Project Use Up Update #10 and Other Products

So, another month is done and I'm now on the final stretch.  I'm not expecting to use up many more of the products that I have left, but I am glad that's I've finally used up another item after a couple of months of stalling. (Apologies for the lighting in these photos, it's just so dark today it was difficult to get the right light.)

And let's start with that.  This month I had to say goodbye to the Gosh Velvet lipstick in Matte Rose.  I hadn't completely finished it but got ill whilst wearing it.  When I put it on again after getting better I got a really sore throat again, so I decided I had the throw it away.  I only had one more days worth of wear in it so it's not too bad, but a shame to not get the satisfaction of finishing it properly.  I really like this product, it feels good on the lips, isn't too trying, and is a really lovely colour.  Basically, if you're looking for an affordable, easy to find, cruelty free, nude lipstick I would recommend this one.  However, I'm not really intending on buying nude lipsticks in the future and I want to test more 'natural' lip colours anyway so I probably won't buy this again.  I had also hoped to use up my MUA lipstick in Raven this month as well as I had a few extra days off work, but unfortunately I got really ill for a couple of weeks and haven't been wearing lipstick at all during that time.  It would have been fitting to finish it on Halloween, but there's always next month and I do think I'll get it done by then.  I'm not sure if I'll get my Gosh lipstick finished by the end of the year, but I will have at least 1 month to concentrate on it.

I've been doing a lot of smokey eye looks this month and that has helped me use a good amount of the Living Nature eye liner in Midnight.  However, there was also no eye liner wearing whilst I was ill so the progress on this is a little lower then I was hoping for.  This is a really easy eye liner to use, very soft and smudge-able, but that does mean that it's not necessarily the longest lasting eye liner I've ever used and definitely needs setting.  This one is definitely going to be a roll over to next year.

The NYX Dark Circle Concealer Corrector in Light / Pale is going a long quite well.  In fact I've used much more then I was actually expecting.  It seems to be that once I hit the side of the product the rest seems to come away quite easily.  I might even be able to finish this by the end of the year, but I think I'm being a bit hopeful on that front.  It's a lovely product to use as it's so creamy and the colour is actually pretty good for what I want it for.  Just going to keep plodding on this one.

You know the drill on the Barbara Day Even Smoother eye primer in Vanilla.  Slow and steady, slow and steady.  There is light at the end of the tunnel, but this might actually be one of the products I just have the throw away at the end of the year as I've had this for so long and it is going right by my eyes.

The same can be said on the Argan Oil hair treatment.  This is going to take a while to use up, but it is quite a good product and smells really nice so I'm not too bothered if it takes a couple of years to get through.

The other products I used up this month are......

My Jura Diurachs Own Fragrance Hand Cream.  This product is lovely, smells really, really good, and works very well.  I've been using it every day after work and it's definitely helped stop my hands from turning into a leathery, flaky mess.  The only issue with this for some people is that it contains bees wax and I'm not sure if it's cruelty free, though I assume this line would be.  I can't find this hand cream on line so I think you can only buy it on Jura (what a shame, just have to take another trip to Jura).  The packaging is also glass which makes it easy to recycle.

I really like the Lush Dirty Toothy Tabs.  They are very easy to use and a great space saver in your toiletry bag (something very important for me as I have literally been living out of that thing).  The flavour is also good and this product is also vegan and cruelty free.  I would prefer the packaging to not be plastic, but at least it's recycled and recyclable and that's really stuck in my head after I heard someone say 'If you're not buying recycled products you're not really recycling' (which I believe is attributed to Ed Begley Jr).  For convenience these are great and will probably buy them again, especially if I'm travelling, but I love the Georganic products better so those will probably be my main dental products.

The last item is the Younique Moodstruck Epic Mascara.  A friend of mine sells Younique products so I brought this off her when I was coming to the end of my mascaras.  I've probably been using this way longer then you're supposed to use a mascara but the scent of it hasn't changed so I kept using it until the product was basically gone.  This product it lovely and made my eye lashes look really long and think.  It also held them at a sweeping up angle and didn't flake on me (a reoccurring issue I have with most mascaras).  Apparently they are working towards getting a cruelty free status as they don't test their products on animals, but I haven't had confirmation on that yet.  It is a little bit of a pricey mascara as well at £20, but isn't the most expensive mascara out there and it does have a very good effect.  As with the lipsticks, however, I am wanting to go down a more natural route and so it's unlikely I will be buying this product again.

And that's it.  Let's see what I can get through in November.

My progress so far:

• Project Use Up 2018
• Project Use Up Update #1 and Other Products
• Project Use Up Update #2 and Other Products
• Project Use Up Update #3 and Other Products
• Project Use Up Update #4 
• Project Use Up Update #5 and Other Products
• Project Use Up Update #6 and Other Products
• Project Use Up Update #7 and Other Products
• Project Use Up Update #8 and Other Products
• Project Use Up Update# 9

Product Use Up Update #3 and Other Products

I knew this month was going to be one of those slow transitional months, where your mainly just warring the product down rather then using it up.  But it’s also the last month I’ll have the opportunity to wear as much makeup for the rest of the year and therefore the last opportunity to really get through the stuff.  That being said I didn’t actually wear any at all this week when I was visiting family – ops.

Though the progress was slow I did manage to use up one product and that was the Neal’s Yard hand cream in Wild Rose.  There’s not too much to say about this product really.  It moisturises your hands and smells quite nice.  It’s possibly not as thick as I need it to be and a bit pricey to buy again, but Neal’s Yard is a cruelty free company and I do like the fact that a number of their products come in glass.  Now it’stime to start working on the Neutrogena anti-aging hand cream.

And now for the rest.  I have made progress on the Gosh Velvet Touch Matt lipstick in Plum, though not as much as I had hoped with it being the only lipstick I wore this month.  I am going to take a break from it as a lipstick in April, but I have noticed that it makes a very good cheek stain and will keep working at it as that.  There have been no change with the other lipsticks in this project.

The Living Nature eye liner in Midnight is another product I use everyday I wear makeup but which show little progress.  This isn’t a surprise with eye liners though as you never really need that much of them.  I’m going to do some more smoky looks in the future to try and get some more use out of this.  It also very blend able and I might experiment with it to darken up some eyeshadows.

I’ve only just started using the NYX Dark Circle Concealer Corrector in Light / Pale this month so there’s not going to be a big change between the start of the project and now.  It’s also not a product that is easy to layer so only a small amount can be used at a time.  Thankfully there was already a big dip in it so I’m still hopeful that I’ll finish it by the end of 2018.  It doesn’t supply the best coverage, but I’ll keep working at it.

There’s been a change in the way the roll ball part of the Pacifica roll-on perfume in Island Vanilla now works, similar to the Blood Orange perfume I had before, which means it now lets out more of the product.  Whilst there still hasn’t been a huge amount of progress I think it’s definitely going to increase now.  The scent is a little longer wearing in this fragrance and I do enjoy it, I just don’t like the applicator as much as I thought I would.

I almost feel like not bothering to put in the Barbara Day eye primer in this update, it’s almost a running joke now.  I use it every time I wear makeup but there is not an obvious progress.........yet.

I’m now using the Burt’s Bees hand salve a lot more now that I’m no longer wearing nail varnish, especially as I’m trying to improve the health of my nails after years of wearing polish.  However, you still need very little of this so it’s another product that’s showing very little progress and is in for the long haul.  I do think I will be able to get this finished at the end of the year.

The Argan Oil hair treatment is one of those items I keep forgetting to use.  My hair could probably do with this extra TLC, but it just keeps slipping my mind.  I need to find some way of reminding myself to use it, as so far everything else I’ve tried hasn’t worked.  Because of that there hasn’t been any progress since the last update.  Any advice on this please let me know.

One additional product I’ve finished this month which isn’t in the project is the Green People sun cream in SPF 30.  I’ve had this for a while now and as sun creams have definite shelf lives I wanted to make sure this was finished before that was up.  We haven’t exactly been having the right weather recently to be able to have much flesh so I’ve been mostly using this on my face.  Whilst it’s not specifically a face sun block it did go on really well, my skins didn’t react to it badly, and it actually made quite a good base for my makeup.  I have other sun cream I need to get through at the moment, but once that’s gone I’ll definitely look into the possibility of getting this again.  It is very effective, my skin seems to like it, and Green People is a cruelty free company.

The last product is the Lush Eyes Right Mascara.  I'm not really sure how I feel about this product.  On the plus side it uses more natural products, is vegan, and cruelty free.  However, the product is quite a wet product (though it improves a lot once it's dried out for about a month), did flake a fair amount throughout the day, and didn't really give my eye lashes the look I was looking for.  Basically with this product, if you just want darker, natural lashes, and don't mind a bit of flaking then this mascara is for you.  Otherwise, another mascara might be for you.

Project Use Up update #1 and Other Products

So that's the first month of 2018 down and I've done pretty well.  Admittedly I have been able to wear makeup far more than I will the rest of the year, but still I'm going to pat myself on the back any way.

The first product to go was the Korres Lip Butter in Mango.  I don't really like having a colour tint in my lip balms, but this is a nice colour if that's what you're looking for.  It never really left like it was moisturising when I first put it on, but my lips always felt very soft in the morning.  Korres is a cruelty free company, but I don't think I'll this again.

Next was the first of my role overs from last year, the Zoya Pixie Dust nail polish in Dahlia.  There is a very small amount in the bottom, but it has gotten very gloopy and is practically impossible to reach.  I did enjoy wearing glitter, but it was very difficult to get off.  That is the last of my nail polish and I won't be buying any more of this kind of polish.  Zoya is cruelty free.

Lastly, I've finished the Lush Lip Scrub in Mint Julip.  I love the smell (and taste) of this, but if I'm honest I don't think it really did anything in the lip scrubbing front.  At least not anymore then when I use my flannel.  Lush is cruelty free, but I won't buy this product again.

As before, the Barbara Day eye primer is going down, but not in any way that is obvious from the outside.  And the same is true for the Pacifica Transcendent Concentrated Concealer in Light, despite using it almost every day.  I expect both of them will suddenly give up the ghost without being obvious before.  I haven't used the NYX Dark Circle Corrector at all yet and will probably use this once the Pacifica concealer is finished.

The Living Nature eye pencil in Midnight is definitely going to take all year to use up, even with me wearing it everyday.  In fact, this product is probably going to take about three.  Still I'll keep working on it.  I may suddenly find some other use for it.

The Jane Iredale blusher in Barely Rose isn't showing any sign of the pan appearing any time soon, but I am using it everyday so it'll hopefully appear soon.

I've mainly been concentrating on the Neal's Yard lipstick in Persimmon this month, but have been using the two Gosh lipsticks as under-colours a few days.  Still, there is no real change in the Gosh lipsticks, but the Neal's Yard is halfway done.  I haven't touched the MUA in Raven at all yet.

The Pacifica perfume in Island Vanilla is another product I use every day, but it doesn't seem to have gone down by very much so this could take all year to finish.  The scent lasts longer then the other Pacifica perfume I've tried, but still doesn't last all day.

Slow progress on the Neal's Yard hand cream, probably because I keep forgetting to use it.  Must remember to make a note to use it daily.  There's no point in using the Neutrogena hand cream with SPF just yet until my hand is actually exposed to the sun.  I haven't used the Argan Oil hair treatment and Burt's Bees hand salve yet.

One of the other products I had finished this month is the Zoya nail polish remover 3 in 1.  This is the travel size (which I poured the last of the product into) and I have previously gone through about three full sized bottles.  It's a good product and is cruelty free, but as I don't intend to buy anymore of the usual nail polish I won't be buying this again.

I've also used up the shampoo I've been using for the last couple of years, which is the John Masters Organics bare unscented.  I really love this shampoo - I don't have any negative reaction to it, it lathers up really well for a more natural shampoo, and you don't need a lot of it for it to work so it lasts a really long time.  It's also cruelty free, so a win win.  I'm trying other shampoos right now, one being a shampoo bar, but if they don't work I'll go back to this.

Lastly was the Scentered Stress Less Therapy Balm.  I had got this in a subscription box from Naturisimo and it's meant to help relieve stress.  I'm not sure if it actually does that, but it does smell very nice and I used it up by using it as a daily scent.