little white truths

Anyone who's been reading this blog since I started it three months ago will know that I'm relatively new to the land of beauty.

In fact, I came from the opposite end of the spectrum: for a long time, I barely wore makeup. I remember travelling with friends in my twenties and watching with fascination as they made up their faces before we went out; then I only wore it when I felt I had to (eg for work); and I certainly didn't wear it on a daily basis. I applied it 'under duress' and hated doing so, approaching it like a chore. And I certainly didn't buy it - unless I'd gone into Priceline for lollies or something and picked up an eyeshadow I'd never wear from the $2 bin on a whim.

I just wasn't interested. Santa would often buy me Lancome mini gift sets at Christmas, and I'd occasionally use them and like them well enough, but really they just got shoved in an old, tattered makeup bag (one of those cheap ones that likely came as part of a gift set a decade prior). For a long time I didn't cleanse or moisturise my face, and if you'd asked me what toner was, I'd have assumed it was some kind of contraption for tightening muscles. It was a world I knew nothing about and didn't care to.

You get the picture. Then, years later, I signed up for Glossybox purely because a family friend had just found a job there and I was interested in the concept: it wasn't the product factor that drew me in, but the surprise factor. And $15 per month wasn't bad! This was November 2011. I was 31. That's how long it took for me to give a sh*t about lipstick.

It wasn't until just before Christmas 2011 that I opened a lip gloss that had come in a box weeks ago and immediately fell in love. It was like I'd discovered something I'd been missing out on all these years: beauty products could be pretty, exciting and fun. They could make you feel good and special just by using them. Why had I never realised this before?! I've always enjoyed getting obsessed with things. And I had a new obsession. In the months after, my husband watched my bare face turn into a canvas I played with daily, and he still doesn't quite know what happened.

What followed that lip gloss discovery was a small bunch of online orders at the beginning of 2012 (bring on the post-Christmas sales), which turned into a much larger bunch pretty soon because I literally had nothing in my cosmetics armoury and I needed to start from scratch. There was something wonderful about that - I almost wish I could go back to having almost nothing and starting a collection again...

But maybe I can.

Anyhoo, to wind up the story: I had a nice-looking collection by the time we migrated to Berlin at the end of March 2012. I signed up for Glossybox Deutsch while there, but I suppose it was only when we got back to Australia in October last year when I realised that, while I certainly had a fair amount in my makeup collection, the skincare collection was seriously lacking (no point stocking up OS when we had to bring everything home) and the makeup collection still had room to move.

Enter Bellabox, then Violet Box, then Lust Have It. I'd been thinking about writing a blog for some time, but it wasn't until my work hours were cut in July this year that I had some time to not only focus more on my writing, but look at other possible income streams too. While the blogging wouldn't even fund a daily coffee habit at the moment, that doesn't mean it can't eventually grow into something bigger. Plus I like doing it, and I like staying connected to the world of beauty.

When I was still earning a decent income for the first six months after we got back, I seriously padded out the beauty stores. It was really my only expense - I buy ninety per cent of my clothes from op shops (same goes with books), and even then I don't buy many. Now that our financial circumstances have changed (and there's a baby on the way), I've been spending much less on beauty products, but I've certainly developed a habit of buying things I don't need. You know how it is - it's so easy to fall for sales, for free shipping specials, for gifts with purchase at Priceline.

I've got enough stuff to last me a while now, but I haven't got so much that it's going to go off before I get to use it - so it's time to halt the spending while I still can!

I've decided to go for a whole year without buying a single beauty item. What a challenge. Can I do it? Who knows. It's certainly worth a crack.

I should say from the outset that I won't be completely deprived - I've got plenty of stuff sitting there that I've been saving to open for a special occasion (eg I got two Benefit mini kits for my birthday in June and I haven't used them yet!), plus there'll have to be a few caveats:

• While I still have plenty of products to review on this blog, I might have to start getting more creative with my posts - I certainly don't have 365 products waiting to be reviewed!
• I've been using research into new beauty products as a procrastination tool. Since forcing myself into a year of 'window shopping' will leave me tearing my hair out, I'll have to remove the window shopping from the table so I don't go nuts (keeping in mind that I'll still be staying up-to-date with trends etc because that's an interest and it's part of this blog - but I'll certainly reduce the time I spend on reading about beauty items).
• When that procrastination tool is removed, aside from leaving me with more time to spend on my writing (for now!), I'll also have more time to connect with other bloggers etc, which I do like doing.