Why I was a Shopaholic

This post is a little bit different for me. I've recently been trying to save £££ instead of blowing it all on beauty products. I felt like I had to always buy the latest releases and I always justified buying them by writing about it in this little space on the internet. Writing this post made me think about the reasons why I feel the need to spend on beauty.

Living in a very consumerist world where products are always thrown at you with bold statements; social media promoting products down your side bar on Facebook and Instagram trends thrown at you. I find it very hard to not be wanting the latest crazes and products that claim to be the best.

Being a creative soul I have always loved drawing and painting. I was always first outside the art classroom door and I attended art classes on a Saturday morning to learn new techniques and processes. Working with all these different mediums throughout my childhood has made me aware of my natural progression into the makeup world.

My introduction to makeup was through a good friend of mine who gave me a black eyeliner. Now I’m sure that this was her mum’s hand me down. In hindsight this was so unhygienic and grim but it was my first piece of real makeup, it was about the size of your little finger and I treasured it. After this, I ventured into the Barry M dazzle dusts. Creating colourful eye looks, and by colourful I mean colourful! I used to pair lime green and hot pink in one single eye-look. I also started watching Lauren Luke (panacea81) and Samantha Maria (beautycrush) on YouTube.

In my first job I worked 4 hours a week and barely earned £100 a month, but as you can imagine most of this went on makeup. My first high-end lipstick was from MAC and it was in the shade Angel. The second brand I ventured into was NARS and obviously, my first purchase was the cult-favourite Laguna Bronzer. I remember my first Laguna as I was on a day-out in London. I got it from Selfridges and this was my first ever experience of shopping in a beauty hall.

As I picked up overtime at my part time job and eventually upped my hours to 8 a week (still nothing I know), this enabled me to invest more into my passion. Around this time, I experienced my first break up and put all my time into experimenting and submerging myself into this makeup obsessed world I was in. This was my escape and as time has gone on, my love for being creative and expressing myself broadened.

As I was earning more I was spending more and eventually I spiralled out of control spending all of my wages on products. On reflection, I can see how unhealthy this can be, feeding sadness by spending and creating a situation where my happiness was determined by materialistic things.

There was a time where I had spent more than £2,000 in 2 years on beauty products in one single store. Times have changed and I do still now treat myself but not in the same extreme way I was used to a few years ago. I do carry out pretend online shopping... Adding items into the basket then closing the tab!

As you mature you learn what is valuable in life and what your goals are. Materialistic things are nice but truly loving yourself is and will always be more valuable. This is the thing which will help you to always bounce back from anything. Time heals and finding your passions is what enriches your existence.

I guess this post was me rambling on but it has helped me come to terms with the fact that I don't need to spend money to be happy. Are you a shopaholic?

Thanks,

Laura