My Makeup Audit: January

I revisited some dear old shadows for January’s arsenal – some of the oldest shades I own and it was a real trip down memory lane.

MAC was the first brand my heart fell for when makeup started to become a more serious part of my life, in my late teens. I have so many memories hovering at the MAC counter when I was visiting the big city, in a time when online stores were non-existent and my deepest fantasy was to do makeup for a living. Over the years I’ve accumulated oh so many MAC eyeshadows, blushes, lipsticks, lip and eye pencils and other bits and bobs. This have inevitably lead to me having not only a vast amount of products but also a vast amount of senior products that I fear will have to be let go. Some have most likely succumbed to old age and have become poor performers and surely some might no longer be my jam.

Above we have the full arsenal – 17 shimmer and 12 matte shades for the eyes, one contour, two highlighters and five blushes. All shadows are MAC and most of the cheek products as well. A blush from Idun Minerals and a loose highlighter from Meow Cosmetics snuck in as well.

I built one main palette from single pans and as you can see, some are quite well loved. The two shades that are showing the pan are some of my oldest, Trax and Idol Eyes. Another ancient shade is Humid and it might even be from the late 90’s (!). Crème de Violet was given to me by my (now) husband for our fifth anniversary – in 2002! It was a lovely gesture on his part especially since MAC was so difficult for me to get a hold of at the time.

To balance the eye arsenal I chose to add eight more matte shades for basic shading and depth. As you can see some of these some are old favourites. Like Brun, the dark brown shade, that have been my brows companion for many many years. It’s not amazing as a shading eye shadow, but as a liner and brow shade it is amazing.

For blush I chose a quite basic and easy to wear team. We have Stereo Rose, a Minerlize Skinfinish shade that I believe was limited edition when I bought it. A highly coveted shade at the time and I was thrilled to own it. But I must admit I have not worn it all that much over the years. On its left we have one of my favourite shades, another limited edition one, the Extra Dimension blush shade Autoerotique. I’ve made a big dent in that over the years and I will miss it when it’s gone. The Perfect Cheek is a lovely dusty pink from the Marilyn Monroe collection (gasp!). Another one that I’ve used a lot but in this case the pan hardly looks used. Then we have a more recent purchase, Sur, that was part of the Monochrome collection that launched in the beginning of 2019. I bought it because I thought it resembled another shade that I had broken to the point of no return but wish I still had. And the final shade is a mini sample I received as a gift with purchase from Idun Minerals, Havtorn.

Over the course of the month I enjoyed wearing all five blushes and will keep them all for now.

For highlighter I picked Perfect Topping from MAC and Phantoma from Meow Cosmetics. After wearing it a couple of times I established that Perfect Topping is not a great shade for my colouring so I will let it go. Phantoma on the other hand is an amazing shade and I wore it mostly on the eyes to be honest but it’s pretty on the cheeks as well, albeit a bit too much for every day work stuff. Keeper.

Now let’s have a look at a few of the looks that I created this month along with my verdict of the eyeshadows used. Most looks are adapted for work, but I must say I highly enjoy working from a pre-set arsenal in the mornings.

A soft eye using Sable by MAC. This is a lovely shade that looks great with most lipsticks. A keeper.

I can not for the life of me remember what I wore in the above picture. I must get better at taking notes.

The shade Give Me Fire is another “recent” purchase. My collector brain bought it when the the MAC collection Red, Red, Red launched in 2014. Red eyeshadow was something I was always on the hunt for at the time. They are more common these days but I still remember how excited I was when this collection was launched. Give Me Fire is not a very special shade but I got swept away by its limited edition status. It’s pretty on the eyes but nothing spectacular. I don’t need it.

Cranberry on the lid and Outre in the crease. A fun combination I want to wear more. Both shades are going to Round 2.

Trax was a pleasure to wear but a bit hard to work with. It’s so old and I definitely feel it has played its part in my life. So long dear one…

The lovely Crème de Violet, the 5th anniversary shade I mentioned, is beautiful in theory but the quality is not there. It was hard to work with and faded and creased quickly. However nostalgic the memories surrounding this one are, I will let it go. In the above look I have added a bit of Rule for effect. Rule is a great orange matte shade and will be kept for now.

Expensive Pink is a golden pink shade that I have not worn many times in my life. And it is not by any means new. Wearing it now, I enjoy it but in order to stay after Round 2 it will have to be damn special.

Gorgeous Gold layered over Outre. Gorgeous Gold is simply – gorgeous. A green shifting gold that can be layered over different shades or worn on its own for a stunning effect. This is the type of shade I would wear all the time if I could remember that I have it. Finding these gems is one purpose of this audit and I am glad I have now highlighted its existence.

I do not have more pictures of looks to give light to the shades worn. Nylon was more useful than expected and Vex had an odd sheen that I enjoyed. Barefoot and Greensmoke are really unique shades and all the mattes did a good job. To sum up this month I’m keeping more shades than I am getting rid of. The shades I will not keep are;

Idol Eyes

Humid

Seedy Pearl

Parfait Amour

Mystical Mist

Idol Eyes is very beautiful but a bit gritty and interesting to work with. Since it’s so old and well used I will let it go. Humid is such a beautiful shade but it’s ancient and it fades really easily on the lid. I hope I have something similar in my collection because I really enjoyed wearing this specific colour. Seedy Pearl and Parfait Amour looks ok in the finger swatch but lacks punch on the eyes. Not worth keeping. And finally we have Mystical Mist, another ancient shade that actually performed terribly…

Perfect Topping

So eight eyeshadows and one highlighter will be let go. Not too bad. For future audits I will try to make better notes on what was worn when and all my feelings. It’s a process…

Thanks for reading!

Sofia