Beauty No-Buy November: DONE!

Turns out it was actually No-Blog November too, last month has absolutely flown by and I hadn't realised I'd barely posted (although there's always content over on my YouTube channel). If you missed my previous post, the gist is that I intended to spend absolutely nothing on beauty products this month. I had a bit of a build-up of new products from my birthday, and I got stuck in a rut of constantly wanting new items.

So one month on, how did I do? 

The answer is: great! I made a grand total of three beauty purchases. Number one was dry shampoo, number two was hair dye and number three was some gel eye patches. Two were products I told myself were allowed, and the other a repurchase. There were a few almost-purchases, but not as many as I expected. I received an eyeshadow palette which contained a very glittery shade, yet I did not own any kind of glitter glue/primer, which resulted in a face full of glitter (and not the good highlighter kind...). I was so tempted by the NYX Glitter Primer, but thought I'd save it for when my no-buy was over. If that's not willpower, I don't know what is!

And then there's the elephant in the room, Black Friday, which unfortunately had to fall on the month I was doing my No-Buy. I could have been swayed by Beauty Bay, but they actually started their sales earlier on in the week and by the time I logged on to have a browse, everything I wanted was sold out. I did have a look at a few other websites, as I would have allowed myself to order a few things to put away as part of my Christmas present, but I just didn't find anything that caught my eye.

This time around, the no-buy felt very very different. Instead of a tortuous ban, it felt more like a way of life. I wasn't lusting after anything, I didn't really think about beauty products. When I watched beauty content on YouTube, I stopped getting this urgency of having to own something. I began to watch something and think "okay looks cool" and leave it at that.

I did find that I stopped getting excited about material items, and it's made me feel a bit weird about Christmas. I've come to feel so content with everything I have already, and I really do have everything I could ever need. For a holiday that's built so much over consumerism, I just feel so "meh" about it because there isn't anything (anything affordable at least) I want or need.

That aside, I'm feeling great that I managed to stick to my goal of not spending a penny on beauty, and as it's become less of a challenge and more of a lifestyle, I think I'm actually going to continue this throughout December and into the new year too (although maybe not as strict, more of a "low-buy"). There's not really a huge amount of point treating myself when Christmas is just around the corner anyway. I'm so happy that this no-buy has changed my mindset, and I'm looking forward to becoming even more minimal in 2018!

Have you ever done a no-buy challenge?