A Makeup Audit Tale: lip products part 3

I did a massive two part clear out of my lip products right when I started my audit project in 2019 (you can find part 1 here and part 2 here). Mainly old items that had expired but also shades I knew I did not love. The collectors mentality that I was affected by before is now replaced with the desire to have a lipstick wardrobe of a size that gives me options to chose from but is small enough so that I can wear them all regularly.

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. Those 13 lipsticks, five lip crayons, seven liquid lipsticks and nine lip pencils were then worn from November 2019 up until May 2020, a month when I started adding some new shades. Since then I have splurged on oh so many Lisa Eldridge lip products. I’ve bought a large selection of her lipsticks/liners divided on several different launches. I’ve also bought or otherwise acquired some fun lip shades from H&M Beauty, La Bouche Rouge, Illamasqua, Surratt, Byredo, MAC and Chanel. Right now I’m at 13 liners, three lipglosses, two crayons and 54 lipsticks. Those shades, that I have and use today, are mainly made up of the new acquirements. It is an baffling amount and think I am at the limit of what I prefer to own.

This post will be my last instalment of the lip part of my makeup audit project. It includes shades that I stopped using for one reason or another between my latest declutter in 2019 up until the end of 2022. It will also include some lip products bought after I started my audit project since I am not immune to making bad purchases despite being a bit wiser.

I must confess that I normally use a lip product until it goes off. But this time I went mainly on age. Most of these items were very old but still in use since they smelled and looked just fine despite their age. The Revlon matte crayons were from 2014 and the Chanel lipsticks were from 2016 and none of those have shown signs of going off (still to this day) but I was becoming uncomfortable using them any longer. A few of the oldest lip products – some of the liners from MAC – started to smell a bit off and that was my cue to take a hard look on the older items.

In todays post I will go through each item that I’m letting go of accompanied by a little note on our time together.

The Pillow Talk liner was purchased in the Charlotte Tilbury shop in Covent Garden in early 2017. The shade was very hyped at that moment and I was interested partly because of that. I wore it for a while and liked it just fine but as the years passed I felt it was too light for me. I simply did not enjoy wearing it. But I kept it anyway and then it went off last year. This is not a shade I would consider buying again but I have nothing against the formula of the Lip Cheat so another shade might be in my future. Who knows?

This product and shade was a favourite for a few years and I used it up. I did repurchase another one in 2020 but that turned out to be a mistake. I did not enjoy the shade as much as I did before and stopped reaching for it over time. A tad too glossy for my taste nowadays.

This pink shade is another well loved item that I have just stopped enjoying wearing. I have nearly used it up but now I find this fruity pink to be a bit too glossy for my liking. I do have a brown shade in this formula that I still adore using called When In Rome.

The matte crayons were picked up abroad in 2014. Sultry was a great shade and I have used it a lot over the years. These are not available anymore or else I might consider repurchasing some shades.

This one is possibly from 2016-2017 but I do not remember. It could be older. I have worn this sparingly and if I want to wear a pink this popping I tend to prefer Skyscraper Rose by Lisa Eldridge. I checked the Chanel website and this specific shade is no longer available.

Redd is my oldest and therefore most worn lip pencil. It predates 2014 that is for sure. A great pencil in a great shade. I would consider repurchasing in the future. I tried replacing Redd with the Morning liner from Lisa Eldridge, but they are not dupes.

This picture does not do this magnificent colour justice. It is a stunning soft and light red shade and the pigmentation was perfection. I believed the product to be discontinued but a quick google showed this shade as available on a few sites. However Revlon does not show the Colorburst Matte Balms on their official website at all anymore so I’m a bit sceptic that it might be older stock still in circulation. If it was a permanent item I would repurchase.

Cherry is Redd’s cooler counterpart. It’s old but not as old as Redd. I’ve worn it quite a lot and I have nothing bad to say about this pencil. I do have a few cooler red pencils by Lisa Eldridge now that fills the purpose that Cherry did before, despite not being colour dupes.

This lipstick is from 2016 and I have worn it so much the past few years. I retired it due to old age but it still smelled and looked just fine when I put it away as well as when I put it on for this photo. Ever since I’ve retired it, maybe a year ago, I’ve been thinking about repurchasing this specific shade again. And in the end of June I picked it up when I visited Gothenburg. Ever since I misplaced my Velvet Morning lipstick (Lisa Eldridge) I felt like I was missing a bright warmer red and now I am reunited with Rouge Feu.

This lipstick was purchased alongside several others from the same brand in November 2021. After wearing it a few times I knew I had made a bad choice. I do not love a red in this creamy pigmented formula. The colour is nice but it is too glossy.

This liquid lipstick is from 2017 and I have gotten a lot of wear out of it over the years. It is a stunning red shade and a good formula that is quite easy to apply. I’m content being without a liquid lipstick at the moment so I do not see myself repurchasing anytime soon. But Lisa Eldridge just released her version called Velveteens and that might be a more fun option to try if I get the urge for a liquid lip in the future.

I adore Rouge Vie and this is one, like Rouge Feu, that I recently opted to repurchase because I missed it and it was still available. This soft muted red is very versatile either blotted down or worn full on and I have used it a lot over the years, especially since I started my audit project and had a smaller lip arsenal for a while.

I’ve loved wearing this shade of the lip stain and especially as a blotted stain with blurred edges rather than full on as applied in this picture. Great shade over all and I would have loved it as a normal lipstick. However since I repurchased Rouge Vie I think the slot has been filled even though they are not exactly the same.

Brick is a great colour and I have nothing like it at the moment. But I am unsure if I need a liner in this colour. Only time will tell. If I feel like I am missing a shade like this in the future I would definitely consider repurchasing Brick.

This one was a really bad performer and I only wore it two times after buying it in November 2021. It was so dry and applied so patchy. Not all of the matte crayons are bad though. I own a orange red one from the same brand called Hot-Blooded that is creamy and applies nicely. But Curtain Call was a dud and formula inconsistencies does make me wary to try more shades in this formula from H&M Beauty.

Rouge Audace, sweet Rouge Audace. How I wish I could replace you! This is the third and final Chanel lipstick from 2016 and this one is sadly not part of the permanent collection. Chanel recently (?) did a shade extension of the Rouge Allure Velvet formula but unfortunately Rouge Audace was not a part of it. This darker brown red was oh so beautiful to create looks with and it will be missed.

27 is another liquid lipstick that I would love to own in a regular matte lipstick formula. I remember trying to replace it when I bought Worship Her by Byredo in November 2021 but the effect is not the same. But now I feel like I have enough dark lipsticks that I have no need to continue searching for a replacement for this specific shade.

This liner is of unknown age but old for sure. The colour is pretty but I feel like I have enough cool red lip liners (Ribbon and Duchess) from Lisa Eldridge and feel well equipped in that department.

Another lip shade I sort of wish I could replace. Gorgeous and so comfortable on the lips. But I have other berry shades I can wear instead so the urge is not super prominent. As with Striking, this was from 2016 and I am letting it go due to age only.

Burgundy is a liner that I picked up in 2014. Looking at this picture makes me realise what a great colour this is for me. I will most likely repurchase this one in the near future since I have nothing like it at the moment I I think I will get great use out if it if I have it.

Nightmoth is a liner that I recently have repurchased. I just found it very useful for darker and more dramatic lip looks and missed it when this first one was deemed too old.

These pictures does not do the shades justice since they were the last ones to be worn after removing all of the other lip swatches. My makeup in the mouth area was pretty beat up at this point and the rest of the face was barely hanging in there as well. With dramatic colours such as these I would also had preferred to wear a base that evened out my skin tone even more, to make the colours stand out in a better way. But alas, here were are. I am going to talk about these together since I bought them at the same time in mid 2018 and they occupy the same place in my mind. These were my ‘fun shades’ and I wore them on and off when I wanted something a bit off key. But these past few years they have been mainly untouched and the last time I wore one of them I just felt like they had played their part but it was time to let them go. I will not miss them but who knows what the future holds?

So these 24 lip products are out and three of them have been repurchased. My oldest lip products still in use at this point are two pink lipsticks from Lisa Eldridge and three Powder Kiss lipsticks by MAC that I picked up in the first half of 2019. I feel very happy that this part of the audit is complete. Removing really old stuff and duds is very satisfying. I’m now going to continue to use the beautiful lip products of varying age that I still own until they too are too old to continue using. I might add a shade here or there but I have a very vast and solid arsenal at this point and I love it.

Thank you for reading!