little white truths

It's not quite the end of August but I thought I'd check in now because there won't be any more purchases this month, and before you say 'wait, you're not meant to have any purchases when you're on a no buy', let me explain.

My husband bought me two $50 gift cards this month (one for Mecca and one for Sephora), which was a complete surprise. He did this because we had visitors from Mexico earlier in August, and because my parents are overseas and my son decided that he would throw tantrums wherever we went, what this meant was that I did a lot more solo kid-minding than we'd planned. No dinners, lunches or sight-seeing for me. Surprise gift cards for me instead. Yay!

As you may know, gift card purchases are 'allowed' under my no buy rules, and since I don't need skincare at the moment but I am running low on some makeup items, I put the gift-card money towards things I actually needed.

Let's have a look.

* Image courtesy of mecca.com.au

Hourglass Confession Ultra Slim High Intensity Refillable Lipstick in I Lust For

Yep, I bought myself a second one, which I'd promised to do once my makeup no buy ended - but since I had a $50 gift card and these retail for $49 (with the packaging; the refills are cheaper), I went ahead and bought another one.

Why do so now, rather than waiting until the end of my no buy? For the simple reason that I only have three lipsticks left and I don't have a nude - and I need one! So rather than being stuck with choosing between an orange, a raspberry and a terracotta on the daily (which really limits what I can do with my eyeshadow and blush), I went ahead and filled the nude gap.

I guess you could call this an essential purchase, to be honest - also allowed under my no buy rules - but in any event, my gift card was best-used for a lipstick rather than anything else. And I wanted to spend it now: it's been a bugger of a month and I reckon I deserve a special treat ; )

* Image courtesy of mecca.com.au

Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion (Original)

The only eye primer I own is on its last legs and I was going to have to replace it anyway in September, so I threw the travel-size into my cart along with the above lipstick (plus a couple of $3 body-care minis to get me over the line for free shipping).

I'm using the anti-ageing version of this primer at the moment and it's not great for longevity (some of my eyeshadows crease over it, too), so I thought I'd better try the original and see if it's as good as everyone says.

Plus I love that you can buy these in travel-size. Most eye primers have six to twelve-month shelf-lives, and I don't know how on earth you'd get through a full-sized eye primer in that time unless you're a makeup artist, since you use so little per application.

Looking forward! I'm sick of using an eye primer that doesn't work as well as I need it to.

* Image courtesy of anastasiabeverlyhills.com

Anastasia Beverly Hills Powder Bronzer in Saddle

As you may know, this bronzer has been on my wishlist from the moment I first saw the swatches. It's exactly the shade I've been looking for ever since my Stila Sun Bronzer in Dark ran out, and I was planning to buy it as soon as my spending ban lifted - but I ended up using my $50 gift card on it for a few reasons.

First, I've already finished three bronzers this year and I'm currently working on a fourth, so there's been room in my collection for another one for a while.

Second, these things are often out of stock (and like many new and popular releases, they 'magically' become out of stock whenever Sephora has one of its 20 per cent off sales - do you really think we haven't worked that out Sephora?) so I wanted to grab it while I could.

Third, Sephora FINALLY had a 500-point perk arrive this month, and I've been waiting to use my points on one of those for over a year - which is why I used the gift card now so I could get the Caudalie skincare set, rather than waiting until my no-buy ends in October and discovering that it had sold out.

Can't wait to use this thing! It's the shade I've been waiting for, for far too long.

In sum

That's all from me. While I've managed to acquire three makeup items this month, all three were allowed under my no buy rules.

Given that I had two unexpected gift cards show up this month so I was able to buy two things that were on my wishlist, I may end up extending my no buy past the end of September - especially because none of the upcoming festive releases we've seen so far have tickled my fancy. We'll see.

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

* All images courtesy of unsplash.com unless otherwise indicated