My Makeup Audit: September 2021

I had a selection of 36 individual shadows and only eight of those shadows were mattes or near mattes. The brands included were MAC, Nabla, KvD, H&M Beauty, Emme Cosmetics, Makeup Geek, Bare Minerals and Meow Cosmetics. This was the first month where I had no matte shadows to audit. So I supplemented the 36 shimmer/metallic shadows with three palettes by Anastasia Beverly Hills that I am going to depot further on. It’s the Modern Renaissance, Subculture and Prism palettes. I also realised that I was lacking inner corner highlights in the arsenal as well so the lighter shades in those three palettes were used as well. I’m going to show pictures of those mattes and highlighters down below for reference but I am not going to evaluate them further in this post.

Top Row L-R: Honey Lust – Anarchy – Silver Lining – Toxic

Middle Row L-R: Ludwig – Rust – Ground State – Sandy

Bottom row L-R: Legend – Immaculate – Under Pressure – Entropy

In a medium magnetic palette I collected some single pans. I think most of these are 2014-2016 and the majority is by Nabla (Ludwig, Rust, Ground State, Sandy, Under Pressure, Entropy). We also had three from Makeup Geek (Anarchy, Toxic, Legend), one each by Emme Cosmetics (Silver Lining), KvD (Immaculate) and MAC (Honey Lust).

The MAC pigment in the large jar (Violet) is ancient and the other two by the same brand are from around 2014 (Electric Coral, Chartreuse Bouquet). The deep teal pigment by Bare Minerals (Deep Sea) is from 2013 and the H&M Beauty shadow is the newest of the bunch.

All of the Meow Cosmetics shadows are from around 2013 and the above collection was called ‘Castaway’.

The above shadows are a mix from five different Meow collections – ‘Times Square’ (Champagne, String of Pearls), ‘Pleasures’ (Bubble Bath), ‘Sunless Sea’ (Calliope), ‘Castaway’ (Turtle Bay) and ‘Rainbow’s End’ (Or).

The above shadows are a mix from four different Meow collections – ‘Times Square’ (Begin), ‘Caribbean Escape’ (Mai Tai, Uncharted), ‘Lost Rainforest’ (Expedition, Boa, Spider Monkey) and ‘Joys of Summer’ (Iced Coffee).

Let’s move on to swatches of each shade and a walkthrough of my opinions after a month of usage. I did not have time to make too many notes during the month so my description of the keepers will be brief with a note on why I am letting some shades go.

Most of these beautiful shimmer and metallics performed very well and many of them were all over the lid shades. Silver Lining (Emme) is more of a topper but the rest perform great on their own or with just a matte crease shade to accompany them. The dud of the bunch was Immaculate (KvD). The dark base made it finicky to work with, so that can go. All of the rest are keepers.

All of these four look stunning on the eye. Cuvée Rosé (H&M Beauty) is a very pretty all over the lid shade. Despite the fact that this formula cannot be depotted I am inclined to keep it right now. Violet pigment (MAC) performs very well still but this one is one of my oldest eye shadows and I feel like it is time to let it go. Electric Coral and Chartreuse Bouquet (MAC) are lovely bright pops of colour and the mesmerising Deep Sea (Bare Minerals) is a keeper as well. So all but one will stay.

These muted Meow shadows are all perfect as all over the lid shades. Some need a crease buddy but not all. The one shadow I felt was lacking that ‘something something’ is Cinnamon Bay. So I will be letting that one go and the rest may stay.

The same goes for this lot of Meow shadows as well. Out of the above I will keep all except Bubble Bath, since it is not my favourite shade of inner corner highlight and I have no other use for it.

Out of the above seven and final Meow shades I decided to let go of Mai Tai and Begin. They did not stand out as much on the eye as other similar shades that I own and I can not see myself reaching for them in the future. The rest of the shades are beautiful in their own way. Most Meow shades are very complex and look interesting on the eye in a way that no swatch (dry or primed) can convey. I love wearing them and doing this audit only heighten my feelings for them.

Those were all of the shades from September. Let’s have a look at some of the looks I created during the month.

September 12

Eyes: Violet – Chartreuse Bouquet – Ground State – Immaculate – Under Pressure – Buon Fresco – Sphere – Obsidian

Cheeks: Dusty Rose (blush, IsaDora) – Perfect Topping (highlight, MAC)

Lips: Garden Party (H&M Beauty) and Muse lip liner (Lisa Eldridge)

September 14

Eyes: Ludwig – Rust – Primavera – Golden Ochre – Raw Sienna

Cheeks: Breath of Plum (blush, MAC) – OMG (highlight, Illamasqua)

Lips: Rose Official (Lisa Eldridge)

September 22

Eyes: Bahia Solano – Sandy – Bubble Bath – Warm Taupe – Obsidian

Cheeks: Pinky Peach (blush, IsaDora) – Next To Skin (contour, MAC) – OMG (highlight, Illamasqua)

Lips: Spirited Away (Lisa Eldridge)

September 26

Eyes: Boa – Turtle Bay – Electric – Dawn – Destiny – Rowdy

Cheeks: The Perfect Cheek (blush, MAC) – Next To Skin (contour, MAC) – Lightscapades (highlight, MAC)

Lips: Velvet Decade (Lisa Eldridge)

September 27

Eyes: Calliope – Uncharted

Cheeks: Oh My! (blush, MAC)

Lips: Velvet Myth (Lisa Eldridge)

All in all I let go of only six shadows after this months audit. But I am deepening my love for the shades and tools that I have and learning more and more about what I like, use and why. The matte shades and inner corner highlights are going to be used as complementary shadows for at least another month and after that I can hopefully decide on which ones I want to keep when I depot those three ABH palettes.

Besides the eye shadow audit I managed to wear 19 blushes, 3 contour shades, 6 highlighters, 18 lipsticks, 2 lip glosses and one liner. I have started downsizing my cheek products as well these past months, putting things aside. Things I find with repeated wear that I feel less for than others. All those items I do not love I put away in a box. When the audit is over I will go trough that box and most likely let everything in it go. Right now I have some blushes, highlighters and eye pencils in there. I doubt that I will miss them.

At the rate I am going now the first round of the audit in every category except nail polish will be done after February 2022. I cannot wait to get there.

Thank you for reading!