Saturday, March 12, 2011

Project 20 Pan - finally completed!!!

Hi everyone!

I'm proud to announce that I have finished my 10th and final makeup item, which means I have finished my Project 20 Pan!  I haven't purchased a single item of makeup, skincare, perfume or nail polish for around six months now, and it feels good to have used up a few things that were lying around.
Project 20 Pan empties
I kept most of the empty containers just because I thought it would be fun to lay them all out together at the end (although I must've chucked out a few by mistake because there are only 18 or 19 in that picture).

Apart from a few things I have on my wishlist at the moment, I'd like to stay on the "no spend" bandwagon for the most part and from now on only purchase things to replace something that's been finished or something that is completely different from anything I already own.  In addition to trying to save for a small holiday at the end of this year (don't know where yet), I'm also trying to make an effort to be conscious of the impact that my consumption of goods has on the environment and other people (i.e. the people who make the goods that I consume).

This is getting a bit off-topic, but I read the book Affluenza by Clive Hamilton last year and the book Spent: Memoirs of a Shopping Addict by Avis Cardella earlier this year, in attempt to curb my shopping and spending habits.  I wouldn't consider myself a shopping addict by any stretch, but I am, like most women my age probably, guilty of the occasional impulse purchase and sometimes spending more than I should.  So this year, I'll try my best to reduce my shopping which will hopefully have two positive outcomes: I should be able to save more and hopefully afford a holiday at the end of the year and I will be able to feel better about the impact my lifestyle has on others.

So, the last item I used up was a Bourjois Mineral Radiance Pressed Powder which I was just using to set my foundation.  It was ok, although like all Bourjois Powders, the shade is very pink.  It also has that trademark "old lady makeup" smell which all Bourjois powder products seem to have.  I didn't really find that it gave my skin any kind of radiance (I'm still not really sold on the whole mineral makeup craze), but it was ok as a setting powder.  Having said that, I probably wouldn't repurchase, mostly because I dislike the heavy fragrance.

Bourjois Mineral Radiance Pressed Powder
Since finishing a few days ago, I actually haven't bought anything new.  I do have my eye on a few lip products though (I'm really keen to try the Body Shop Delipscious lipsticks and I might purchase a few Revlon lippies on eBay as well, as that seems to be the cheapest way to go), so stay tuned for some new purchases in the hopefully not too distant future!

Thanks for reading!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Quick Outfit + update on life!

Hi everyone!!  Long time no blog - I really must apologise for my extended absence from blogging, life just got crazy busy for me in January and February.  I was taking a summer subject at uni, working on the weekends, writing a research report for my summer subject, first aid volunteering, organising book donations for some recent graduates that are going to work in the Pacific for a few weeks, trying to fit in exercise (I ran my first ever 10km last week!!!!) and socialising and I just had no time to write any posts.

I'm back at uni now, as of yesterday, and it looks like this semester will be pretty full on (we're off campus on placements for six weeks, so for the six we do have on campus, the timetable is pretty full!  Six lectures a day sometimes!  Makes me feel like falling asleep just thinking about it haha!)  I think every uni student probably says this at the start of every semester, but I think this semester I will try to put in a big effort to try to improve my marks a little.  My marks are o.k. and I think I will graduate with honours, but at this stage I am still undecided as to where I want to go career wise so I'd like to have the option of pursuing post-grad study (probably a PhD), but I think my marks at the moment might not be good enough to get a scholarship.

Anyway, enough boring talk about uni...here is what I wore to uni today:
Cardi - Temt; Dress - Jay Jays; Footless tights - Target; Flats - Country Road
The dress was actually a playsuit/romper thing that I bought a while ago from Jay Jays.  I really liked the print, but disliked the idea of having to strip off completely to go the loo, so I pulled out the sewing machine and altered it into a dress!  I was quite proud of myself, haha!

The weather in Melbourne is so gloomy at the moment, hopefully there will be some more sunshine soon.  It was only about 16 degrees when I left the house this morning and I almost thought of taking a winter coat, but then I thought, no I'll look silly carrying a coat around on the first day of Autumn, but I think I nearly needed it!

Hopefully sometime this week, I'll cobble together a montage of recent purchases (although I'm trying really hard to save since I opened a uBank savings account, so there won't be all that many).

Thanks for reading!!!!