This is it. The last monthly arsenal to be audited in this first phase of my project. This phase was the biggest and most time consuming part of the project and I will make the next one (and last one) easy on myself. But more on than in another post, here and now I am going to go through what I was auditing in February.

I had 22 items in this monthly arsenal and brands included were Urban Decay, Meow Cosmetics, MAC, MakeupGeek, Sleek Makeup and Inglot. This month was very hectic work wise and I did not have much energy for playing with makeup so most looks ended up looking quite nondescript.

The usual addition for one final time: 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. Since this is the last month it is their last time used in their original form. I had thought that I would depot these when the audit was over but as of right now I am not so sure. I might let them go, but that is a matter for the next phase of my audit.

Top Row L-R: Platinum – Circa Plum – Lily-White

Bottom Row L-R: Museum Bronze – Old Gold

First we have five MAC pigments and I suspect these are from around 2012-2014. They have been use a little bit over the years but I have not tapped into their potential at all.

Then we have an Extra Dimension shadow by MAC (Silver Dawn), a single in a jar by Urban Decay (Thunderbird) and a loose pigment by Sleek Makeup (Vintage). I think these are from between 2014-2017.

Top Row L-R: 86 – 120

Bottom Row L-R: Liquid Gold – Insomnia

Moving on to two pigments each from Inglot (86, 120) and MakeupGeek (Liquid Gold, Insomnia). I know that the MUG pigments are from 2014 but I’m not sure about the Inglot ones, they might be from 2017.

And finishing off with a large selection of Meow Cosmetics. These are from the collections Egyptian Treasures (Miw, Scarab, Hieroglyph), Harvest Moon (Dark Energy), Caribbean Escape (Atlantis), Stripped (Leafless), St Patty’s Day (Celtic), Midnight Clear (Song of Old), Shattered Equinox (Balderdash) and Pandoras Box (Villainy). All from 2013.

That was the entire monthly arsenal, the last one. Let’s move on to swatches and my opinions on these products after using them for a month.

These MAC pigments surprised me overall. All but Lily-White were very gorgeous and I loved wearing them. Lily-White is a very basic light shimmer and I have no real use for it. I wore it as an inner corner highlight during the month but it is not my favourite kind of light shimmer and I know I have many other shadows I would prefer using over this. So I am keeping all but one.

I had a similar issue with Vintage (Sleek) as I had with Dirty by the same brand last month. The colour is nice but the chunky texture was off-putting and I cannot see myself reaching for it in the future. So it can go. Silver Dawn (MAC) however was a positive surprise. The murky muddy greenish brown was lovely as an all over the lid shade. Keeper. Then we have Thunderbird (Urban Decay) with its black base and copper shimmer. I liked wearing it a lot – a medium dark sooty eye with some dimension. Fun to wear and definitely I’m keeping it.

As I mentioned last month, I’m a bit mad that I have not used my Inglot pigments more than I have. They are simply gorgeous. It’s the same this month with 86 and 120. Oh so lovely! I’m looking forward to wearing them many many more times in the future and I am for sure keeping them. The same goes for Liquid Gold and Insomnia (MakeupGeek). STUNNING! They should be worn a lot more and hopefully I will now when the audit project is nearing its end.

And we are rounding off this post with my thoughts on the last lot of my Meow shadows. I will be keeping all of them except Dark Energy and Villainy. Those two were a bit too dark and flat on the eye to do it for me. But both Balderdash and Song of Old surprised me as gorgeous on the eye despite being very dark. Miw is a firm favourite and as usual I tend to love all of the gold shades by Meow.

That was it! Many keepers and some old favourites rediscovered. Let’s have a look at a few looks from February before I conclude this month’s audit with some stats.

February 17

Eyes: Thunderbird – Vermeer – Eden – Unity – Lure – Agapé (liner, Chanel)

Cheeks: Spring Flock (blush, MAC) – Lightscapades (highlight, MAC)

Lips: Garden Party (H&M Beauty)

February 24

Eyes: Miw – Mercury

Cheeks: Dusty Rose (blush, IsaDora) – Glow from the Filmstar Bronze & Glow palette (highlight, Charlotte Tilbury)

Lips: Muse gloss (Lisa Eldridge)

February 26

Eyes: 120 – Scarab – Dark Energy – Atlantis – Warm Taupe

Cheeks: Sur (blush, MAC)

Lips: Take a Bow (H&M Beauty)

A meagre four shadows are leaving my stash this month. But I sort of like the fact that the last month was not full off duds but instead full of really stunning products that I look forward to using more. Nice closure.

Besides the eye shadow audit I managed to wear 17 blushes (two lipsticks used as blush), one contour shade, four highlighters, 22 lipsticks, two lip glosses and four lip liners. My blush collection is currently down to 15 blushes and if I count the bronze side of my Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze & Glow palette as a blush I have 16. My highlighters are down to four and I have only two contours in use, one gel and one powder. But the continuation of the cheek audit will be handled in a separate post.

The next phase in this project will be a bit more unstructured but the goal is to go through what I have kept, category by category, and cull further if I feel like I have changed my mind on an item or if I have kept too many similar items that are redundant (that is the process that I have already started with my cheek products). I’m not exactly sure how I will document it yet but there will definitely be some more posts before the audit is over. I am also planning for a post concluding what I have learned from this project and how I have evolved my mindset with regards to the makeup that I own and future makeup I might buy. Until then..

Thanks for reading!

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!