I hope that the first few days of 2013 have been happy ones for you!
For this month’s list-of-five-things, I’m going to share a few beauty-related New Year’s Resolutions. I have some larger, more serious resolutions in mind, as well, but I’m keeping those private!
Let’s see… I resolve to:
1. Get more frequent haircuts. Since I wasn’t working for most of 2012, I stretched out the intervals between haircuts as long as possible, in order to save the expense. Now that I’m again gainfully employed, I’m going to set a strict eight (or nine) week schedule. When I wait three months between cuts, I look messy and my stylist’s excellent work is undone.
2. Go for massages more regularly. Now that I’m back at work, I’m sitting at a computer much of the day, and then sitting at my own keyboard when I’m doing my own writing or freelance work in the evening. My neck and shoulders end up paying the price. I’m not talking about fancy, day-spa treatments with fluffy robes and herbal tea and all the other holistic bells and whistles: just a Saturday afternoon visit to my reliable local Chinese-massage storefront will do the trick.
3. Stop damaging my cuticles. I’ve never been a nail-biter, but in moments of boredom and/or stress, I do tend to pull at any and all broken cuticles and hang-nails. The cold weather has caused more rough edges and dryness, leading to further temptation. I’m going to use cuticle cream more frequently and give myself more home manicures to keep things neat. I won’t want to mangle my fingers if they look pretty.
4. Wear less foundation. I made a few steps forward with healthy skincare over the past year, so now I’m going to try to apply slightly less makeup. I’ll never be a “natural beauty” or the “girl next door”—that’s just not my style—but I’m going to try to lighten up just a bit.
5. Stop buying lipsticks until I use up the ones I have. Oh, hahhahhhahh. No, I couldn’t keep a straight face either. Let’s try again…
5. Organize my fragrance collection. Daunting, but necessary. My “perfume cabinet” is cluttered and dusty. My drawer of sample vials and decants is a disaster area. Small caches of additional samples and decants lurk in numerous other corners of the bedroom and living room. I need to do something about this situation.
Have you made any beauty-related resolutions for the upcoming year? Feel free to share!
Image: John Bull magazine cover (January 1954) via Allposters.
TINSEL CREATION 
Lol at your first number 5! Ha, yeah, me too. :)
I did make a list of my perfumes though last weekend. I still need to organize it a bit but having a list is better than having a mess.
My cuticles and nails are awful this winter. Frequent hand washing doesn’t help. I will pick at them too and lately I’m always stressed so it ain’t pretty.
Yes, the hand washing! which is important! but then it makes things even worse. And I do carry hand cream everywhere, but even so, winter weather is tough on skin/hands.
I totally feel you on 1 and 2! I would lso like to refresh my blush brush more often.
Hello! Do you wash your blush brush? You can just use a little bit of facial cleanser, then let it dry lying down. Also: we should share recs for massage places in the ‘hood!
Oh yes No.5 !I need to do that too.
We should all make this a shared resolution! :)
I did organize my fragrance samples on January 1! I was so proud. I have yet to organize my full bottles though. That’s a continuing problem for me because until we move (not sure when that will happen), there is truly no dark place I can store these in my apartment. =/
I’m horrible about cuticles too. The one thing that works for me is to CONSTANTLY paint my nails – like, they get noticeably chipped, I take the polish off and re-polish. So I end up changing polish every 3-4 days. When my nails are super-pretty, I don’t want to pick/bite my cuticles. But, it’s also hard to keep up with painting my nails that frequently. But as soon as I slack off on the nail painting, my cuticles go to all hell. It’s a horrible habit!
I would love to get my hair cut every 8-9 weeks. I really need to find a permanent stylist and keep a standing appointment. That would probably do it.
Congratulations on your organizing problem… and good luck with move.
I’m going to do my nails *tonight,* to fight off temptation for the rest of the week. And I’m going to make a hair appointment tomorrow, I swear.
I should seriously consider no 1 & 3. 4 is not a problem since I rarely wear any but 5 would be torture! Even if just a drugstore l/s it’s hard for me to resist. I hope you make good on all your resolutions. :)
Oh, it *is* hard to resist. A new lipstick is just so satisfying, even just a fun drugstore brand, like you said! Thanks for the moral support. ;)