Collective Haul | January 2015

Sooo, I tried to put myself on a low buy for the month of January and I have to say, I failed miserably.  I thought I was doing fine, until I put all the products I bought together and realized I purchased a lot more than I had planned.  I will say a lot of the products I purchased were either on sale, or I had coupons for them, but that's just me trying to justify my shopping addiction.

(PS: I already failed my spending ban I put on myself for this month.  Darn you Sephora!  Let's hope there'll be no more slip ups for the rest of the month!  Only 23 more days to go!)

So here are the products I ended up hoarding in the month of January.

I've kind of organized everything into categories.  One thing I've noticed is that I tend to buy things in twos, especially lip products.  Anyways, let's jump into my new lip products.

Too Faced La Creme lipstick in Bumbleberry

Jack Black lip balm in Natural Mint

Wet 'N Wild Silk Finish lipstick in Hot Red

Wet 'N Wild MegaLast Lip Colo in Stoplight Red

Rimmel Provocalips in Make Your Move

Almay Smart Shade Butter Kiss in Berry-Medium and Red-Medium

NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Monte Carlo

Maybelline Baby Lips in Melon Mania and Coral Crush

Garnier Fructis Damage Eraser

L'oreal Total Repair 5 Multi-Restorative Dry Oil

Pantene Pro-V Dry Shampoo

Garnier Fructis Full & Plush Root Amp Root Lifting Spray Mousse

Maybelline Fit Me powder in Translucent

Garnier + Clean Balancing Daily Exfoliator

Maybelline Lash Sensational mascara in Very Black

Hopefully this will be one of my bigger hauls for the year.  I believe I purchased everything on sale or with a coupon.  I think I should also put a disclaimer that these were not purchased in one huge shopping haul; they just slowly accumulated throughout the month of January.

Have you tried any of these before?  If so, what did you think of them?  Also, did you pick up anything new recently as well?

Goals & Goos | February 2015

So I decided to change my Monthly Mission posts to Goals & Goos!  I thought this is a bit more catchy than Monthly Mission.  Anyways as always, I have a few goals I want to accomplish this month, along with a few goos (products) I want to concentrate on using up as well.  Without further blabbering, let's get started.

Goals:

• Spending ban.  I just need to (try to) not buy anything this month.  After my January haul post, you'll see why.  I figured February is the shortest month so it should be the easiest to get through...?  That and the fact that most of the new drugstore releases are already out and I already got my hands on some of the ones that I want to try out so it should be a bit easier-ish.  
• Blogging schedule.  I swear this is one of my goals every month.  It's really been hard to get back into the swing of things.  I've been meaning to blog again on a more regular schedule, but I would miss a day and would push back the day I want to start again by a week, or two, or three... I really want to stick to Tuesday/Friday schedule, but we shall see how that goes.
• Daily vitamins.  This used to be in one of my earlier Monthly Missions, but I kind of stopped taking my gummy vitamins daily again... I think I need to place it somewhere where it'll be visible so I'll remember it.
• 3 Grateful things per day.  Last year, I used to religiously recap my day and think of all the things that happened during the day that made me happy.  I believe that helped me out of the depressed funk I was in last year.  Unfortunately I stopped sometime mid-last year and I have been having trouble getting back into it.  Hopefully I'll remember to start doing it more.

Goos:

• Softlips.  I was working on finishing my EOS lip balm for the longest time that when I actually finished it, I started using a different lip balm everyday since.  I want to have a lip balm to focus on and I chose this one.  I purchased the scent Pomegranate Blueberry from Big Lots for $1 and it's definitely worth it.  It's the same scent as one of the Softlips cubes and it's definitely more affordable (the $1 ones from Big Lots).
• Nivea Body Lotion.  This is one of the samples I received from Target a long time ago.  I use this as a hand lotion at home, but my sister doesn't like the scent of it.  I figured I would try to use this up this month since she's away at college for most of the month.
• Dove Pure Care Dry Oil.  I believe this was in the Walmart Beauty Box for Fall 2014.  I'm about half way done with it and this sample size is definitely lasting quite a while for me since I only use about four drops every time.
• Tarte Pure Maracuja Oil.  My current night time moisturizer.  I found that I only need 2 drops of this for my whole face!  I was using 3 drops and it left my face really oily.  I've used a little more than half of the bottle already but I think this will last me quite a while still since I only need 2 drops.
• Jergens BB Body.  This is one of those XX youtuber made me buy it products.  So many people on youtube raved about it so I went out and tried it.  I like it and have used about half of this container.  Unfortunately I'm not the biggest fan of the packaging.  I think there're some weird air bubbles in the packaging or something.

What are some of your goals for the month of February?  Are there some products you're also planning to use up in February as well?

Monthly Mission - November 2014

Happy November!  This post is about half a month late because of my little hiatus the second half of October.  Sorry!  For those who don't know, Monthly Mission is where I talk about five things I want to accomplish/work on throughout the month along with five products I want to focus on/use more of.  So I will talk about this month's goals and products before I go over how I did with my goals last month.

Here are my five missions for November:

1. Wake up earlier.  I really want to start waking up earlier, even if it's just a few minutes, so that I can get one or two things done in the morning.  I've noticed that when I get things done in the morning, I feel more accomplished throughout the day.
2. Start using up products.  I've been buying things and not really using them at all.  I want to start using up products so that I can justify buying new things when I finish using my products up or something.  I really want to make it a point to use the products daily I've chosen to focus on this month.
3. Get Christmas shopping done.  I am usually a last minute shopper so I can't wait to start planning and looking for deals/shopping earlier.  I don't think I'll get things for everyone on my list, but I hope to make a good dent in it by the beginning of December.
4. Eat breakfast.  Simple and easy but I don't do it.  I have a very bad habit of not eating breakfast.  I really need to break this habit.
5. Plan posts ahead.  I think one of the reasons why I ended up feeling unmotivated and took a hiatus at the end of last month was because of my lack of planning.  I hope I can plan and organize posts for the next few months so that when it comes time to write the post, I've already done most of the thinking.

And now onto the five products I want to focus on:

1. Jergens BB Body Perfecting Skin Cream.  This was in September's list and I'll be honest, I barely used it five days back then.  I want to start using it daily since I have a Christmas party to attend in the beginning of December.  I want to be able to wear a dress and have my legs looking nice.
2. Tarte Pure Maracuja Oil.  I've been using this as a moisturizer and a little goes a long way.  I have another sample of this, and a super size of this that I purchased a while ago.  Hopefully I can use this up soon and start on my other things.
3. EOS lip balm in Strawberry Sorbet.  This has got to be used up soon.  I've been working on this lip balm for the longest time and it just refuses to get used up!  I've just started seeing the pink plastic in the middle of the balm recently so I know the end is near!
4. Beauty Rush lip balm in Colada Love.  Another product that has got to be used up soon.  I've had it for a little too long, and this particular product has been discontinued from VS's beauty range for over a year now.  This is a really good MLBB (my lips but better) product but I don't like the fact that it includes glitter in there too.
5. Lubriderm Advanced Therapy Lotion.  I have a lot of hand creams at home and this is one of the ones that are almost done.  Hopefully with continuous usage throughout the month, I can finish it up soon!

Now onto last month's missions.  I believe I accomplished about half of the missions I set out for.  I didn't do well with the new blogging schedule; I just could not get myself to post up every Tuesdays and Fridays and I did not remember to write down highlights for the whole month.  

The decluttering goal was half achieved.  I did not get rid of a product for every product I brought in, that goal will probably appear sometime next year, but I did manage to get rid of 10 products last month.  Instead I've decided to get rid of 10 products each month so that I won't end up hoarding everything.

The two goals I did achieve were drinking more water and keeping track of my spending.  I ended up drinking a cup more water a day by switching out my water bottle I used.  My old bottle could only hold 24oz, which is 3 cups, while my new bottle could hold 32oz, or 4 cups.  I know that's not nearly as much as I should be drinking, but I'm slowly getting there.

Out of the five products last month, I used the deodorant a lot more than I used the other products.  The eye cream and the body sprays were used a bit more than I would have used if I wasn't consciously trying to use it.  Unfortunately I did not use the body butter or the body wash.

Like I said last month, hopefully November will be a better month with my missions and using my products.

Do you guys make goals for yourself to accomplish monthly?  If so, what are some of your goals for November?

Empties: Lippies Edition

I know I just posted a products empties a few weeks back but I've managed to collect a handful of lip products over the years.  This will definitely be my one and only post like this, since I don't use products up fast enough, let alone a bunch of lip products!