My Makeup Audit: January 2022
January was a month when I relished playing with some new lipsticks that I had purchased recently, from H&M Beauty, Surratt and Illamasqua. I was also very keen to wear other colours than red on my lips (after wearing only red lips for the entirety of December).
My January arsenal was mainly made out of MAC pigments but also a selection of shadows/pigments by Meow Cosmetics, MakeupGeek, KvD, Bare Minerals, Sleek Makeup, Inglot and Benefit. In total I had 27 items to choose from and most of them were in a loose format.
This arsenal was a really interesting one since many of the items have not been worn in ages and are of a considerable age.
The usual addition: 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. I’ve decided to do this for the remainder of my first audit phase (the last month is February 2022).
Top Row L-R: Blue Brown – Rose – Teal – Naked
Bottom Row L-R: Silver Fog – Softwash Grey – Mauvement – Cheers My Dear!
Let’s start with these mini pigments by MAC. Oh the memories! I’m sure these are all from holiday collections and were sold as sets of four or five. After a bit of googling I found that four are from the 2010 holiday collection- A Tartan Tale – and were sold together in a kit called Cool Thrillseekers Pigment Collection (Silver Fog, Softwashed Grey, Mauvement, Cheers My Dear) together with a glitter that I must have gotten rid of many years ago because I cannot remember ever owning it. I tried to find when the other four (Blue Brown, Rose, Teal, Naked) were available but could not find it sadly. I suspect that they could be older than 2010 but who knows?
Top Row L-R: Blonde’s Gold – It’s Not Easy Having A Good Time – Naval Blue
Bottom Row L-R: Chartreuse – Vanilla – Golden Lemon
Then we have got some full-size MAC pigments, five in the current (I think) packaging and one of the older and larger jars. The size changed in 2010 so five of these are newer than that. The old and very much loved jar (Vanilla) was my go to iridescent shimmer for a very long time. I used to buy empty jars and give out portions of this as gifts to my family and friends back in the day when I had very little money. So this jar has brought a lot of people joy. I know beforehand that I will use this product for the last time during this month and then it will go into retirement. The newer (less old) pigments have not been used very much sadly and they are roughly from 2012-2014.
Left: Cathedral
Right column from the top: Sacred Heart – Chalice – Lucky Penny
Three rectangular pans from KvD (Cathedral, Sacred Heart, Chalice) are from 2016 and were depotted from the Saint and Sinner palette. The round pan by MakeupGeek (Lucky Penny) is from 2016.
Top Row L-R: 35 – 68 – 84
Bottom Row L-R: Dirty – unknown pink from Benefit
Moving on to some more pigments. Two pigments (84, 35) and a body sparkle (68) by Inglot that are of unknkown age. Then we have a Sleek Makeup pigment (Dirty) and the pink one from Benefit. It has lost its label so I do not know its name. But I do remember that this one was purchased when I lived in Brighton in 2000-2001. Yup, it’s that old. This one is also doing its final round this month.
Top Row L-R: Ancient Splendor – Green Beer
Bottom Row L-R: Pharoah – Stay Golden
And then finally we have three shadows from Meow Cosmetics and a single one from Bare Minerals (Stay Golden). They Meow ones are from the collections Midnight Clear (Ancient Splendor), St Patty’s Day (Green Beer) and Egyptian Treasures (Pharoah). All of these are from 2013.
Moving on to the audit part including swatches of each shade and a summary of my opinions on them after using them for a month.
As I am sitting down to write this, I am changing my mind. This entire audit project is coming to a close and I am trying to be more and more realistic with how much makeup I want to have at my disposal and how I should go about using what I have until it is too old to use. Since some items, like pigments, rarely go off in a noticeable way (in my experience) I have kept some really old ones in previous months. But since I still own a vast collection I think it is not reasonable to keep the really antique things. I might keep some treasured gems as memories but I will refrain from wearing them.
When January was over I had decided to keep Blue Brown, Rose and Cheers My Dear! out of these eight MAC pigments. I loved wearing those three and saw not reason to let them go. All of the others were not as nice on the eye and was an easy pass. But today I am deciding to let go of all eight of these, including the three I like, simply because of age. I would rather keep using my (also old but not quite as old) Meow pigments.
These MAC pigments are not as old as the minis except for Vanilla. But I’m only going to keep two of them anyway and that is It’s Not Easy Having A Good Time and Naval Blue. Those two are special enough to keep for know, but I do not know how special they are compared to everything else I have already kept in this audit project. The next phase will be the judge of that. Vanilla is going into retirement as I mentioned earlier, and the other three (Blonde’s Gold, Chartreuse and Golden Lemon) will be let go. They were just not exciting on the eye and I only want to keep the exciting or very useful bits.
Out of the four pans I am going to keep two. Both Cathedral and Chalice (KvD) are nice colours but they have glitter particles in them and I just do not like the look of that. It will stop me from using them. Sacred Heart (KvD) however was free of glitter and the colour was very interesting so it can stay for now. Lucky Penny (MakeupGeek) was just very beautiful and easy to wear. A very flattering all over the lid shade that I will be keeping.
35, 64 and 68 (all by Inglot) are very unique and I loved wearing them. I am a bit mad that I own such gorgeous makeup as these but never reach for them. I have not worn them more than once or twice before this month and that is such a waste of potential. Dirty (Sleek Makeup) is a very pretty shade but it was very messy to use and it turned me off quite a bit so it can go. And the glorious pink shade by Benefit will go into a drawer as relic of my early makeup loving days, not to be used any more. But it sure was pretty on the eye and thankfully I do have one or two similar shades that can do it’s job perfectly.
Last but not least we have my beloved Meow shadows. Out of these three I am only going to keep the stunning molten gold, Pharoah. Ancient Splendor is such a mess with it’s black base and barely there shimmer that I am glad to get rid of it and Green Beer was just a bit too nondescript to be useful. Stay Golden (Bare Minerals) was equally bland on the eye.
And that was all of them! Let’s have a look at some pics of me wearing this month’s arsenal before we conclude this part of the audit.
January 7
Eyes: Blonde’s Gold – Chartreuse – Cheers My Dear! – Sphere – Lure
Cheeks: Pink Cult (blush, MAC) – Lightscapades (highlight, MAC)
Lips: Take a Bow (H&M Beauty)
January 8
Eyes: 84 – Golden Lemon – Buon Fresco – All Star – Alkaline (liner, Urban Decay)
Cheeks: Mocha (blush, MAC) – Next to Skin (contour, MAC) – OMG (highlight, Illamasqua)
Lips: A Matter of Taste (H&M Beauty)
January 11
Eyes: Cathedral – Mercury – Rowdy
Cheeks: Stereo Rose (blush, MAC) – Silhouette (contour, Illamasqua)
Lips: Carnelian (H&M Beauty)
January 12
Eyes: Lucky Penny – Cheers My Dear – Buon Fresco
Cheeks: Breath of Plum (blush, MAC) – Silhouette (contour, Illamasqua)
Lips: Cinders (Illamasqua)
January 13
Eyes: Sacred Heart – 68 – Vanilla – Roxy – Golden Bronze (liner, NYX)
Cheeks: Rapture (blush, Urban Decay) – Silhouette (contour, Illamasqua) – Glow from the Filmstar Bronze & Glow palette (highlight, Charlotte Tilbury)
Lips: Peccadille (Surratt)
January 14
Eyes: Pharoah – Dawn – Rowdy
Cheeks: A Little Lusty (blush, MAC) – Silhouette (contour, Illamasqua)
Lips: Velvet Myth (Lisa Eldridge) – Beet (liner, MAC)
I must admit that I am very pleased to conclude that 19 shadows be let go and I am keeping only eight. Might be one of the most ruthless month’s of the entire audit (I have not double-checked that claim). It feels great!
Besides the eye shadow audit I managed to wear 18 blushes, four contour shades, four highlighters, 22 lipsticks, one lip gloss and three lip liners. I’m still downsizing my cheek products and the arsenal is getting slimmer. Most of my cheek products are older as well and I want to be a bit more focused in my lineup and only keep the really good ones. Give them some love before they are too old to use. Many of my more warmer options are being put away since they do not suit me as well as more neutral and cool tones ones.
Thank you for reading!