This month has been a month of me trying to use up the last of my samples. It hasn't really much of an impact on the products in my project pan, apart from my Mac lipstick as one of the samples was the Urban Decay / Gwen Stefani lipstick in 714 (a matt red). I haven't actually finished that sample yet as it's so pigmented and lasts a long time so re-apply is not necessary. Hopefully next month.......so let's begin.
As always let's start with the shadows. Probably the most obvious difference is the pinky / purple shade which is building a nice dip. The plan is to reach the pan on this shadow and then get rid of it and I think I will manage this by the end of the year. It's replaced the silver shadow as my main shadow and so the silver shadow hasn't made much progress at all. I've also been using the dark grey shadow as my eye liner instead of the brown liner and I will just see how far I can get before January. I've finally managed to get to the pan on the top left of the brown eyeshadow and am just working down the left side of the pan and will hopefully get at least half way. Lastly, the white shadow is carrying on the same as before. I don't think I'll finish it by the end of the year, but seeing as this was almost full at the start of this year I'm quite happy with it. None of the companies that make these eye shadows are cruelty free.
The Elf purple eye liner is taking a lot longer then I was hoping and I'm not sure this is going to be finished by the end of this project. It's not very pigmented so you have to go over the same spot a few times before you get and colour. It works better if you push harder, but obviously you don't want to do that on your eyes. I might have to finish this in my next project. Elf is cruelty free and, once I've used up all my other eyeliners, I will have a look at the other pencil eyeliners they have.
Next is the product I'm most happy about, the Lily Lolo eye primer. I didn't think that I would actually finish this this month so I'm happy that it's all gone. As I've said before, this doesn't do a lot for priming my eyelids, though that's probably because they are oily, but it did work well as a primer on my face. I'll now start on the eye primer I bought from Tescos a while ago. Lily Lolo is a cruelty free company and I will look at their other products when I actually need to get more makeup.
I only actually used this lipstick, the Mac cremesheen in Creme Cup, for 2 weeks this month so I'm quite impressed with how much I've managed to use compared to previous months. I haven't completely finished the lipstick sample I was using instead this month, but I think I can finish off both of these by the end of next month - hopefully. Mac is not a cruelty free company.
As before I haven't been wearing nail varnish that much this month either. I still like the look of wearing nail varnish, but I'm just as happy without and I haven't really been bothered with the work you have to go into to keep them looking nice. Because of this there hasn't been much progress on this nail varnish, and this has been the only one I've been using. This polish is an alright quality, but Sinful Colours is not a cruelty free company so I wouldn't buy it again.
The Wella Polish Cream is the other product I keep forgetting to use despite it being on my dresser and, as you don't need to use a lot of it at a time, I'm not getting very far with it. It's just not a step I think to use and I will probably have to put this into my next pan as well. The scent is alright and it does help with the fizziness, but not more than my oils do and, with Wella not being cruelty free, I won't buy this again.
Apart from the never ending lipstick, I've managed to use up the last of the samples I have, but firstly I'll start with the ones that I actually finished a couple of months ago but forgot to put in my blog. The first is the Urban Decay / Gwen Stefani lipstick sample in Firebird. This is a deep fuschia cream lipstick and I wasn't sure if I would like it, but I actually loved the colour and it suited my skin tone very well. It's going to be a while before I get through all my lipsticks, but I'm going to keep this in mind, especially as Urban Decay is cruelty free. The next is a sample of the perfume Love Story by Chloe. This is quite a flowery scent, but not too strong and it didn't give me a headache, which flower scents can do. I'm not sure about the cruelty status of Chloe, but I want to be going for more natural scents anyway I won't be buying this in the full size.
The John Masters Organics citrus & neroli detangler worked a lot better than I was expecting. I've stopped using conditioner and noticed it didn't make any difference to the condition, softness or how tangled my hair got, but I did notice that my hair felt less tangled when I used this product. It also smells pretty nice too and the actual size is only £17. I want to see what my oils are like first, but if I feel like I need an extra bit of help with my hair I will look into getting this. I did have high hopes for the Pai Rosehip BioRegnerate Rapid Radiance Mask as this is a pricy brand and I have liked other products of those I've used. Unfortunately this didn't have the effect I was hoping. It didn't feel like my skin was any more improved than before and I actually got some small spots around my nose every time I used it. I think I'll stick to my Juice Beauty face mask. Pai is a cruelty free company though. The Acorelle eau de parfum sample in Vanilla smelt great. The sample doesn't come in the traditional way but is in the form of a wipe, but the actual perfume comes in the traditional bottle. The smell is a very accurate vanilla smell, but doesn't have the overly sweet smell that lots of them have, and it lasts all day. This is definitely a perfume I would like to get in the future and Acorelle is a cruelty free company. The last sample is The Natural Deodorant Co clean deodorant balm in vanilla & manuka. I wasn't sure what this was going to be like as you have to apply it with your hands, but I actually preferred this method to the conventional way. The product was also really good, lasted all day, and didn't feel sticky or wet. This is definitely one of the best natural deodorants I've tried. The only problem I had with it was the smell reminded me very slightly of stale washing and that my skin reacted badly to the bicarb. However, The Natural Deodorant Co have balms that don't contain bicarb in them and different scents, so I might give these a go and see if they work just as well and they're cruelty free and vegan. If they do then I think I've found my new deodorant - once I've used up my back stock.
I've had these Faith in Nature Replenishing Aloe Vera Eye Gel for quite a while (in fact I don't even think they've made this for a few years) and they take forever to use up. I decided it probably wasn't best to keep using this around my eyes, just in case, so I've been using it to moisturise my hands and other areas of my body that need it. I have one more of these to go and am in the market for another natural eye cream, though my oils seem to be doing a good job.
