Makeup

My Makeup Audit: February 2022

This is it. The last monthly arsenal to be audited in this first phase of my project. This phase was the biggest and most time consuming part of the project and I will make the next one (and last one) easy on myself. But more on than in another post, here and now I am going to go through what I was auditing in February.

I had 22 items in this monthly arsenal and brands included were Urban Decay, Meow Cosmetics, MAC, MakeupGeek, Sleek Makeup and Inglot. This month was very hectic work wise and I did not have much energy for playing with makeup so most looks ended up looking quite nondescript.

The usual addition for one final time: As in previous months I’m supplementing the monthly arsenal, that consists of only shimmers/metallics, by using three palettes by Anastasia Beverly Hills as complements in the matte and inner corner highlight area. Those are the Modern Renaissance, Subculture and Prism palettes and swatches of those will be shown further down in the post for reference. Since this is the last month it is their last time used in their original form. I had thought that I would depot these when the audit was over but as of right now I am not so sure. I might let them go, but that is a matter for the next phase of my audit.

Top Row L-R: Platinum – Circa Plum – Lily-White

Bottom Row L-R: Museum Bronze – Old Gold

First we have five MAC pigments and I suspect these are from around 2012-2014. They have been use a little bit over the years but I have not tapped into their potential at all.

Clockwise from the top: Vintage – Thunderbird – Silver Dawn

Then we have an Extra Dimension shadow by MAC (Silver Dawn), a single in a jar by Urban Decay (Thunderbird) and a loose pigment by Sleek Makeup (Vintage). I think these are from between 2014-2017.

Top Row L-R: 86 – 120

Bottom Row L-R: Liquid Gold – Insomnia

Moving on to two pigments each from Inglot (86, 120) and MakeupGeek (Liquid Gold, Insomnia). I know that the MUG pigments are from 2014 but I’m not sure about the Inglot ones, they might be from 2017.

Clockwise from the top: Miw – Hieroglyph – Scarab – Atlantis – Leafless – Balderdash – Song of Old – Villainy – Celtic – Dark Energy

And finishing off with a large selection of Meow Cosmetics. These are from the collections Egyptian Treasures (Miw, Scarab, Hieroglyph), Harvest Moon (Dark Energy), Caribbean Escape (Atlantis), Stripped (Leafless), St Patty’s Day (Celtic), Midnight Clear (Song of Old), Shattered Equinox (Balderdash) and Pandoras Box (Villainy). All from 2013.

That was the entire monthly arsenal, the last one. Let’s move on to swatches and my opinions on these products after using them for a month.

These MAC pigments surprised me overall. All but Lily-White were very gorgeous and I loved wearing them. Lily-White is a very basic light shimmer and I have no real use for it. I wore it as an inner corner highlight during the month but it is not my favourite kind of light shimmer and I know I have many other shadows I would prefer using over this. So I am keeping all but one.

I had a similar issue with Vintage (Sleek) as I had with Dirty by the same brand last month. The colour is nice but the chunky texture was off-putting and I cannot see myself reaching for it in the future. So it can go. Silver Dawn (MAC) however was a positive surprise. The murky muddy greenish brown was lovely as an all over the lid shade. Keeper. Then we have Thunderbird (Urban Decay) with its black base and copper shimmer. I liked wearing it a lot – a medium dark sooty eye with some dimension. Fun to wear and definitely I’m keeping it.

As I mentioned last month, I’m a bit mad that I have not used my Inglot pigments more than I have. They are simply gorgeous. It’s the same this month with 86 and 120. Oh so lovely! I’m looking forward to wearing them many many more times in the future and I am for sure keeping them. The same goes for Liquid Gold and Insomnia (MakeupGeek). STUNNING! They should be worn a lot more and hopefully I will now when the audit project is nearing its end.

And we are rounding off this post with my thoughts on the last lot of my Meow shadows. I will be keeping all of them except Dark Energy and Villainy. Those two were a bit too dark and flat on the eye to do it for me. But both Balderdash and Song of Old surprised me as gorgeous on the eye despite being very dark. Miw is a firm favourite and as usual I tend to love all of the gold shades by Meow.

That was it! Many keepers and some old favourites rediscovered. Let’s have a look at a few looks from February before I conclude this month’s audit with some stats.

February 17

Eyes: Thunderbird – Vermeer – Eden – Unity – Lure – Agapé (liner, Chanel)

Cheeks: Spring Flock (blush, MAC) – Lightscapades (highlight, MAC)

Lips: Garden Party (H&M Beauty)

February 24

Eyes: Miw – Mercury

Cheeks: Dusty Rose (blush, IsaDora) – Glow from the Filmstar Bronze & Glow palette (highlight, Charlotte Tilbury)

Lips: Muse gloss (Lisa Eldridge)

February 26

Eyes: 120 – Scarab – Dark Energy – Atlantis – Warm Taupe

Cheeks: Sur (blush, MAC)

Lips: Take a Bow (H&M Beauty)

A meagre four shadows are leaving my stash this month. But I sort of like the fact that the last month was not full off duds but instead full of really stunning products that I look forward to using more. Nice closure.

Besides the eye shadow audit I managed to wear 17 blushes (two lipsticks used as blush), one contour shade, four highlighters, 22 lipsticks, two lip glosses and four lip liners. My blush collection is currently down to 15 blushes and if I count the bronze side of my Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze & Glow palette as a blush I have 16. My highlighters are down to four and I have only two contours in use, one gel and one powder. But the continuation of the cheek audit will be handled in a separate post.

The next phase in this project will be a bit more unstructured but the goal is to go through what I have kept, category by category, and cull further if I feel like I have changed my mind on an item or if I have kept too many similar items that are redundant (that is the process that I have already started with my cheek products). I’m not exactly sure how I will document it yet but there will definitely be some more posts before the audit is over. I am also planning for a post concluding what I have learned from this project and how I have evolved my mindset with regards to the makeup that I own and future makeup I might buy. Until then..

Thanks for reading!

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