My Makeup Audit: May 2020
May was such a fun makeup month in general. I created looks of great variety and the shade selection for the audit kept me inspired all the way through. This month we had an arsenal with multi use items, so the usual eye and cheek split will not apply in this post.
Note from me: Due to my vast blog backlog – this post is another one in retrospect. I look forward to catching up but it will happen eventually, all in due course.
The arsenal consisted of three pre-made palettes, two personalized quads and ten singles. A total of 42 individual colour products and 41 unique shades. The base of the arsenal was the Infinity Palette and the Infinity Deep Palette by Linda Hallberg (the shade Fornax appears in both) offering shades for both eyes and cheeks.
The Infinity Palette by Linda Hallberg is a well loved product that I’ve used mainly when traveling, because of its versatile shade range for me personally and its slim, light and mirror including packaging. I love that. Two shades double as blush and two as highlight, as well as working on the eyes of course.
The Infinity Deep Palette by Linda Hallberg is another versatile product but for me despite not including any spot on cheek highlighters. It does compensate for that by including additional shades that can work as blushes in both the shimmer and matte section. And all shades are great on the eyes. This palette has not been used as much as the other Infinity palette but It’s also newer so I can see why. Also the first one is more adapted to my skin tone, but I do think they complement each other nicely and they are both very useful.
With those two palettes as a base I wanted some more shimmer shades and some colourful mattes.
Firstly we have another pre-made palette. My Comfort Zone palette by Wet N’ Wild is of the older incarnation and generally considered a makeup cult classic. It’s been worn over the years but I never reach for it anymore. A great contender for a proper audit.
Top Row L-R: Scene, Coral
Bottom Row L-R: Beautiful Iris, Sketch
I pulled some more MAC shadows for May and created two quads. In the first one I gathered some mattes to complement the Infinity palettes as well as a lilac iridescent shimmer. All of these shades are from 2012-2014 I think.
Top Row L-R: Chrome Yellow, Bio Green
Bottom Row L-R: Bitter, Three Ring Yellow
In the second quad we have four citrus shades – two mattes and two shimmers. These four shades are also from 2012-2014.
Top Row L-R: Blarney Stone, Twilight Glow, Paraskevidekatriaphobia
Bottom Row L-R: Apparition, Prancer
Top Row L-R: Cherry on Top, Orange Rainbow, Parrot’s Beak
Bottom Row L-R: Tribal, Siren
For a little brand variety I dipped into my Meow Cosmetics shades again and got out some shifting highlighter shades and other shimmers to achieve a better variety to the overall arsenal. The Meow shades are most likely from 2013-2014. Rounding everything off is a red matte by Sephora. Finding true red shades for the eyes have been an ongoing quest for me over the years, since it was a hard shade to find good versions of many moons ago. Not so much anymore, but a matte red is a great thing to have and that is why I picked up this Sephora single in the first place.
Now we have gone through the complete arsenal of 42 shades. A bit of a mashup at first sight, but nothing that hindered my creativity when using them during the month. Let us move on to swatches and a verdict of each shade.
The Infinity Palette – Linda Hallberg
The Infinity palette was used almost daily and was my main source of blush and highlighter. Virgio ended up being my preferred highlighter but Milky Way is quite nice as well. Andromeda is a stunning blush shade on me and was used a lot. Pinwheel however, is not a favourite of mine. I think I would prefer this shade if it was a matte, something I would have loved for the eyes as well. I do get some use out of Pinwheel but I’m always a bit underwhelmed by the result. Maffei is a great diffusing crease shade and Cigar is very versatile as a crease shade, medium deepening and works as a cheek contour also. If I mix Fornax and Cigar I get a workable brow shade. Zwicky is a beautiful yellow brown, used mainly to give warmth to the crease or as a single coulour all over the lid and crease. I only used it once this month but I know I enjoy the shade and it fulfills a purpose in this palette. Fornax was used mainly as a liner or mixed with the other shades to add depth. This is a great palette and a solid keeper for me.
The Infinity Deep Palette – Linda Hallberg
The Infinity Deep palette is also a keeper. Solar is a great inner corner highlight for me and so is Polar Star. Polar Star also just passes as a cheek highlighter on me but I do not think I will continue reaching for it for that purpose. Quasar and Mars is are both very versatile shades for me since they work amazingly as both blush and eyeshadow. But Light Year is my favourite shade in this palette. It’s a peachy brown and on me it works beautifully as a complementing crease shade, all over lid/crease shade and blush. Umbra and Red Shift are great for depth and warmth and Fornax is your perfect pairing partner for mixing, liner and smoky duty.
The Comfort Zone Palette – Wet N’ Wild
On to a dud. Comfort Zone was very underwhelming to use. I used all but three shades but quite quickly decided that this palette is not worth keeping. The quality is just not there (anymore?). The blue brown shade, despite being stunning (worn May 7th), faded quickly on the eye.
Scene is a blue leaning mid grey and it works just fine. I’ve decided to get rid of it since grey is not my favourite matte shade to use and I know I’ve kept other greys that can fill whatever use I might have for a matte grey. Coral however is one of those shades I just love to use. It works so well with my skin/hair/eye colouring and adds a fruity brightness to any look. Love it! Beautiful Iris is stunning on the lid but my favourite way to use it is as an inner corner highlight (see May 8, 16 and 30). Sketch was a surprise. I loved how it added a bit of a colour and depth paired with other shades. I was not prepared to like it but it will go on to the next round.
On to the citrus shades. Chrome Yellow is another staple shade for me. I get so much use out of matte yellow shadows and this one works beautifully. Bio Green was a bit crumbly to touch but on the eyes it was such a popping bright green (May 2 and 29) and I think I have nothing else like it in my collection. So I am keeping it for now. Bitter is a great lime shade and despite not being a true matte is works as one for me. It is great for a pop of juicy green and blending out other shades. Lastly we have Three Ring Yellow. A green leaning yellow that adds a bright gilded sheen to the lid. i do not know how unique it is compared to other golds but the future will tell. I enjoyed using it and it can stay for now.
Moving on to the lovely Meow Cosmetics loose shadows. Blarney Stone (St Patty’s Day collection) is a green tinged silver. This was a surprise like for me. and you can see it in action in the look from May 22. Twilight Glow (Harvest Moon collection) looks so good in the jar but on the eye it simply does not work. The issue is the black base. Any blending results in an ashy mess and the beautiful bronze shimmer totally disappears. I have no use for this shadow. Paraskavidekatriaphobia (Friday the 13th collection) is an interesting shade. A very sheer light Tiffany blue with a great sheen. A topper or inner corner shade for me. Prancer (Reindeer collection) is a similar shade but slightly greener. Apparition (Supernaturals collection) too, but a vanilla gold version. I love that type of shade and I love reaching for my Meow shadows for that purpose.
shadows on bare skin
Meow shadows with primer underneath
For the next round of Meow shadows I wanted to showcase how much these loose shadows transform if used with a tacky base. Their true potential only comes out that way. Since I always use an eye shadow primer anyway due to having oily lids this is not any extra hassle for me. Orange Rainbow (Gloom & Bloom collection) is a very light coral orange with a silvery sheen and Parrot’s Beak (also Gloom & Bloom) is the same but more peachy orange. Tribal and Siren (both from the Lost Rainforest collection) are also quite similar to each other, soft purple mauves with a golden sheen. Similar but definitely not the same. I must say that I love all of these shades. It’s a joy to use them. And let’s not forget the matte red shade Cherry on Top (Sephora). It’s also great. Easy to work with (May 18 and 28) and just a great colorful staple.
That concludes the rundown of the products in May’s audit. Let’s have a peek at some of the looks I created with said products.
May 2
Eyes: Bio Green, Three Ring Yellow, Bitter, Maffei, Cigar, Fornax
Cheeks: Andromeda, Pinwheel, Virgio
May 7
Eyes: Blue brown from Comfort Zone, Maffei, Cigar, Scene, Fornax
Cheeks: Andromeda, Virgio
May 8
Eyes: Mars, Cherry on Top, Coral, Beautiful Iris, Sketch, Fornax
Cheeks: Andromeda, Milky Way
May 11
Eyes: Siren, Maffei, Cigar
Cheeks: Mars, Milky Way
May 12
Eyes: Orange Rainbow, Coral, Chrome Yellow
Cheeks: Pinwheel
May 14
Eyes: Twilight Glow, Solar, Light Year, Umbra, Fornax
Cheeks: Mars, Polar Star
May 15
Eyes: Three Ring Yellow, Parrot’s Beak, Chrome Yellow, Fornax
Cheeks: Light Year, Virgio
May 16
Eyes: Tribal, Beautiful Iris, Coral, Umbra, Red Shift, Fornax
Cheeks: Andromeda, Virgio
May 18
Eyes: Paraskevidekatriaphobia over Hi-Def Cyan Chromagraphic Pencil by MAC, Coral, Fornax
Cheeks: Mars, Milky Way
May 19
Eyes: Prancer, Maffei, Cigar, Fornax
Cheeks: Andromeda, Milky Way
May 22
Eyes: Blarney Stone, Apparition, Light Year, Maffei, Umbra, Red Shift, Fornax
Cheeks: Andromeda, Milky Way
May 25
Eyes: Polar Star, Light Year, Maffei, Fornax
Cheeks: Mars
May 26
Eyes: Orange Rainbow, Parrot’s Beak, Maffei
Cheeks: Don’t know, missed noting it
May 28
Eyes: Siren, Parrot’s Beak, Mars, Cherry on Top, Red Shift, Fornax
Cheeks: Quasar, Virgio
May 29
Eyes: Bio Green, Three Ring Yellow, Bitter, Fornax
Cheeks: Light Year, Virgio
May 30
Eyes: Beautiful Iris, Coral
Cheeks: Coral, Virgio
Time to wrap up May’s audit. Six shades were used as blush and three as highlight. Three shades from the Comfort Zone palette were not used at all but other than that I managed to use most shades multiple times.
Exiting my collection this month are the Comfort Zone palette, Scene and Twilight Glow. A small cull but on the bright side I am glad that the shades I own are a joy to use. I’m getting to know them better by doing this audit and exploring the vast possibilities at my disposal. The deeper into to audit I get the less tempted I am by new makeup releases and that feels great. I obviously already own some great products and shades and using them is such a pleasure.
Thank you for reading!