Welcome to 2019! | Intro to my Low-Buy | January Shop My Stash

Welcome to the first Boxy-Ladies.com post of 2019! I appreciate you being patient as I underwent back surgery in December and needed a little break while I recovered. Meanwhile Jill has been a bit absent lately, as she is working 1000s of hours per week (is that possible?) to open her new business with her husband. I miss her around the blog, and I know she misses it too – but I’m so crazy proud of her. She’s actually living her dreams. How many of us really get to do that? I saw the space of her location over the summer when it was in the beginning stages of being built, but I can’t wait to see her biz up and running when… *I’m* up and running. Keep an eye out for a Baltimore trip in 2019!

I’ve been watching some No-Buy/Low-Buy videos the past few weeks and I’ve decided to try to do my own Low-Buy for the beginning of 2019, ending in July. (Which is, strategically, my birthday month.) I have, what is called in the business, a “shit-load” of makeup. And I really love most of it! I want to spend more time using the products I have, not only because I get joy out of that, but then I’ll also be able to provide better reviews for y’all. So within my “Low-Buy” rules, I’ve decided to buy no more than three makeup products a month. There are a few caveats to that – if I have a gift card, it doesn’t count against my three products. That’s more of a a “freebie.” Additionally, if I’m stocking up on a particular product, like mascara, and I get more than one because of a sale or something, that counts as one product. Also, if I am buying a few eyeshadow singles, that counts as one product, similar to an eyeshadow palette. I’m interested in shopping from more indie cosmetic companies in 2019, so I may be expanding my eyeshadow singles. I’m thinking about curating a palette from singles each month to get more use out of those as well, but that’s a topic for another day. Finally, if I buy something and it doesn’t work out, and I exchange it for something else, that’s OK. This Low-Buy really only applies to makeup, as that’s my biggest weakness and what I own the most of. I don’t tend to over-buy skincare, hair stuff or body stuff. So those things won’t really count but if I see any of those categories getting out of hand, I might need to revisit that particular rule.

Starting each month, I am going to “Shop My Own Stash,” and pick out products that I want to focus on in that particular month. Then, at the end of the month, I can give a review on those products and pick out products for the next month. Though I may give eyeshadow palettes their own dedicated post, as I want to get more thorough with my reviews this year. I got a new camera lens, so I think my pictures of products are going to be more detailed and truer to color/texture than in the past, so I’m excited!

This month, I’m focusing on these particular products. I got the eyeshadow palettes either for Christmas or around the holidays and because I was recovering from surgery, I wasn’t really wearing much makeup at all! So I’m excited to use them for the rest of the month.

Foundation: