My Makeup Audit: March

This past month I’ve had a selection of 30 eyeshadows, four blushes and one highlighter to work with. As with the previous month, March was filled with a multitude of sick days and I’ve not had as many opportunities to do my makeup as I normally would. But I did manage to use all products in the arsenal at least once and form an opinion on them. I’m ready to complete the audit.

As per usual, lets start with eyeshadow. March’s shadow team was compiled of one large and one small palette with single pan shadows and some additional single pots/compacts.

The large palette included shadows from Makeup Geek aka MUG (High Tea, Secret Garden, Homecoming, Pretentious, Goddess, Desert Sands, Bitten, Steampunk, Jester), MAC (Green Room, Girlie, Amber Lights, Dance in the Dark, Lucky Green, Blooming Mad, Satin Taupe and Jest), Nabla (Millennium), Neve (Unicorno) and Inglot (30). I think the colour scheme turned out amazing, if I may say so myself. A nice balance of neutral and colourful shimmers, interesting mattes and a few lighter shimmers.

To balance this lot off I picked some additional staple matte shades from Inglot that I kept in a separate palette. Five really functional shades, the beiges, greys, mauves and a soft yellow.

To round off the team, and for a nice brand variety, we have a few loose pigments from Meow Cosmetics and a bright orange matte from Illamasqua.

Now, let’s go through each shade and see how they fared in the audit. Let’s start off with some of the brights.

Secret Garden (MUG) was only worn once but this is such an unique and fun shade that I definitely want to keep it. Jester (MUG) and Blooming Mad (MAC) are stunning pops of colour and were both fun to wear. These are exactly the type of shadow that are so easily forgotten in the vast depth of my makeup drawers. I’m so glad that this audit is bringing them forth! Goddess (MUG) on the other hand is not a pretty shade on the eyes sadly. It looks very flat and was hard to work with. Goddess be gone!

As with Secret Garden, Steampunk (MUG) is so unique that I cannot bear to part with it right now. Amber Lights (MAC) might not be too unique but is very lush and a joy to wear. It brightens my face and it will go to round 2. Pretentious and Homecoming however (both by MUG), pretty as they are, are not special enough to keep. Pretentious was a bit crumbly as well so that sealed the deal for me.

The sweet oldie and goldie Satin Taupe (MAC) was one I expected to be underwhelmed by, but it is still a very nice and wearable shade. I’m sure I have a vast amount of taupe shades, since I find them very flattering, so it will be fun to see if this classic shade can stand up to the competition in the end. Unicorno (Neve) on the other hand is unique and I suspect I have few shades like it. It has a slight purple base with a lovely green gold shift. I wore it mainly as a inner corner highlight this month, but as with most colour shifting shades, it is perfect for layering. A real stunner! 30 (Inglot) is also a very serviceable champagne highlighting shade. Will keep for now. Millennium (Nabla) on the other hand really stood out. I cannot believe I have not used this more than I have since I bought it. It’s a very fiery peach duochrome and I absolutely LOVED wearing it in the inner corner.

Next up are some greens and pinks. Green Room (MAC) is a fail for me. It worked ok but was a fuss to blend well and I have zero use of a semi matte green in this shade. Not a good look on me. Lucky Green (MAC) is a light acid green with a golden shimmer and I find it very useful. Girlie (MAC) was a surprise. I enjoyed wearing this all over the lid and up in the crease. A soft pink eye that will work wonders with a multitude of lip colours (on me). Jest (MAC) was not up for the part though. Not special enough to be kept.

Now on to the mattes. High Tea (MUG) is another shade that I now have newfound love for. A stunning green-tinged grey that’s easy to work with and added something interesting to the every look when used. Desert Sands (MUG) was a bit powdery but it did not affect its performance. I’m a huge fan of mustards and interesting yellows and this is a very useful shade for me. Bitten (MUG) also performs well and since I’m a sucker for a good red I will keep it for now. But it looks way darker on the eye than in the pan/swatch so in round 2 I will have to compare similar shades on their performance on the eye. I definitely do not need to own more than a few since this type of dark red is not something I wear regularly. Finally we have Dance in the Dark (MAC), winner of the most worn shade of the month. It did liner duty and a bit of outer corner shading service and was used on most days. It performed its job well and I will definitely keep it for now.

All five Inglot shades are keepers for now. 330 is a close match of my skin tone and useful to have. 358 is a very lovely grey. It worked well for me since it us leaning purple and it makes it easier for me to wear. 344 is a beautiful mauve and I used it a lot in the crease. 291 is perfect to diffuse a hard crease and 378 worked well to softly smoke out any look.

On to the final eye shades. I adore Vapour (Illamasqua) and Chandelier (Meow). There is no contest there. Future and Lazy Love (both by Meow) are very interesting shades and I am not ready to part with them without using them more. Whip (Meow) on the other hand is pretty with its silver and bronze mix. But not special enough on the eye, so it will go.

Four MAC blushes were included this month and the most used one is also the one I will let go. There is something off about Pinch O’ Peach on my skin tone. It looks fine in pictures, as you can see in several of the looks at the end of this post, but there is something about it IRL that I do not enjoy. I’ve actually used it a lot over the years, this month was no exception, trying my best to make it work. But I just don’t like wearing it. I have many lovely blushes I should use instead. So its time has come. Melba, Immortal Flower and Baby Don’t Go on the other hand are fun shades to wear. Immortal Flower for example really brightens my face and I feel joy when I look all three.

Diety from Illamasqua was the single face highlighter in this month’s arsenal and it was used only three times in total. I tend to forget to wear highlighter or skip it on purpose most work days. But this product is a definite keeper for me. I love the formula, the shade and the packaging. It is a lovely pale cool champagne with a subtle green shift.

So that was the rundown of all the products in the March audit. Let’s end with some of my favourite looks from this month! They were fun to do, fun to wear or both.