home, so it becomes a mission to dupe it with products I already own instead. I find that what’s important is to delay for awhile, and only if it continues to nag at me is it really worth considering later on.
Thanks to Dorothy for today’s question! Do you have a question idea? Submit yours here.
In addition to the suggestions Christine made: I remind myself that I don’t -need- anything and think about 1) the large amount of product still in my drawer that I will likely not finish up and 2) the fact that I’ve recently given away/throw away a large amount of product that I got and didn’t live up to my expectations.
Seriously this is almost exactly what I was going to say. My stash is quite large now, so I don’t really need anything else. I also did a purge about a month ago and gave away a lot of stuff (and threw out the res).
Mostly I don’t have to do anything to stop myself from getting the high-shelf items – Sephora doesn’t ship outside the US and Nordstrom costs $40 for shipping so its virtually impossible to get decent makeup. I tried to get the Laura Mercier Spellbound illuminator recently, the cheapest they had it on ebay was $150. makeup in Australia is either impossible to get here or ridiculously marked up so I rarely ever buy anything purely because I can’t bare the thought of getting ripped off to that extent. you can’t buy urban decay or illamasqua here… so I guess the only reason I don’t splurge on makeup is because I either can’t afford exorbitant shipping or there is just no way for me to access it. you people who live within driving distance of a Sephora don’t know how good you’ve got it I tell you what!
Although things are a little better here in western Europe re. distribution and pricing, I completely understand what you mean. When I read posts or watch videos by US beauty bloggers, I feel like I live on a different planet! Having so many brands to choose from, stores with return policies, decent (often free) shipping and sales… But as you say, it does help not to splurge too often. Not a great silver lining, but still 😉
Didn’t Illamasqua have a huge campaign regarding prices in Australia and how theyre purposefully marking it down for consumers? And according to their website, there’s four counter locations.
Yeh, they did. Prices are pretty good now and when they have a sale you can get good bargains. Nail polish is still not cheap (where cheap is under $10). Some other brands are reducing their prices and BareMinerals is selling at just above US prices. Something tells me MAC and others won’t follow though.
Hi Soren,
Agreed, makeup in Australia is ridiculously marked up. When I am in the US or have friends going I go a little nuts at Sephora and Nordstrom. Last Christmas the bf bought back a small case almost full! You can buy Urban Decay from BeautyBay and shipping is free, they don’t have the complete range but it is pretty good. Myer sells Illamasqua but not at all stores, they do have it online though. You can buy from the UK Illamasqua site and when they have a sale on things are pretty cheap.
I was going to get the Sephora Ariel mirror and storybook palette off ebay but with shipping they would have been $150 or more, so I feel your pain!
i read and re read and re re read reviews till I convince myself I don’t need it. 😛
Separating me from my credit card.
Staring at my bank/credit card statements is pretty effective for me 😛 And this is a bit morbid, but my grandmother was a huuuuge shopaholic. When she passed away and my parents and aunts/uncles had to clean out her closets(!), they ended up donating bags and bags of clothing she’d bought that she’d never touched after leaving the store – lots of it still had tags attached. Reflecting on that reminds me that there’s just no way in a lifetime I’d be able to use everything I ever wanted to buy, even if I could afford it all. And considering how much I own vs. how much of it I’ve ever used up, it’s just plain selfish of me to want even more.
This is a bad time for me to answer this question. Just spent the day in a city two hours away that has EVERYTHING. Apparently nothing stops me from buying things I shouldn’t or things I don’t need. I need an intervention. LOL! It was fun though. Now back on the wagon….
1. Unless it is an extraordinarily unique product, or a shade that is absolutely amazing & can’t be duped, I don’t stray from a handful of specific brands. While there have been quite a few Dior, Chanel, Armani, LMdB, RBR, etc. products that have caught my eye, those are brands that haven’t consistently made the cut for me in the past.
2. I keep detailed lists of products I want, and group them in the order I want to buy them. Unless I catch a really good deal/sale, I stick not only to the list, but the order in which I’ve prioritized them. I may also stray if a new LE product comes about, and I’ll sometimes re-order the list with that item in mind, based on what might work well with it.
3. I consider how well a certain product will work with what I currently own. Even if I find a shade so pretty, if I have nothing to wear with it, I won’t buy it.
4. I order online as little as possible, and when I do, I make it worthwhile by ordering several items, and ordering *only* what I absolutely cannot pick up at a counter/store. If I have to make the effort to trek to a specific mall, I put more thought into whether I really want an item.
Great advices!!
Waiting. I almost never ever buy a product on an impulse- I rather prefer to think about it for a while, to make sure I really want it (and if I do and can afford it, then it means that I should buy it!). Usually it doesn’t make me change my opinion (if I must, I can make up my mind fairly quickly), but it does sometimes, so that’s always some bucks that are saved!
1. Price
2. If I already have something similar
Hellooooo,
I do exactly the same ! Most of time I look but try not to buy and if some days or weeks after I’m still thinking of, I finaly buy it….and sometimes I forget, and so it means I was right resisting 😉
Great question. I’m looking forward to the answers, as I’m hopeless with resisting new makeup.
What helps me not to buy is waiting for a review made by you 🙂 Your blog saved me quite some money. Not only I wait for a review (if your vote is less then B I will not buy that product!) but I also wait to see how dupe-able is a certain shade (I might already have something similar).
Nice tips. To resist a product I want, I find the best way is to remind myself what I’m really giving up for it (I’m saving for a house, though). So I’ll say to myself something like “I’m going to have my new house, but I won’t be able to have the furniture / wooden floors / whatever, because I spent all my money on stuff I didn’t need!”
Guilt factor works!
I sit on it, and then it becomes easy to distract myself with new press releases. There’s always something I want more, so I tell myself I’ll skip this because that looks more interesting!
Thats pretty much what I was going to say! Except #3 is probably #1 for me!
Nowadays, I almost always wait for a review or to check out the product myself, “in store”. If I really want a product, though, there’s no “shouldn’t” about it – I just buy it. If it’s something I really shouldn’t buy, I have the common sense simply not to buy it, the same way I don’t buy anything I really covet but which is out of my budget range or simply too expensive for my “social conscience”.
I also wait on reviews. Then I decide if I really need this product. For example right now I need a concealer and I can justify buying one because I only have one concealer and it is completely gone as of this morning :(. I also try to think how versatile an item would be (especially eyeshadows). I think will I really use that color that much? I have a ridiculous amount of eyeshadows and some I may only use once a month. If I still really want to buy a product that I don’t really need I try to wait it out until end of the season markdowns. I have been able to get awesome products on the company’s website or from VIB type sales.
I tell my self you have a color just like it with that in mind i go home and prove it to myself lol
I’m really bad at talking myself out of things, but I find it comes in phases. I bought a tonne of makeup this year, all things I really wanted, and filled out a lot of the gaps I saw in my collection, but now I find I can walk past eyeshadows and lipsticks because I’ve got everything I really wanted (or something close enough). I did the same thing with cookbooks, I bought encyclopedic tomes on every cuisine I was interested in and now they don’t tempt me (and I can cook a whole stack of dishes). I’m ordering a couple of blushes (having figured out how to wear it without looking sunburned or clownish), and then I think I’ll be done with makeup buying for a long time, because I just won’t feel the urge. I’ve had these kinds of ‘collector diseases’ in the past, but then I find I go through a really long period of not wanting to buy anything so it balances out financially.
i agree with your suggestions, Christine. Also, I will keep a product in mind in case my mom or whoever needs an idea for a Christmas gift.
Lately I’ve been looking at product ingredients and whether or not they’re up to par. That cuts down/limits a lot of my lustful purchases.
To the ones that say they can’t resist, I’m curious: how do you work the expense into your household budget? Do you sacrifice other things, do you go in debt?
Personally my husband and I have a monthly allowance we can do whatever we want with. I could spend it all on makeup or not, but I never go over.
Nevertheless, at this point I have a pretty good stash and I don’t feel like I need to add to it. The only thing I buy is foundation when I run out.
I don’t really buy anything completely unknown to me, I’ve become all about the reviews! If I swatch something and think it’s pretty, it’s very easy for me to resist buying it. I think my makeup collection is quite expansive at this point, so I remind myself something has to be REALLY SUPER UNIQUE for me to buy it at and have it be worth adding to my stash. I realize I don’t NEED anything, so any purchase at this point is superfluous. Another thing that really helps is thinking about space, I have so much makeup now that I don’t even know where to store it all! So that keeps things very much in perspective for me. Waiting also helps, like I have a “Want List” and if something stays on the list for more than a year while many other things get crossed off when I realize I don’t want them as much, then I consider purchasing it or requesting it as a gift. I’ve been pretty lucky money-wise, but when it comes down to it, I know what money I have and that I need to make smart money choices in order to live comfortably.
1. I don’t have enough space! My Ikea Alex 9-drawer is completely full, and I don’t have room for another one. Buying new stuff means getting rid of old stuff these days 🙁
2. I most likely already have something similar, or I can get the shade by mixing two (or more) other products. Some products can look different swatched, but very similar on the face (blush in particular).
3. I have so much that I can use a different product every single day for a whole year.
4. Put it on a wish list and wait a couple of a couple of weeks/months and see if it’s something I still crave.
5. If you don’t have (somewhat nice) clothes it doesn’t matter how great your makeup looks. Buy clothes instead.
I read your blog daily but rarely comment. But today I had to coz I couldnt stop laughing…. YOU “wait for reviews”???? LOL! This site is OUR Bible for reviews!!!
In the last couple of months, I have been telling so many SAs to go though this site to know more about their own products and to be better equipped to manage their customers! Dont know what I would do without Temptalia!! Love the work you are doing Christine!!
Thank you, KK! 🙂
I never ever buy something on the spot, especially if it’s a new collection. I like to go to Sephora and swatch everything I like, afterwards go home and read every single review I can find (temptalia being my main research) and after I like to wait for 1/2 weeks. If I still want the product just then I will go and buy it. It really works. For example, from 5 products that I want from a collection I get to buy only one or nothing!
I hate to buy unnecessary products and see them laying in my drawer. My pocket hurts and so does my conscience!
I try to find actual reasons for not getting something, like if you think about it thoroughly, it’s too glittery/you have too many colours like this etc.
For me, the biggest motivator against buying something is whether or not I can already dupe it. Sometimes, though, I’ll fall in love with a new product type/formula and I’ll keep acquiring different shades in the line one by one. I’ve started to do with with Rimmel’s Show Off Lip Lacquer. So duping doesn’t matter, because I need it in THAT FORMULA NOW, obviously. XD
I’m a college student, so I always have to tell myself that I’ll be saving money that I could spend on something else!
My biggest problem, however, is trying to walk away from a sale. I have to keep telling myself “just because it’s on sale doesn’t mean that I HAVE to buy it”. Also, if I wasn’t interested in that product when it was at full price, then I probably shouldn’t get it.
No money. Sometimes I can talk myself into not needing it.
If I see something I think I want, I go to either the Sephora or Nordstrom website and add it to my wish list. Then several days later when I happen to think about it, I log in and check my list. I’ve noticed that after several days have passed, the desire just isn’t as strong or it is gone completely. I delete those items I’m no longer lemming, leave the ones I’m undecided about, and then log out. Then when the mood strikes, I’ll log back in, make a decision, and purchase those items still holding my attention. It’s amazing how this process has cut down on my impulse buying and saved me from buying things I probably won’t use or like much. My theory is that when I let it sit for a while, I find that I just didn’t need or want the product that much after all.
I’m actually pretty good at keeping myself in check with beauty purchases, which is why my makeup collection is somewhat small compared to most people’s. It’s rare that I get urges to own something as soon as I see it. I almost always wait for reviews (there is the occasional exception) and only if it’s worth the money (good quality product, nice packaging, etc.) and I can afford it at the time, only then do I buy a product. For exemple, high priced luxury items need to get an A+, A or at the very least an A- from you in order for me to pay for them. I’m good at not buying into the hype of a new product.
I learnt a lot from my spontaneous buys in the past. Now, I always, ALWAYS read tons and tons of reviews before actually committing to a product. Good thing is that I know and will agree with myself that I have WAY too much makeup…in fact, I don’t even use makeup 95% of the time. So, I know it’ll be a waste of money for me to purchase new makeup. But, skincare is my weakness right now.