BEAUTY | 5 Ridiculously Expensive Things I've Spent Money On

Ever since I made the decision to stay home for the sake of my asthmatic husband and take on the financial uncertainty of not having a paycheck and going on EI, more than ever have I stared at my beautiful and encompassing beauty hobby in the face numerous times over the last month and realized over and over again how much I have and how little I need. With the Sephora Spring Sale starting today and my single purchase of $40 (made with an unused Christmas gift card), I have to say I am pretty proud of myself, but then again the fear of not being able to pay for food or rent tends to outweigh wanting an eyeshadow palette. This new and pragmatic, bordering on pessimistic, view of money has made me go through some of my own personal beauty purchases that have been more luxurious and would never fall into the "need" category.

All items purchased by me and my husband doesn't know about some of them. He also doesn't read my blog so he still won't know.

Though I have a few things sent by PR that are also ridiculously expensive, I feel like this post would be more interesting if the products featured involved my own money. There is something to be said about a personal stake in things though I have talked about products negatively even when sent by PR.

Sisley Precious Hair Care Oil $130 CDN

I will start off by saying that hair oil is something I have so much of ever since I realized how dry my ends get with being blonde. It's actually a huge part of the reason I curl my hair as I can give my ends the appearance of softness. Holt Renfrew is practically next door to my work (closer than Sephora) so lunch time walks end up being a dangerous activity. On this particular day, all the brands were doing a GWP event with some sizeable items and though I didn't buy this for the GWP, it was a nice bonus! This was my first purchase from Sisley and I decided to make it hair because I didn't care too much for their skincare after looking at some of the ingredients. This hair oil smells so divine and unique from anything I have smelled that I kid you not, this was 85% of the reason I bought it. I reviewed it briefly in my Favourite Hair Oils post and still treat this hair oil like I'm doing a sacred nightly ritual from head to toe. I have zero regrets about picking this up despite the results being like many less expensive hair oils I own.

La Mer Soft Fluid Long Wear Foundation in Linen $160 CDN

I'm a little sentimental about this La Mer foundation because this was almost like a "friendship bracelet" purchase with myself and Gerry from Weekends with G. Every year for the last 2 years, we slow down on beauty purchases at the beginning of the year and splurge a portion of our tax returns on a few really nice luxury goodies. The year we each bought this foundation from Holts, we also bought a pair of Ferragamo shoes so the memory I have associated with this foundation is one that is very positive. As a foundation, it is a light to medium coverage, satin finish and has an SPF 20. It makes my skin look great and wears well throughout the day with my usual add-ons of primer and setting spray though I don't recall having any issues without the latter products. It also seems to make my skin look really nice when mixed with a drop of Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk. Can I live without this foundation? Yes. The finish and the way my skin looks is something I have seen with foundations well under this price point, but a big part of this purchase was to save up our pennies and be able to ask "Was it worth it?" Obviously, the adventure behind the purchase was priceless, but this will not be a repurchase once I am finished the bottle.

Maison Francis Kurkdjian Paris Aqua Universalis Forte $355 CDN

Again, this was a purchase with a pleasant memory behind it, but I can start off by saying that I will never spend this much on a fragrance ever again. I can feel it in my bones that MFK was my first and last even if I win the lottery. If anything, if I emerge from this whole COVID-19 situation with my job, I will amp up my local brand support and charitable donations and put my money wear it matters most. I purchased this in 2016 when I went on my own to Toronto for GenBeauty. I booked off a couple of days to myself for shopping and meetings and went to Saks for the first time. It was a beautiful store and experience and then I saw a counter of MFK fragrances and immediately realized how much I loved this fragrance and how sad I was when my Glossybox sample was finished. The notes are described as "Bergamot from Calabria, lemon from Sicily, white bouquet, absolutes of Egyptian jasmine flowers and Moroccan roses and is a light and musky wood" for those interested in what a $300 fragrance smells like!

MFK was exclusive to Saks and at the time there wasn't one in Vancouver, so I knew it was now or never. It was the only beauty purchase I made in Toronto as the taxes are higher in Ontario and there wasn't a lot that Toronto had that Vancouver didn't. I had guessed that the full sized bottle would be about $250, but when something over $400 popped up on the pinpad, I did a double take, typed in my pin and didn't look back. I hand-carried this fragrance in its box all the way home and spritz it on when I feel blue or need a "comfort fragrance". I have never smelled anything like this since purchasing so I really feel like I purchased a piece of art.

Christian Louboutin Loubilaque Lip Gloss $115 CDN & Velvet Matte Lip Colour $120 CDN 

When Louboutin beauty first came to Holts in 2017, I was enamoured with how edgy and on brand the packaging of their products were. All of their products have such a hefty feel to them and really do feel luxurious. I seem to have made it a point to purchase one thing from each of their collections with the exception of their nail polishes where I want all of my favourite colours, but the purchase I am most happy with is the Velvet Matte Lipstick as the black lipstick case feels like a $120 lipstick should feel. This product isn't about the actual lipstick, though it is nice as well, but about the details in the packaging. It comes in a gorgeous box with a ribbon to loop through the cap so you can "wear it as a necklace"...um no, thank you!

What I DON'T think are worth the money are the lipglosses. For almost the same price, these feel like cheap plastic. I was surprised when they didn't have the same weight as the lipsticks, but I wanted the limited edition packaging as this was a release for Chinese New Year. I am a big CNY beauty collector, but I would never buy a regular lip gloss from the brand. While I don't plan on having an extensive Louboutin makeup collection, I always have my eye on their new releases as I would consider special shades.

Dyson Airwrap Hair Styler Complete $700 CDN

I would not have paid $700 for this set. Yes, everything Dyson is very cool, technically novel and I will admit they are the kings of airflow, but holy hell is their stuff expensive! I was very fortunate that I had a friend of a friend who was able to put this aside for me when Nordstrom had one of their shopping events in 2018 so I got a really good price for it, but even with a bit of a discount, this is still by far one of the most expensive gadgets I own.

Do I love it? Yes, but I think it's because I'm just enamoured with having a Dyson Airwrap. I don't actually use the Airwrap portion a lot because I wash my hair at night and it takes FOREVER to do because your hair needs to be completely dry to wrap around the barrel. Does it re-emphasize existing curls that you want to spruce up? Yes, so it has actually been nice for that, but what I use this for the most is just drying my hair normally because there is a "pre-styling" hair dryer attachment that comes with this kit that is honestly strong enough to dry my hair! What I will say is that everything Dyson is simple, intuitive and handles in such a smooth way. This thing is so much lighter than my Baby Buttercup and just sounds like it's got a "nice engine in there". I do use mine all the time and knowing Dyson, this thing will last awhile so looking back, it was a reasonable purchase for me, but I do wish I used the other attachments more often.

Do you have expensive beauty purchases that you regret or enjoy for reasons other than beauty? Please do tell!

Edit: As a note, I did not go into credit card debt for any of these items! When it comes to beauty spending, I always make sure it's paid off once that credit card statement comes because these products are NOT worth going into debt over!