2019 No Buy Year – Three Months Gone

I’m sitting here, staring at the tiny calendar in the bottom corner of my laptop screen. The date is March 30, 2019. We’re just about through three months of this year. I do believe I can officially call my No Buy Year a fail.

1. Urban Decay Naked Reloaded
2. Jeffree Star Cosmetics Blue Blood
3. Huda Beauty Topaz Obsession
4. MAC Fix+

Four eyeshadow palettes that I definitely didn’t NEED, but totally wanted and could not walk away from no matter how many times I closed out the page and told myself, “I don’t need it.” Ulta’s 21 Days of Beauty didn’t help. Having gift cards didn’t help. My inane need for Completionism didn’t help.

On the flip side, I have sold a few items in my Poshmark closet. So, it kind of helps and offset the price of the newbies. I’m not letting myself feel like a failure, though. No one wants to go through an entire year, let alone a month or a week, telling themselves that they’ve failed or are a failure. I’m just changing up the game. No Buy is now Low Buy. I think it’s much more feasible and gives a lovely leniency to the slip-ups I’m bound to endure through the rest of the nine months of the year.

Judge all you want. Hell, I judge myself. Still, it could be worse. I could’ve bought absolutely everything I come across that I want. *Coughs* There is still the Urban Decay Game of Thrones collaboration that comes out in a few weeks and I honestly don’t feel like I can resist getting something from the collection. I also don’t want to stop myself.

There’s a difference here, folks. Can’t… I’m an adult and I sure as hell can do whatever I want. I just need to make better choices for myself. Works with this same as it works for a diet. There is no Can’t.

Eyeshadow Comparison

So, I decided I would do some eyeshadow comparisons, choosing, in particular, the gold shadows from four of my palettes.

Rich Bitch – Jeffree Star Cosmetics Beauty Killer palette

Mojito – Kylie Cosmetics Royal Peach palette

Wodaabe – Juvia’s Place The Saharan palette

Irresistible – Too Faced x NikkieTutorials The Power of Makeup palette

This picture was taken in natural daylight, no filters whatsoever.

Now, maybe I ended up biasing myself by swatching Wodaabe first, but the other three shades all felt like I was running the pad of my finger over a burlap sack afterward. Wodaabe is such a creamy smooth shadow, with potential for fallout as a result, but it’s well worth that risk with the color payoff, in my humble opinion.

Rich Bitch, by far not the worst of my four picks here, seemed chalky and a little rough in the pan. I actually went back for a second swipe at the shadow for the swatch, justifying it by the fact it was my pinky finger that I’d used. The color isn’t terrible, but it comes across as a little patchy.

Mojito felt like I was touching a brick, to be honest. The color isn’t terrible, once you get past that obvious odor, but again, it seems a little patchy to me.

Irresistible…. isn’t necessarily so. While it doesn’t have that rich gold, or even the olive undertone of the other shadows with the swatch, in the pan, it seemed very similar. Unfortunately, as you can see here, there’s almost no color pay off. I definitely recommend using glitter glue or an eyeshadow base if you want to maximize the performance here.

Take this little comparison for what it’s worth. People all have their own personal opinions, brands they prefer, needs from their makeup, etc. However, if I could recommend one of these four? I’d definitely choose Wodaabe above the competition.