nails

150 Day No-Buy and YDSMBSM

~ stashy ~ 46 Comments

Weird title for a post, huh.

Firstly: yay, it’s Day 150 of my No-Buy!  Only 186 more days to go… (for those of you who don’t know, I’m on a yearlong No-Buy, but I had to restart it in Jan because I broke my No-Buy with a Target haul.  My No-Buy ends on Dec 31st.)
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Now, what does YDSMBSM mean?  It stands for:
You Don’t Save Money By Spending Money.

It’s something my frugal bf says to me in response to when I try to justify my latest purchase, “I got such a good deal on it, it was 50% off!”  To which he’d say, “You Don’t Save Money By Spending Money.  You still spent money to save that 50%.   If you didn’t buy it at all, then you would have saved 100%.”  Party pooper.  But he did have a point. 😛

Here’s a bunch of crap deals that I bought last year because I found them in the clearance section:
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What did I need an orange eye shadow for?  And a hot pink lipstick? I’ve NEVER EVER even worn that lipstick!

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Cute Asian cosmetics

~ stashy ~ 28 Comments

Like a lot of you, I’m a sucker for cute packaging and I think Asian brands do them especially well. But, these products are not just a pretty face.  Even though some of the packaging look like they could be cheap makeup for children, they’re actually quite good quality.
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Here’s a sampling of some cute Asian beauty items I have – all of these items are either Japanese or Korean brands.

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Untrieds: Revlon ColorStay Bare Bones

~ stashy ~ 20 Comments

I picked this up while Revlon was clearing out the ColorStay Longwear Nail Enamel and replacing them with the ColorStay Gel Envy version. I have yet to try the Gel Envy but the bottles look nearly identical and I suspect the “new” polishes aren’t really all that different.
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Bare Bones #300 is a slightly yellow / green (khaki?) tinged tan cream shade.  It’s a bit ugly in the bottle but what drew me was that it was an unusual but still neutral (read: work appropriate) shade.  For $3, I thought why not.

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5 Pastel nail polishes

~ stashy ~ 14 Comments

In keeping with the Easter and Spring theme, I thought I’d showcase 5 pastel nail polishes from my stash:
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Thumb to pinky: Essie Pink-a-Boo, Revlon Apricot Pastry, Illamasqua Milf, Mary Kay Blue Lotus, Essence A Lovely Secret.
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Untrieds: Illamasqua Poke nail polish

~ stashy ~ 14 Comments

I may have mentioned on this blog that I have a lot of nail polishes.  I may also have mentioned that many of my nail polishes are unworn, or as I call them: Untrieds.  And many of my Untrieds are Illamasqua.  Today I bring you Illamasqua Poke.
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It is described on Illamasqua’s site as:

Bright violet purple, shimmer finish.

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Green Day

~ stashy ~ 9 Comments

In honour of today being St. Patrick’s Day, I thought I would showcase some green makeup items in my stash.  Let’s use the local dollar store as a gauge for what colour green we’re talking about:

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Looks like a Leprechaun vomited in there.

At first glance, I would claim that I do not own very many green makeup items.  But I actually do, especially eye shadows.

Keep reading to see my green makeup!

Nail polish stash

~ stashy ~ 27 Comments

All right, here’s the stash that started it all.  If it wasn’t for my growing nail polish collection, I would have never tracked any of my makeup in a spreadsheet. And out of everything I hoard, I would say that buying nail polish is the most compulsive for me.  They’re just so much fun!  No guilt. No commitment. And nail polishes don’t go “bad” per se – they can ALL be revived with thinner even if they thicken over time.  The oldest polishes in my collection are from the 90’s!  I’ve done a lot of purging over the years of duplicate shades or formulas that I don’t care for.  My current collection stands at 498 but if I count all of the ones I’ve given away (yes I track those too so I don’t repurchase by accident), the number would be closer to 570.

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I keep them sorted by colour in clear airtight bins.
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The larger bin measures approx 12″ x 8″ x 4″ and the smaller one is an inch shorter.
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Overhead view of a bin – one bin holds approx 60 nail polishes
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I have a few smaller bins for random colours.

Keep reading for more pictures of my nail polish stash

My Cosmetics Inventory Spreadsheet

~ stashy ~ 32 Comments

There’s curiosity about my cosmetics inventory spreadsheet so I thought I would devote an entry on how it came to be.  I created my cosmetics spreadsheet on Sunday July 26, 2009 (as revealed by the Excel file properties). At the time, it was primarily a way to track my growing nail polish collection so that I didn’t duplicate any of my Essie shades (at present count, I own 73 bottles of Essies – it is my favourite nail polish formula).

Eventually I expanded the spreadsheet to include the following tabs:

  • eye shadows
  • eyeliners
  • blushes
  • face products
  • lip gloss / lip balms
  • lipsticks
  • nails
  • tools (brushes)
  • skincare
  • hair
  • scents

The initial set up of the spreadsheet was a daunting task. If I had created the spreadsheet from the inception of my first beauty product purchase, it would have been a breeze. But I had to essentially do a full inventory of my stash to build the spreadsheet – item by item, line by line.

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Happy Chinese New Year!

~ stashy ~ 13 Comments

In honour of Chinese New Year today, I thought it would be fun to feature some awesome red makeup in my stash (I momentarily considered posting this red-themed makeup entry in time for Valentine’s Day, but ugh, Valentine’s Day…)CNY1

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Untrieds: Body Shop Colour Crush Nail Polish in #730 Almond Kiss

~ stashy ~ 3 Comments

A recurring series on this blog will be to showcase items in my stash that I have yet to try (spoiler alert: a lot of nail polishes).  The first in this series will be The Body Shop Colour Crush Nail Polish in #730 Almond Kiss.  I’ve been eyeing this ever since the Body Shop nail polish line launched in October, so I included in my Christmas wishlist and received it in my Christmas stocking.

Body Shop Almond Kiss
The Body Shop Colour Crush Nail Polish in #730 Amond Kiss

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