A Makeup Audit Tale: lip products part 2

In the first part of my lipstick audit I let go of a total of 27 products. Most of them had expired but a some were let go because they did not tickle my fancy anymore. Part 2 took place only a few weeks later in the end of October 2019, a lot sooner than I had initially anticipated. Somehow the audit mentality took over and I started evaluating the products I wore and owned with new eyes.

None of these shades had gone off at the time but they were older, many of them as much as 5-6 years old. I bit too much age for a lipstick. Let’s have a look at the discards…

Revlon – Candy Apple

Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Candy Apple (035) was nice but I did not gravitate towards the glossy finish anymore. It always felt like I had too much texture on my lips.

Revlon – Romantic

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Romantic (045) is a similar situation as with Candy Apple. I’ve worn it a lot over the years but I was simply not attracted to the formula anymore.

Revlon – Crush

Another Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain, this time in Crush (005). Another one I never reached for anymore.

Revlon – Rasberry Pie

Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Rasberry Pie (010) is a shade I would have preferred to be matte.

MAC – Red Balloon

This Amplified lipstick in Red Balloon was from the 2014 Playland Collection by MAC. Pretty shade but I rarely reached for it. Not sure why.

MAC – Heavenly Hybrid

MAC Lustre lipstick in Heavenly Hybrid was part of the Fantasy of Flowers collection in 2014. Pretty shade but I never reached for it.

MAC – Après Chic

MAC Cremesheen lipstick in Après Chic is one of those shades I wish I could replace. Not sure I have the right to complain though, because I never did use it as much as it deserved to be used. I simply had too many lipsticks and it got lost in the masses. But this was an amazing shade on me and I wish I still had it. But it was from 2012, so…

MAC – Eden Rouge

Eden Rouge is in the Mattene formula (MAC) and this specific shade has been worn a LOT. Bought in 2012 and served as my go-to red for many years. Looking at it now I feel it is a bit too shiny for my liking but the shade is lovely.

MAC – Charmed I’m Sure

Charmed I’m Sure is in the Matte formula by MAC, from the 2012 Marilyn Monroe collection. A stunning pink red that should have been used more than I did.

MAC – Love Goddess

From the same Marilyn Monroe collection we have Love Goddess, a satin lipstick. This hot pink is very flattering but a tad too glossy for my current liking.

MAC – All Out Gorgeous

Sorry for the blurry photo, but it will have to do. All Out Gorgeous is in the Mineralize Rich formula and it’s also too shiny for me. Another shade I would much prefer as a matte.

MAC – Absolute Power

Absolute Power is a matte shade from the 2013 Strength Collection by MAC. A beautiful muted red.

MAC – Pure Heroine

Pure Heroine was a collaboration between the singer Lorde and MAC in 2014. It’s a dramatic dark purple in the amplified formula. It was not a wise purchase for sure. It is one of those shades where I have very limited use of it and it tends to be forgotten altogether.

After settling on these older lipsticks I decided to go through some of the less old lip items I never or hardly wear for one reason or another. Since I have no feelings for them whatsoever I went for simple arm swatches.

The chosen ones were three lip liners by MAC (Embrace, Ablaze and Heroine) and six of the Sephora Cream Lip Stains I had inherited by a friend (21, 23, 24, 26, 25 and 18). So to conclude the second and final part of my lipstick audit a total of 13 lipsticks, three lip liners and six liquid lipsticks exited my life.

I started the audit with 84 lip colour products in October 2019 and ended up with with a total collection of 34 items a month later. 13 lipsticks, five lip crayons, seven liquid lipsticks and nine lip pencils.

Below you can see a note I made including paper swatches of what I ended up with after the audit. It gave me a nice overview of the shades compared to each other and how the total shade range looks.

One of the largest categories remaining were what I called neutral shades including fleshy pinks and browns. This type of lipstick gets a lot of wear time so I do not mind having this many options.

The reds were suddenly a small part of my collection and lacking I might add. I love red lipsticks and going into December (partaking in #redlipsdecember on Instagram) with only three red lipsticks and three red lip liners was interesting. But it was a fun experiment to only use this lot for a while to see how I fared. I knew I wanted to add some new red shades to my collection but I was not about to purchase anything new this early on in my auditing project.

Rusty shades was a lovely little bunch that I looked forward to using a lot. They sort of compensated for the fact that I suddenly had so few true reds.

Bright pinks, berries and plums were put in the same category even though they vary so vastly in shade and potential. I use berry and plum shades more often than bright pinks but I’m making an effort to choose those bright shades more often.

Finally we have the category that I want to keep this small moving forward. The fun and a bit weird shades that I enjoy but only wear on certain occasions or with very specific looks. These three liquid lip shades are just that, fun. I enjoy them and see no point in discarding them until they go off, but I will refrain from buying any additions to this category until they do.

So the products in the paper swatches are the shades I’ve worn since November 2019 up until May 2020 when I finally added some new shades. But that is a story for another day…

Thank you for reading!