With the first month of my low-buy year under my belt, I’m feeling really good about my goal to shop with intention this year. After watching Tidying Up With Marie Kondo on Netflix last weekend, I’m especially motivated to eliminate clutter in our home and only invest in things I really love; if it doesn’t ‘spark joy’ in 2019, it ain’t it, friends.

One of the ways I plan to hold myself accountable for my shopping this year is to share an update with all of my purchases at the end of each month. Before we dive in, here’s a refresher of my low-buy ‘rules’ (this is the abridged version, and you can read the full details in My Low-Buy/No-Buy New Year post.)

1. No new books until I read at least 10 from my current collection of unread stacks.
2. One fresh beauty buy per month.
3. After my monthly beauty pick above, it’s one in/one out in skin care, makeup, body and hair care.
4. Only one new addition to my closet per month for at least six months. (With the exception of essential basics that may need replacing from wear and tear.)

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Books

I didn’t purchase any books this month, but I finished two from my collection and I’m working on a third. I’ll share my January reading list in a separate post soon.

I did buy several audiobooks during a $5 or less Audible sale, and I can’t decide if that’s cheating… There were a couple recent titles from my wish list and some classics I thought I’d enjoy, and at around $3 each, I just couldn’t resist.

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Beauty

My fresh beauty pick was the Violette Fr x Estee Lauder La Dangereuse ‘Blue Dahlia’ eye shadow palette that I purchased after seeing lots of blue eyeshadow inspo on Instagram. It’s a lovely palette, and I know I’ll use it more in the spring. So far I’m sticking to the gold and bronze shades (I’m so basic) but I did use the top right shade as a smoked-out liner one day and loved the look. The shadows are nicely pigmented and last all day with a primer, but the glitter shades do have a considerable amount of fallout; I don’t mind the extra sparkle, but I use a primer with them and do my eyes first so I can clean up any fallout before I put on foundation and concealer.

As far as restocking, I bought the following:

• a 300pk of the best bobby pins from Sally Beauty. I use them almost daily for topknots and easy updos: they have a strong grip that holds my thick hair all day, and you can use them over and over. Unfortunately, bobbies disappear into a black hole in my house (along with hair ties and iPhone chargers) and my stash was precariously low, so I popped into Sally and grabbed the 300pk for $5.99.
• 3 bars of coconut oil soap from Rafa Natural. They have a special when you buy three, and I use them every day as an all-over body wash in the shower, so I go through them pretty quickly. My favorite scents are ‘relaxation’, ‘angel wings’, ‘the beach’ and ‘exotic coconut’. I also bought a ‘beach’ body scrub because I’m scraping the bottom of my current jar; I love it as a pre-shave exfoliator on my legs for a super close shave.

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Style

I actually didn’t plan to add anything new my closet this month because there wasn’t anything particular on my wish list, but while exploring local businesses in downtown Lake Wales, I went into a cute boutique and wanted to buy something to support her shop (I really try to practice what I preach with all my #shopsmall and #shoplocal posts on Instagram). I picked this striped peach top! I’m sure I’ll wear it a lot in the spring with sandals and high rise skinnies; I’m wearing it here with the Everlane authentic high rise skinnies in ankle length that I can’t stop talking about around here.

(My leather bag is by Neva Opet, and we have two left in the shop if you’re local. If you’re not and you’re interested, message me and I can ship!)

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If any of you are embarking on a low-buy this year, I’d love to chat in the comments about how you’re feeling one month in!