BEAUTY MUST-HAVES

MY PERSONAL BEAUTY SYSTEM

Confession: I have a beauty system. Well, really it’s a combination of a set of lists,  a calendar, and a group of photos – all intended to capture my beauty activities and goals. This system keeps me on track for maintenance of all things hair, makeup, nails, products, grooming, and beauty blogging. Why on earth am I telling you this? Because if you’re a beauty nerd like me or simply a woman looking to stay a bit organized and on top of her game, then this system could help you, too.

Beauty Lists: I love crossing things off lists so I keep a lot of them! The above photo shows one of my most recent, but here’s what I track in my beauty system: 

  • Products I want to try: a lip color, new brand, curl cream, styling tool, makeup brush, hair color trend; you name it and I’ll track it – I love trying new things and telling people about them.
  • Looks I want to practice: a dark brow, nail stickers, a side braid, ombre lips; the list is endless. My favorite thing to do is play with hair and makeup, so I’m always walking around the house with one cat eye or a half-contoured face or whatever it is I tried that day.
  • Blog posts I want to write: product reviews, beauty experiments, tutorials; I have a VERY messy list of ideas that I travel around with. One day I’ll get to all of them – I hope.
  • Beauty goals I want to achieve: maintaining manicured nails, getting bi-monthly haircuts, drinking 8 glasses of water per day; I like to track these things because it’s pretty easy to lose sight of taking care of yourself. You deserve it, so hold yourself accountable to pampering!

Beauty Calendar: I track all appointments in a calendar – both on my phone and written. I like both and tend to toggle between the two. There’s something about writing it down that I love, but I also need it in my phone when I’m on the go, so whatever works for you is fine. The one on my phone is usually the most accurate and it lets me make recurring appointments easily.

I don’t just keep external appointments on the calendar, though. I also track things I do for myself. For example, if I give myself a manicure on a Wednesday, then I might mark down ‘Touch Up Mani’ on the following Saturday. If I don’t stick to it, not a big deal but at least there’s something aiming me in the direction I ideally want to go. It also serves as my historical beauty record! If I can’t remember when I last had my hair colored, I can search for the appointment and figure out when to go next.

Whenever I have a service done at a salon or spa, I try to make the next appointment while I’m checking out and enter it into the beauty diary right then and there.

As for blog posts, sometimes I collaborate with brands on a product that is launching on a certain date or doing a promotion within a certain time frame. I’ll make sure to mark on my calendar when I want to post on that topic so I don’t forget and so that I can plan my other posts around it. For example: I’ve got a really exciting one with Clarins starting April 22nd that you can expect!

Beauty Pictures: Another more disorganized part of my system is all the photos. I snap pictures of everything I see that I want to try or that I’ve practiced so that I can go back and remember them later, or so that I can use them on all my social media platforms. If you’re uber-organized, you could always send them to a special album labeled ‘Beauty’ on your phone. But I don’t go that far. I simply scroll through the massive camera roll when I need the pic. 

That’s it for this post – just a short and sweet one that might make your life easier and will definitely make it more fun!

Belle