little white truths

I've been so overloaded with posts (and life generally, to be honest) that I completely forgot I was due to update this by the end of March. Made it on the last day!

I'll be interested to see how my numbers are looking, I must say. I know that I've gotten through a lot of skincare lately and haven't bought much to replace it (I'm on a no buy: only essential purchases are allowed), so in theory we should be seeing a decent reduction in my numbers but in practice one never knows.

Let's have a look.

Makeup remover

Previously I had four (one open travel-size, two unopened full-sizes and one unopened mini) and I've finished the smaller ones so I now have two.

A good start. I'm not stressed about this category because I don't tend to buy a lot of these - I just buy whatever's on special and then replace it when I need to - but I had wound up with a few extras so at least I've managed to finish those.

One is my goal here but two is fine.

Cleansing oils/balms

I had three (one open full-size, one open travel-size and one unopened mini) and I managed to finish all those so I had to go out and buy one, meaning I now have one only. Cleansing balm is something I love so I don't mind having a few and this certainly isn't my worst category.

I'm happy with one for now but I am missing having a balm (the one I bought was an oil) so I might have to buy myself one when the Priceline vouchers come in. Looking forward.

Cleanser

This is all other cleansers aside from oils and balms, and it's one of my bad categories. Previously I had eight in total (two open full-sizes and one open travel-size, plus three unopened full-sizes and two unopened travel-sizes), which is of course far too many.

Now I have five, and they're all open. One's a travel-size but the rest are full-sizes.

My goal is four, so we're getting there.

Exfoliants

I had four (one open travel-size and one open full-size, plus one unopened full-size and one unopened travel-size) and I still have four. One of the full-sizes is still unopened but the rest are in circulation.

Two's my goal here.

Toner

For toners, I'm not only including standard toners but also my 'treatment' ones (eg my glycolic toners from The Ordinary and Alpha-H). In my last inventory I had five (two open full-sizes, two unopened full-sizes and one unopened travel-size).

Now I have two, one being a standard toner and one being a glycolic acid product. That's my goal so I've made it. Yay.

Acids/treatments

A lot of the products in this category are from The Ordinary and I wanted to make a separate heading for them because they don't really fit into any other category.

Before I had six (two open full-sizes and four unopened full-sizes). I now have four, including two open full-sizes and two unopened ones.

My aim was to have three by June so we're getting there.

Serums

Before I had eight - two open full-sizes, three unopened full-sizes, two unopened travel-sizes and one mini. I now have three, two open full-sizes and one unopened one.

Gosh, that's a big difference! Although I suppose that a few of the ones from earlier were smaller, so that would explain how I've managed to reduce this category so much.

My goal here was three so we're there.

Eye cream

I had three and I still have three. To be honest, I think it's the same three from before because I don't get through eye cream that quickly.

Three is a good goal for me I reckon so let's leave it at that for now.

Day cream

Previously I had seven: one open full-size, two unopened full-sizes, two unopened travel-sizes and two unopened minis. Eek. Far too many.

Thankfully I've made some good headway here and I only have three full-sizes left.

My aim was one so we're not too far away.

Night cream/overnight cream

Previously I had one and I do have an extra two now because I wound up with a travel-size in one of Mecca's Beauty Loop boxes and also as a GWP with a Sephora order. That's three in total.

I'm not too concerned about this category because two of the ones I own are smaller, although I would like to only have a couple.

Oils

In this category I had six (one open full-size, one unopened full-size and four unopened minis). I now have two, one being open and one being unopened.

Two was my goal so we're good here.

Masks

In my last inventory I had thirteen: four open full-sizes, three open travel-sizes, four unopened full-sizes and two unopened travel-sizes. Yikes.

I now have nine: four open full-sizes, four unopened full-sizes and an unopened travel-size.

My goal was four. Yikes again.

Skincare kits 

Previously I had four and I now have three. When I did my December inventory I wasn't able to count the items individually because I knew I was getting two kits for Christmas but didn't know what was in them, so I'm kind of tied to that now and we'll just have to roll with it.

Eventually I'll open the kits and whatever's in them will get counted in other categories, so we'll see some fluctuations in numbers over time but that's ok.

The final tally

In December's inventory I had 74 items in total, with my aim being to cut things down to less than 50 by June.

I now have 44 products (including three kits with a few items in them) so I've already surpassed that goal. Huzzah!

Looks like I need to aim for say 35 to 40 by the time we reach June.

In sum

That's all from me. 

I'm glad my numbers have gone down significantly and I'm keen to keep that trend going this year.

As you may know, I'm on no buys for both skincare and makeup until June (being my birthday month) - and while I do plan to replenish a few things in June, I may well keep my no buys going until the festive season so I can really reduce my numbers this year.

Hope all's well with you, and speak soon x

* All images courtesy of unsplash.com