Instead of monthly empties, I am going to start posting a “beauty balance” monthly series. The point of this series will be to show my empties and to also highlight what has entered my collection during the month as well. The idea being that I want my monthly empties to equal or exceed the products which are incoming monthly. I will also post destash stuff here as well. If something leaves my collection it gets to count as a beauty balance item.

I don’t know if I will achieve that goal at first. I’ve got some subscription services to wrap up. I’ll be receiving boxycharm through July I believe, and I still have 2 fab fit fun boxes coming my way. While fab fit fun boxes aren’t all beauty related items, there are generally some. So that means an automatic 5 plus items that will enter my collection through July before I’ve even purchased something I’ve really planned out. Thankfully, ipsy is being purchased by Miss Butterfly now so that’s 5 items that are not entering my collection.

I also have the wedding coming up and I haven’t really squared away all that which I might need for it. I definitely plan to try some waterproof mascara and I may also try a new foundation. Likely I’ll purchase a lip liner and lipstick as well. Thankfully I am pretty pleased with the rest of my routine at this point and won’t need much more than that.

Now, the only way I can think to do this is count everything as one item, even if that one item is a sample size or a sheet mask or something. It’s always just going to be one item. That’ll make it easiest to document.

So, this month’s beauty balance, let’s start with the incoming items.

These are my boxycharm items for February. I am pretty pleased with these items. The cleanser will be easy to use up, I can always use another mascara, the highlighter turns out to be a very nice highlighter, and while I haven’t tried the lip product yet, I am glad it is in my collection. The primer is the one thing which I am not too sure about yet. I’ve used it once and it seemed like all the foundation I wore in the areas where I put the primer disappeared off my face by midday. So, it needs a bit more testing before I decide it’s a part of my collection that I’ll be using up. Miss Butterfly has her eye on it, so if it doesn’t work for me I’ll just send it her way. However, I’ve been working hard on my project pan primer so I haven’t tested it further.

And here are some purchase that I made. Miss Butterfly is about to need a new Cerave cleanser and purchasing 2 got me a deal, so I did. While I typically don’t include Miss Butterfly’s items in my incoming/outgoing products, in this case I use the cleanser too from time to time.  The smashbox legendary liquid lip is a formula I really adore and I wanted to add a red liquid lip to my collection. That was fully just a want purchase. Then, the Sultry palette is the one which I suspect I’ll wear at the wedding. I have been testing it regularly but it does need further testing. And finally, my sister in law who is a wedding photographer suggests getting a new perfume you really like for the wedding, and then you will be pleased to associate that scent with a happy time in your life. So I did! I got the one perfume I’ve really wanted for over a year now. And I’ll be saving it for my wedding day.

So, with both of these, that makes 10 items that entered my collection and I need 10 to leave my collection. Shall we see how I did?

First, let’s discuss the items which are not pictured. I finished a lush soap which obviously can’t be photographed. I also threw out a pur contour shade from my magnetic palette because it broke into a thousand pieces and I didn’t like it anyhow. So that’s 2 items out.

3. Estee Lauder nutritious cleanser. This was a perfectly lovely foaming cleanser I probably won’t purchase again. It’s expensive and I think I’ve decided I will stick with drugstore cleansers after I run through all I currently have.

4. Moroccan Oil dry texture spray. I love this stuff and I will repurchase. At the moment I have a sample size and another full size. I think Miss Butterfly was dipping into this stuff too, so my plan is to hide these from here on out. Too expensive for a kid to be using.

5. Trader Joe’s sheet mask. These are less expensive than what can be purchased at other stores, so I thought I’d give it a try. Thing is, turns out I just don’t care about sheet masking. So I won’t repurchase.

6. Maybelline age rewind concealer. I love this product. I am trying to get my stash down to just one concealer though, and I think that the too faced born this way concealer wins out. However, I do not regret having used this whatsoever.

7. A sample of Atelier clementine. I am glad to have used this, took me an entire month to use this tiny sample. But, it’s not one I would purchase for myself. I just don’t love it that much.

8. Bite Beauty agave lip balm-This sample size was annoying because the product removed itself from the base and was difficult to use. I do like the product and I do have a full size. However, I won’t be purchasing another kit with a sample size in it.

9. Bite beauty amuse bouche lipstick-loved this! I would repurchase it if given the chance, though I am trying to keep my lipstick collection from getting out of control. I am glad to have work it for 2 months to try it out. I have 2 more samples and 1 full size in my collection of different colors.

10. Wet n wild photofocus foundation-this foundation worked really nicely for me when I discovered it last year and it’s so inexpensive that I might purchase again. However, not any time soon because there are so many to try and so many already in my collection to use up.

11. Bare Minerals mineral veil powder-I won’t repurchase this either, but I was perfectly happy to give it a try. I did rather like it under my eyes to set concealer, it worked nicely for that.

12. Maybelline lip liner-I’ll likely repurchase at some point but I’ve got some others to use up first.

13. Makeup wipes I got at big lots for $2. I think I am not a huge makeup wipe user. I have one more package in my collection. I am going to use that up and then just not purchase them unless I am traveling or something.

So-10 products in, 13 products out, and that’s the kind of beauty balance I am hoping for. Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep up this good work next month. I DO think considering the “beauty balance” helped curb some purchasing this month. For instance, I have it in my head that NYX is going to discontinue their intense butter gloss line, the only lip gloss I’ve ever truly loved. It’s all on sale with quite a few colors being completely out of stock. Most places I’ve been in stores aren’t even carrying it anymore. So, naturally, I was tempted to get every color I thought I might like so that I’d have it if it disappears completely. But, I kept asking myself if my beauty balance could “afford” that many items entering my collection this month. In the end, I felt it could not. Now that the month is over, I see that technically I could have “afforded” 3 of them. But, since I didn’t know that ahead of time, I didn’t purchase, and that kept me from a rash decision of purchasing too many at once.