My Makeup Audit: April 2020
I have been keeping up with my monthly arsenals and my makeup audit even though I’ve not had time to post anything about them until now. Work, family and home renovations have been filling my energized hours. But I’ve had fun doing my makeup as usual, most mornings before work. A little time to myself to focus inward and play outward with colour and shape. Let’s meet the team..
The eye arsenal – Inglot, MAC, H&M, Bare Minerals, Neve Cosmetics, & Other Stories
For April I picked an Inglot palette of rosy/peach tones as my big cohesive palette and since it was almost all matte I added some singles to give dimension with shimmers and metallics. A complement of purple and citrusy pops of colour as well as some more earthy tones.
The cheek arsenal – MAC, IsaDora, Sleek Makeup and Urban Decay
This month I had quite a wide variety of cheek colours – six blush shades in total and a lone highlighter.
Let’s start with a rundown of the eyeshadows.
The star of this month was definitely my Inglot palette. I get a lot of pleasure out of this colour story and I had a lovely time playing with it. Some of the shadows are older (bought in New York in 2013) and some are newer, just a couple of years old. The thing with my Inglot shades is that they tend to be neglected overall so neither of these shades had been worn much before April. Despite being mouthwatering.
Top Row L-R: 487, 16, 46
Bottom row L-R: Sumptuous Olive, Ricepaper, 441
The mini Nabla palette above contained four Inglot shadows (the square pans) and two from MAC (the round pans). All but one are metallics and all of them are older (2012-2014). Three lighter shimmer shades (16, 46, Ricepaper) that I could use for inner corner highlighting and three nice pops of colour to complement the matte shades in the main Inglot palette.
Top Row L-R: Twinks, Crème Brulee, Magma
Bottom row L-R: 439, Mystery, Black Magique
In another mini Nabla palette I collected three MAC shades (Mystery, Black Magique and Twinks), one each from Inglot (439), Neve Cosmetics (Magma) and Makeup Geek (Crème Brulee). The MAC and Inglot shades are from 2013-2014 and the rest I think are ca 2016. Four versatile earthy shades and two bright colours.
Top Row L-R: Dear Teddy, Silver Birch
Bottom row L-R: Golden Pear, Velvet Mauve
Continuing on with some single pots we have four of varying age that usually do not get any wear time at all. Two by MAC (Dear Teddy and Silver Birch) and two from Bare Minerals (Golden Pear and Velvet Mauve). Dear Teddy from the 2019 Monochrome collection is the newest of the bunch. Silver Birch is another limited edition item – a mineralize shadow from the 2012 Après Chic collection. The Bare Minerals pots are from a limited edition stack from 2013 that my sister bought for me as a Christmas gift when she was in New York. I remember being so excited after seeing swatches of this by Kelly aka Vampy Varnish (find the post here) in 2013. Many shades from that stack are super stunning but I doubt all of them will survive this audit.
Top Row L-R: Act your Beige, Tumeric
Bottom row L-R: Ginger Snap, Russet Rose
Then we have four single compacts from H&M Beauty. I generally enjoy their formula but I do not use these shadows often enough. I cannot remember when I bought these, but my guesstimate would be between 2016-1018. My most worn shade is Tumeric, the stunning muted yellow.
Top Row L-R: Lockram Cactus, Mocakdo Carbon
Bottom Row: Nutty
The final three eye shadows this month were from & Other Stories (Mocakdo Carbon and Lockram Cactus) and Wet N’ Wild (Nutty). One matte and two shimmer/metallics. That ends up being a total of 32 eye shadows. Phew! Now, let’s see how these shades fared in the audit, including some swatches.
I loved using all of the matte Inglot shades with the exception for 356. It was way to dusty and nothing on the eyes. The three lovely ice cream/sherbet shades, 359, 368 and 361, really came alive after I used them a few times and were brilliant as all over lid shades or as a popping inner corner. You can see examples of how they looked on the eye in looks from April 11-12th, found further down in the post. So I am gladly keeping all of these except 356. I will neglect them no longer.
Sumptuous Olive (MAC) is an old favourite of mine and I do not think this picture does it any justice. It’s a gorgeous dirty olive with a slightly ruddy base. Very dimensional on the eye (see look from April 15th). 487 (Inglot) is a quite a unique colour in my arsenal and the quality held up. 16 (Inglot) was only used once but I liked the effect and this one is quite unique as well, a very bright light yellow with a golden shift. 46 (Inglot) is actually a pink duochrome and its beauty is not visible in the picture above. Both 16 and 46 are mainly used as inner corner highlights by me. 441 (Inglot) is a surprise shadow for me, I did not expect it to perform well at all. It’s a quite bright mid purple metallic and it really lights up the eyes when worn all over the lid. And Ricepaper (MAC) was a beautiful inner corner highlight (see look on April 15). I had no hopes of liking this one either, but I really did enjoy it. So I’m keeping all of these six shades for now.
Black Magique (MAC) was used as a liner and deepening colour in general. It performed very well and will go to the next round. Twinks (MAC) was quite dry and nothing special so it will go. Crème Brulee (Makeup Geek) will go too. It was very dusty and I did not enjoy wearing it. Magma (Neve Cosmetics) and 439 (Inglot) are beautiful on the eyes. Mystery (MAC) is a great cool dark brown and useful for liner or brow duties. It’s not the most unique but it performed well enough to stay. So two out of six are leaving my collection.
Velvet Mauve (Bare Minerals) is a matte shade in loose form and that is not really something I’m used to or prefer. But with that said, this colour is really beautiful on my skin tone and so easy to work with. Golden Pear (Bare Minerals) is a shimmer in loose form, something I am used to, but this specific shade did not wow me at all. I remember this being a really pale green, almost duochrome shimmer and for some reason it looks totally different now than I thought and remembered. A very flat and uninteresting shade. It will have to go. Dear Teddy (MAC) is a very interesting shade. A rosy milk chocolate bronze. Very wearable and easy to slap all over the lid for a quick eye. I should probably depot this and keep it with the other pans. Silver Birch (MAC) initially did not feel like a me shade, but after wearing it again I really fell for its fine glittery but grungy sheen. So all shades except Golden Pear can stay for now.
Then we have the gilded tones of the H&M shadows. Tumeric is one of my favourite yellows and I have used this quite a lot over the years. So it’s no surprise that it comes out of the audit as a winner. I love to wear it all over the lid, in the crease as an accent or as an inner corner colour fest. Very wearable. Russet Rose is a keeper as well (worn April 23rd), but more of a surprise one. It’s a ruddy copper with an almost pinky sheen. Not an intense metallic or a strong colour shift, just a lighter cool sheen that makes this warm shade extra interesting on the eye. Ginger Snap is a beautiful shade and really makes my eyes pop (worn April 27th), but it is a dupe for Amber Lights from MAC that I already have a depotted version of. Act your Beige is pretty shade as well, but not special enough to keep. So those two are bye bye.
Lockram Cactus is a pretty duochrome but I’m sure I have similar shades in depotted pans that look more or less the same on the eye. I never reach for this one, and I can see that behavior continuing, so it has to go. Mocakdo Carbon is a nice matte and I’ve decided to keep it for now. I want to gather all of my well performing mattes and compare them against each other later on in the audit. I might depot this shade if I decide to keep it in the future, but for the moment it goes untouched into the “keep” box. Nutty was another shade I was surprised by. I really really like it. It will stay on the same premises as Mocakdo Carbon, but this will have to be depotted if kept permanently.
Top Row L-R: Legendary, Dusty Rose, Life’s a Picnic
Bottom Row L-R: Chantilly, Guipure, Crochet, Fireball
Moving on to the cheek products of the audit and we find seven shades in total. A trio from Sleek Makeup (Blush by 3 in “Lace”), two shades by MAC (Legendary and Life’s a Picnic) and one from IsaDora (Dusty Rose). The single highlighter is by Urban Decay (Fireball).
The three shades from the Sleek palette were lovely enough to use and especially Crochet and Chantilly are quite unique to my collection (Guipure was a bit generic however). But none of that mattered since the product managed to expire shortly after the audit was done. So into the bin they go. Legendary (MAC) and Dusty Rose (IsaDora) are firm favourites and very useful shades. Keeping. Then we have Life’s a Picnic. Using it makes me realize it just not the perfect bright pink for me. Since I have already kept a similar shade that suits me better (Supernova from my audit in October 2019) I feel confident in letting this one go. Fireball (Urban Decay) is a keeper as well. It’s not an everyday shade for me but I do have a soft spot for it.
So that was the rundown of the products in April’s audit. Let’s have a look at some of the looks I created with said products.
April 2
Eyes: 356 – 295 – 319 – Dear Teddy – Golden Pear
Cheeks: Crochet
April 3
Eyes: Mystery – Black Magique – 46 – Mocakdo Carbon – Lockram Cactus
Cheeks: Dusty Rose – Fireball
April 4
Eyes: 361 – 301 – 366 – Turmeric – 46
Cheeks: Life’s a Picnic – Fireball
April 9
Eyes: Magma – 439 – 46 – 368 – Black Magique
Cheeks: Legendary
April 11
Eyes: 368 – 361 – Black Magique
Cheeks: Dusty Rose
April 12
Eyes: 359 – Mystery – 46
Cheeks: Chantilly
April 14
Eyes: Twinks – Mystery – Crème Brulee – Golden Pear
Cheeks: Legenedary
April 15
Eyes: Sumptuous Olive – Velvet Mauve – Ricepaper – Mystery
Cheeks: Life’s a Picnic
April 17
Eyes: 303 – 319 – 359 – Mystery
Cheeks: Life’s a Picnic
April 23
Eyes: Russet Rose – 368 – Ricepaper – Mystery
Cheeks: Chantilly – Fireball
April 24
Eyes: 495 – 359 – 368 – 301
Cheeks: Legendary
April 27
Eyes: Ginger Snap – 356 –
Cheeks: Guipure
April 28
Eyes: Silver Birch – 295 – 319 – 301 – 303
Cheeks: Life’s a Picnic
So to conclude things nine products (eleven shades) are out after this audit. An ok month I think. The number is not really important but since I’m sure there are many products in my total collection that are not up to par anymore it’s very fun to finally weed them out.
Thank’s for reading!