'It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness' Proverb

Sunday 14 June 2020

Makeup: What's Left & What I'm Aiming For


As some of you who have been following my blog for a while will know, I used to have quite a lot of makeup.  Not in the vicinity of beauty bloggers, but still a lot for the fact that I only really needed it for my office work - they just looked so pretty.  Over the last few years I've been slowly working my way through these items and am now down to just 10 pieces (not including makeup brushes).  I thought I'd write a quick blog about what these items are and what I intend to do with them in the future.



Firstly, let's start with the eyeshadow.  I am now down to just one palette, the Urban Decay x Gwen Stefani palette, and one eyeshadow, also Urban Decay in Solstice.  Solstice I will always keep as it's just so beautiful and I enjoy putting it on, but the palette I either want to use up or maybe get rid of in the future. I do love Steady and Baby as shadows with a bit of shimmer, Punk to darken up a look, and I use Anaheim, Zone, and Blackout every time I wear makeup.  However, I'm not sure that's enough to keep the whole palette for, especially as I'm getting to the point where I enjoy not putting eyeshadow on at all.  Maybe I'll remove just those eyeshadows at the end of the year, but for now, I'm just going to keep working through it as part of my project pan.



The next two items are items that I will always have in my cosmetics bag and that's mascara and concealer.  Even if I owned absolutely nothing else I would have these two just to use now and then if I was wanting to look a little more polished.  At the moment they're the Wet n Wild's Mega Volume Mascara in Very Black and Essence's Cover Stick in Matt Sand.  They're both budget-friendly, cruelty-free, and work pretty well, though the concealer sometimes looks cakey on my dry skin if I'm not careful. I haven't found my golden products yet so I'll keep testing, but these will carry on being a part of what I use when I use makeup.  I'm also still pondering about whether or not I should get another mineral foundation, though I have to admit I'm enjoying just using the concealer at the moment as it's giving me the amount of coverage I'm wanting right now.  So, for now, that's just going to stay a decision I make in the future.



Next are face products and I still have all four of my Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-hour Blushes in Vibrant, Pop, Royal, and Genius.  Ideally, I would have only one blush, but I can't decide which one I would choose over the other three and so I'll just keep using these all until they are gone.  I'm also planning on using them as eyeshadows as well once the palette is gone.  However, even with that additional use, I don't think I'm going to need to buy a new blush for the rest of my life.



The next face products are ones I probably don't need but am keeping for now. They are the NYX Blusher in Taupe that I use for contouring (when I bother contouring, which isn't that often) and The Balm's Highlighter in Mary-Lou Mainzer.  The highlighter is falling apart a little bit and when I get back to the UK I'll probably need to put some alcohol onto it and press it back into the pan, but it's working for now and I'll only do that when I really need to.  The reason I'm keeping these two products on is that I do like using them when I choose to do a little bit extra with my makeup and because I intend to also use them as eye products once I've gotten rid of the palette, making them double duty items with the blushes.



Lastly, the brushes.  They always seem quite a lot when I'm looking at them, but I do actually use them all at the moment, bar the foundation brush which I'm keeping until I've made a decision on whether or not I'm going to buy another mineral foundation.  They're going to stay for now, but if I ever find I've stopped using one of them they'll be donated.



In the future, this is what I want my makeup to look like, with possibly a black eyeshadow or eye pencil for eyeliner and maybe a foundation and a lipstick.  Ideally, there would only be one blush item, but we know that's not going to happen.  It's still pretty big and I'll probably downsize it again in the future, but this is at least my makeup goal for the end of 2021.  As for the rest of my beauty products, they've now been paired right down and I'll write a blog on them in the future.

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