We’re a week into March, so I’m catching you up on everything I purchased in February and where my beauty budget ended up. If you’re new here, my “beauty money” comes from my affiliate links, YouTube AdSense, and anything I sell on Mercari—so I’m not pulling from my regular job to keep buying more stuff when I already have bins of product. I genuinely felt like I didn’t buy much this month… but the problem is the items I did buy were expensive, so it ate up my budget fast. I walk you through a big Neiman Marcus order (and why I was so disappointed—between tiny travel items, messy shipping, and a gift-with-purchase that was basically packets after a ~$350 spend). Then I compare that to an Ulta purchase where the gift-with-purchase was actually stacked with deluxe minis, plus Ulta’s point system just makes more sense if you like trying products before committing. I also share my perfume picks from Sephora (samplers and smaller bottles only, because I have way too many full sizes), and I wrap up with what I used up this month—only two empties, but both are repurchases for me. Total February spend was $670.98, leaving me about $213 in the budget before adding in my smaller payouts.